On Day 9 of the ongoing Asian Games taking place in Hangzhou, China, a tally shows that India has so far bagged 56 medals – 13 gold, 21 silver and 22 bronze.
With this tally, India continues to occupy the fourth spot in medal standings.
A 655-member Indian contingent is competing at the 19th edition of the continental multisport event that officially began on September 23 and will conclude on October 8.
The grand opening ceremony took place at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, also known as the Big Lotus.
The ongoing edition of the quadrennial meet was originally scheduled for 2022 but was postponed by a year due to COVID-19. The last edition, Jakarta 2018.
Hangzhou and Asian Games
Details obtained by Taarifa Sports Desk indicate that the Asian Games have had an economic impact on the host city Hangzhou of Zhejiang province.
The consumer market, as well as the tourism market is expected to reach a peak.
By Sept 20, the dine-in orders of the catering industry surged 380 percent from the same period in 2019, according to data from online platforms including Meituan and Dianping.
The rooms of hotels and Minsu (Chinese-style bed-and-breakfast establishments) in the host city Hangzhou, as well as co-host cities including Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua, almost have sold out.
Now, Hangzhou has ranked among the top 10 popular railway destinations during the National Day holiday.
At the games, chinese technology firms have a strong presence as sponsors among a total 176 sponsors. Among the 11 official prestige partners, five are Chinese internet and technology companies, according to the organizing committee of the Games.
These five enterprises are tech heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, telecom operators China Mobile and China Telecom, Alibaba Group’s mobile payment platform Alipay and cybersecurity company DAS-Security.
Moreover, Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime and short-video app Kuaishou are among the 16 official exclusive suppliers.
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group, said it is providing fundamental technological support for event management and results distribution, as well as making live cloud broadcasting signals available for the 19th Asian Games.
The company is also helping build a digital platform to achieve efficient and intelligent scheduling of personnel, vehicles and services in the Asian Games Village.
“We believe that technological innovation plays a significant role in driving digital transformation for sports events,” said Selina Yuan, president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
Migu, the digital content unit of China Mobile, is offering live-streaming services for the Hangzhou Games by leveraging its advantages in fields such as 5G and 4K ultra high-definition resolution.
Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University’s International Business School, said, “By sponsoring the Asian Games, Chinese technology companies can boost their brand awareness and influence among overseas consumers, and showcase their technological prowess and innovation capabilities.”
