Do We Recommend SiteGround? SiteGround.com is recommended by many on different blogs and forums. It is also officially recommended by WordPress.org, Joomla and Drupal.

SiteGround.com is recommended by many on different blogs and forums. It is also officially recommended by WordPress.org, Joomla and Drupal.

SiteGround has amassed 800,000 domain names worldwide, with data centers across United States, Europe and even Asia.

Not bad, considering they started out with only one employee back in 2004, making them one of the youngest behemoths in hosting today.

That’s an impressive ascent, so they must be doing something right to achieve such heights faster than many of its predecessors.

But what?

Decent uptime? Fast loads? Good support? Extra premium features?

In order to find out, we purchased a SiteGround “Start Up Plan” back in June 2015 and set up a default WordPress website (which can be seen here).

The StartUp plan offers the most basic set of features and lacks their famous caching plugin – the SuperCacher that boost websites performance up to several times (available on GrowBig and GoGeek plans).

Over a period of 24+ months, we’ve carefully analyzed their uptime, speed and overall performance of our site. In addition to that, we checked their customer support to see in flaws or misbehaviours.

Here are the results:

PROS of using SiteGround Hosting:

The primary categories we analyze for web host performance include uptime, speed, and support. After all, these three categories are the most critical to your site’s success.

However, there are also a few other areas where web hosts can set themselves apart from the competition, like in additional plan features, which can positively contribute to their overall rating. SiteGround has a few, which we’ll dive into.

#1. Uptime much higher than promised, almost 100%

All of our reviews are based on twelve months of actual statistics and raw data.

Instead of using ready-made software solutions, SiteGround prefer in house crafted solutions to ensure high quality hosting experience.

• Their platform is built on Linux containers that provide great stability in times of unexpected traffic spikes.
• SiteGround were the first that introduced the account isolation technology for client security.
• They built their own proactive server monitoring system that monitors their servers every 0.5 seconds and also proactively fixes any problems without human intervention, thus ensuring amazing uptime.

During that time, our test site on SiteGround had an average uptime of 99.98%, which is .19% better than the 99.79% industry standard and a promise from SiteGround.

They only had 12 outages in the last year (2016). That’s impressive as Web Hosting Pad had 2000+ outages.

Nevertheless, here’s the ‘uptime’ detailed overview:

2016:

---

• June uptime: 99.98%
• July uptime: 100%
• August uptime: 99.98%
• September uptime: 100%
• October uptime: 99.98%
• November uptime: 100%
• December uptime: 100%

2017:

---

• January average uptime: 99.99%
• February average uptime: 99.97%
• March average uptime: 100%
• April average uptime: 99.85%
• May average uptime: 99.98%

SiteGround Load Time & UpTime: Last 12 months, detailed data can be found here.

#2. They’re FAST (Top 4 in Our Speed Test)

Over the same 24-month period, our SiteGround test site saw average page loading times of 609ms – or 74.0% faster than the 1059ms average load times we found from other web hosts.

That’s very good, among the quickest we’ve seen.

It was also VERY consistent. No spikes or slow loading times whatsoever. So far, so good.

Last 12 month average load time (2016 – 2017)

2016:

---

• June average speed: 410ms
• July average speed: 404ms
• August average speed: 382ms
• September average speed: 383ms
• October average speed: 383ms
• November average speed: 352ms
• December average speed: 686ms

2017:

---

• January average speed: 740ms
• February average speed: 694ms
• March average speed: 708ms
• April average speed: 686ms
• May average speed: 686ms

#3. How about Support? We think it’s awesome.

Customer service is one area where SiteGround pays special attention. Which is no small feat, considering they’re processing over 1,500+ tickets, 800+ phone calls and 2,000+ chat requests each day. Over 230 people at SiteGround are engaged with customer support only to make sure clients are taken good care of and support is provided in three languages – English, Spanish and Italian.

• SiteGround provide support for well beyond only hosting related issues – their reps help with CMS questions as well.
• The official client survey results released by SiteGround each year show that their client satisfaction rate is constantly scored over 96% . (2014, 2015, 2016).

Case in point: our experience was FANTASTIC.

After only 11 seconds, their friendly and knowledgeable live agent connected with us. Then, we started to bombard her with different questions on how to do X and how to do Y. For example, we asked her:

• #1 How to change nameservers on domains?
• #2 How to create email addresses on SiteGround?
• #3 How to keep my email inbox free from spam? – She actually told us they have a software that detects 98% of the spam emails.

It was such a pleasure, that they’re one of the only web hosts we’ve analyzed to get a perfect 10 out of 10 in support.

SiteGround customer support agent

Sounds too good to be true? Even after doing a background check and surveying other sources, we still couldn’t find many negative responses about their support.

#4. High Performance Managed WordPress Hosting on All Plans

One of the special features that SiteGround plans include (which most other web hosts don’t) is managed WordPress hosting on all accounts.

What does this mean?

For newbs, it means that someone actually manages the service for you in terms of speed, security, support, updates and provides enhancement tools to make your life easier. SiteGround platform is built on SSD and have an in-house crafted caching tool, the SuperCacher that is essential for the loading speed of your site. They are also serious about security by constantly monitoring for WordPress related vulnerabilities and proactively protecting users with custom WAF rules. They take care of WordPress and plugin updates, make daily backups for free in case a random occurrence might bring down your site. (Which is surprisingly common, like when two plugins don’t play well together and you’re met with the dreaded white screen of death.)

You’ll also get access to their ‘Let’s Encrypt SSL’ and free CDN with 100+ server locations to make sure heavy multimedia files are delivered quickly (ensuring your page load times don’t take a hit either).

But that’s not all. There is also stuff for power users as well within their GrowBig and GoGeek plans such as: WordPress staging environments, pre-installed Git, WP-CLI for easy command line management options, PCI compliance for e-shops, 1 year Wildcard SSL for free, priority customer support, free backup and restore.

#5. Free Security Add-Ons

In addition to the security options available with their WordPress managed hosting, SiteGround also provides extra security for sites of all shapes and sizes. Available tools include SpamAssassin and SpamExperts, IP address blocklists, Leech Protect, and hotlink protection.

All of their plans come with ‘Let’s Encrypt SSL’ for added security, and you can add HackAlert Monitoring (a service that checks your website daily and notifies you if it has been hacked or compromised) for a measly $1 per month.

#6. Easy ECommerce Installs for people who want to set up e-stores

E-commerce applications that power the web’s top sites, like Magento, can be especially difficult and problematic if you’re not technically inclined.

Fortunately, SiteGround removes a lot of the hassle by making it easy to choose from 18 eCommerce applications and install your favourite one with 1 click. They also provide multiple server locations, free CDN, PCI compliance, advanced caching solution for top site performance and great customers’ experience. As for security, client accounts are isolated from each other by a custom server solution, which means that if one account gets hacked others are not affected.

#7. FREE Transfers for Existing Websites

Just like many others, SiteGround will transfer for free your existing website from a previous host for 24 hours, in comparison this process may be paid or can take up to 30 days with other hosts.

#8. Currently Pricing On-Par with Other Web Hosts

SiteGround offers quality hosting packed with extra features and they are usually not the cheapest option available, however currently their rates are price matching some of the cheapest in the business (to $2.95 per month, down from $7.99 monthly).

Point is, for all of the stellar options they do offer, currently their pricing is a steal compared with other web hosts of lesser quality.

Cons of using SiteGround Hosting:

SiteGround offers great uptime, page loading speeds, and support. They even offer a bunch of nice ‘extras’ that can help seal the deal. However, there are a few drawbacks to consider when shopping around.

Here they are.

#1. “Setup Fee” for Monthly Billing (don’t pay monthly)

Here’s how most web hosts get you.

They advertise an obscenely low ‘monthly’ price. The catch is that you often have to sign up for two or three years in order to get it. Most other web hosts don’t even offer a true ‘month-to-month’ option, with a one year deal being the shortest they’ll go.

The good news is that SiteGround’s pricing is straight forward and doesn’t play that game. Their low advertised price is for the 12-month deal.

They also do offer a true ‘monthly’ option if you want it. AND it’s the same low advertised price. The only problem is that they also charge a one-time ‘setup fee’ on these ‘month-to-month’ plans of an extra $14.95.

And you don’t really find out about this extra fee until the very last second when you’re entering your credit card details. That’s enough to be a ‘hidden’ cost, which while not a huge dollar amount, is still kinda annoying as it’s not listed anywhere else.

#2. Limited Storage Space (Compared with Other Hosts)

Compared with other web hosts, SiteGround’s storage space is a bit on the small size (so you might want to clarify disk space if you think it’ll be a concern).

They will, however, offer a helpful note as to how many monthly visitors you can safely handle without experiencing any issues.

However, if you’re just starting out, the “StartUp” plan will usually be more than enough. If your site grows, you can easily upgrade to a more robust server/plan which is likely to have more power.

Overview of SiteGround Hosting Plans + Quick Facts

Here’s a quick rundown of the hosting plans offered by SiteGround:

Shared Hosting: Their shared hosting comes with three main plans:

• The StartUp plan: This plan costs $3.95 per month and can host one website and is suitable for newbies who are just starting with their website. Can handle up to 10,000 unique visits per month and has the first level of the SuperCacher plugin enabled which is static cache, 24/7 client support, free CDN, Let’s Encrypt SSL, Unlimited Emails & DBs, free site migration, free daily backup, etc.

• The GrowBig plan: This plan costs $5.95 per month and can host multiple websites and this plan can handle up to 25,000 visits per month, a free SSL Wildcard for 1 year, 30 backup copies and free restore, all 3-levels of the SuperCacher, which aids loading time tremendously, customer support with priority, although SiteGround has insanely fast response times, GrowBig and GoGeek clients are handled with priority.

• Their GoGeek plan: This plan costs $11.95 per month and can host multiple websites and offers even more space, can handle up to 100,000 visits per month, has all features of the other two plans plus 1-click WP staging, pre-installed git, PCI compliance and fewer accounts on the server.

All shared hosting plans come with free email account, free CDN and unlimited bandwidth. You may check the full features list here.

• Domain:  Domain prices start from $9.95

• Ease of Signup: Very easy, one-page sign-up process.

• Payment Methods: Credit Card.

• Hidden Fees and Clauses: They charge a $14.95 setup fee if you pay for their shared hosting plans monthly instead of annually. Sad face :(. You’d be better of paying 1 year upfront to avoid that.

• Upsells: Few… Nothing too bad.

• Account Activation: Quick account activation.

• Control Panel and Dashboard Experience: cPanel

• Installation of Apps and CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): Quick and easy install of popular apps and CMSs using Softaculous.

Do We Recommend SiteGround?

Most definitely. SiteGround is perfect for those who care deeply about customer support, while not sacrificing quick page speeds or impressive uptime either.

They also offer a bunch of additional features that might be perfect for you if eCommerce/WordPress is your goal, or if you’d like security to be handled by someone else.

Currently, their pricing is also on par with many other web hosts of lesser quality, so it’s the perfect time to act and take advantage. What are you waiting for?! Go www.SiteGround.com and sign up.

Visit www.SiteGround.com

Please leave a review below if you’ve had any experience SiteGround. We welcome all reviews – positive or negative – as long as they’re transparent and honest.

Update: Maximum Allowed AdSense Ads On A Web Page – 2017 Policy

Congrats, Google AdSense has lifted its ads limit per page policy! Publishers can now place unlimited AdSense ads on a web page provided that the total number of AdSense ads or third-party ads must not exceed the visible content. On a blog post written by SEJ, they have confirmed that Google has removed the ad limit policy: I spoke with a Google representative this afternoon who confirmed the ad limit has been removed. AdSense Has Removed "3 Ads Per Page Policy" If you check the AdSense policy page with the web archives WayBack Machine, you can find that the old ad limit policy section which reads "Ad limit per page" has been replaced with "Valuable inventory" section on the updated ad placement policies page. Ad limit per page Currently, on each page AdSense publishers may place: Up to three AdSense for content units Up to three link units Up to two search boxes Publishers may not place more than one "large" ad unit per page. We define a "large" ad unit as any unit similar in size to our 300x600 format. Previously publishers could add 3 AdSense content units and 2 link units. Premium partners could place up to 6 ads units per page, normal publishers could do it only with the help of certified publishing partners such as Ezoic. In August 2016 Google updated this policy and now you can place an unlimited number of AdSense ads on a single page with no upper limit.   The new Google AdSense Ad Placement policy 2017 is the following: Valuable inventory Advertising and other paid promotional material added to your pages should not exceed your content. Furthermore, the content you provide should add value and be the focal point for users visiting your page. For this reason, we may limit or disable ad serving on pages with little to no value and/or excessive advertising until changes are made. According to the new ad placement policy, there is no limit on the number of ads you can place on a given page which means: Unlimited Content Units: Publishers can now put more than three AdSense for content ad units on a given page. Content units include all Text + Image ads. Unlimited Link Units: Publishers can add more than three Link ad units on a single page. Unlimited Large Units: Publishers can choose to place more than one large ad unit per page. Which means you can show more than one 300x600 ad formats. Large ad units include for example, 300x1050 and 970x250 formats, 750x200and 580x400 regional formats. Conditions To Follow Before Placing AdSense Ads There are two strict conditions to follow before placing multiple AdSense ads on a web page. You must follow these restrictions carefully to ensure your AdSense account is not disabled or limited. Condition#1: Avoid Excessive Advertising Google has explicitly mentioned this policy: Advertising and other paid promotional material added to your pages should not exceed your content. All your AdSense ad units combined with any third-party Ad network ads (i.e Media.net or BuySellAds, AdClerks) you might be using, should not exceed the length of your visible content. Visible content refers to the actual content of your article or blog post, that includes: Images, Text and Videos How Can You Know If Ads Exceed Your Content? A simple rule of thumb to ensure you never do excessive advertising on your blog is to stick to this formula: Total Content Space > Total Ad space As long as the total length or space of your visible content is greater than the total space occupied by ads on your site, you are not violating AdSense policy. Reverse this formula and you will see a flood of Ads on your site that will not only irritate the website visitors but would also kill the overall user experience, giving a look of a fish market i.e. Ad market! How Many AdSense Ads Per Page In 2017? Now when there is no restriction on the maximum number of AdSense ad units on a single page, you can wisely place as many ad units on your pages as you want, provided that the total content space is always greater than the total ad space i.e. Ads not exceeding the content. Keep these tips in mind, to ensure that the total number of Ads should not exceed content: For a short content i.e. less than 500 words in length, do not show more than 3 Content Ad units on a web page For a long content i.e. between 1000-1500 words, do not put more than 4 Content Ad units on a page. For a very long content i.e. more than 2000 words, do not place more than 6 Content Ad Units per page. Placing more than 6 Content units on any lengthy post, will naturally effect user experience. So never overdo advertising, even if your content is way too long. Utilize more link unitsinstead of only using content units in longer posts.  With too many ads and very short (thin) content, users will simply leave your site and thus leading you to a high bounce rate. Nothing causes more harm to any website than low quality content and a bad user experience. A content that has little to no value is called low quality content or thin content. Such content is not based on in-depth research and is simply a rewrite/copy/spun of a third-party content for the sole purpose of gaining traffic by spamming search engines. Google has warned against sharing such content that has no real value. Such sites are not only black listed in search engines through penalties such as Google Panda, but ad serving is also disabled on such pages as explicitly mentioned in 2017 AdSense ad placement policy: we may limit or disable ad serving on pages with little to no value and/orexcessive advertising until changes are made. Condition#2: Show Only One Ad Above-The-Fold On Mobile Site You can show only one Ad above-the-fold on a mobile site but unlimited ads below-the-fold, provided that no two ads may appear on the screen at the same time. Although this condition is no more present on the new policy page but it is strictly recommended by Google. Most of my clients receive email notices from Google to remove Ads from above the fold in mobile view. This is one reason why I have only shown one link-unit  just below blog title on the mobile responsive version of this blog for smartphone devices. Through the WayBack machine, I could extract the following policy guideline by Google: Mobile implementations:  The above ad limits also apply to mobile sites. In addition, two or more AdSense ads may not appear on the screen at the same time on a mobile site. Publishers with sites using responsive website should consider that ad units may shift into non-compliant positions as the site scales across different devices. This policy which  clearly mentions that no two ads may appear next to each other at the same time on a mobile screen. More emphasis is given through emails to above-the-foldsection that is viewed when the user first enters your site. Above-the-fold is the section of your site that is viewed first time on page load before the user starts to scroll down. I strongly recommend that you add only one link unit of size 180x90 or 200x90, just below your article title to avoid policy violation applied to mobile views. I have tested this AdSense ad spot with a link unit and it has proven to be one my best-performing ad units compared to content units placed at top. Note: There are tons of other ad placement rules such as ads in emails, pop-up, iframe etc. that you must follow. In this tutorial we focused on the latest ad limit policy change only. Why Did Google Remove its Ad limit Policy? For three simple reasons: AdSense has more competitors today than before such as Media.net ads by Bing and Yahoo. If they don't allow publishers to add more ads, they will simply start displaying Media.net ads to fill empty ad inventories. To allow publishers to test new Ad Types such as Page-level ads and native ads which includes: In-feed ads, Matched content ads and In-article ads. To keep advertisers happy: If publishers are allowed to test more ad units, this will encourage more advertisers to invest on AdWords in order to expect a higher return on investment. The previous ad limit policy was not giving much to both publishers and advertisers as far as mobile monetization was concerned. Now publishers can show more ad units allowing the advertisers to experiment with several different ad formats. How Many AdSense Ads Per Page Will You Show? The removal of all restrictions on the number of ads does sound great but it puts a lot of great responsibility on the publishers. So use this opportunity carefully and increase your ad revenue by following the tips we discussed today. I would love to hear your feedback on this pleasant surprise. Do share with us how many AdSense ad units you are currently using on your Wordpress or blogspot blog. Now when Google has lifted the ad limit policy, how many AdSense ads units do you plan to show on a single page? Share your thoughts by leaving your precious comments!

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About malicious software

Malicious software tries to steal personal information and often spreads spam on Facebook through links or downloads.

​

caretHow did malicious software get on my computer?

Malicious software can be spread through links or downloads, so it's important to never click on a link, install software or follow instructions from sources you don't know.

caretWhy should I clean up malicious software?

If you have malicious software, your account might display unusual behaviour, such as sending large amounts of messages, liking large amounts of Pages and sending friend requests to people you don't know personally. You might also notice slow processing speeds, computer crashes or suspicious browser extensions.

caretHow can I keep my account secure?

• Watch out for fake Pages and apps/games. Be suspicious of Pages promoting offers that are too good to be true.
• Don't accept friend requests from people you don't know. Sometimes, scammers will create fake accounts to send friend requests to people.
• Never give out your login details (e.g. your email address and password).Sometimes, people or Pages will promise you something (e.g. free poker chips) if you share your login details with them.

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SUBMIT GUEST POST

SEND / EMAIL YOUR POST TO   

 [EHIJOSHUA@YAHOO.COM]

EMAIL TITTLE: EJTB GUST POST 

First off, we hate it when you spin an article and submit to us. We won’t accept it, please take note. Also, if you’re a SEO content writer writing on behalf of a commercial website, please consider sponsorship instead of guest posting.

At the moment, we’re only accepting guest articles from bloggers on the following topics (but we may consider other topics relating to technology in case it’s a sponsored article):

• Latest Technology News
• Laptop & PC Reviews
• Mobile Gadgets and  Reviews
• how to activate and repear
• tech help and support
• tech do it for me
• HOW TO'S etc.

Please, note that there is a difference between guest posts and sponsored posts. Guest posts are generally written by other bloggers and sponsored posts are written by, or on behalf of, a company or organization to advertise a free or paid service. Please visit this page for sponsorship details. We may not accept posts written on behalf of your company or client except you agree it’s a sponsored post.

However, in order for us to accept your guest post, certain guidelines must be strictly observed:

1. We don’t accept spun articles and we will remove your article without notifying you if we later detect plagiarism.
2. You can only add a link to your site in the bio to your site and also your social profiles. We love authors with Google+ profiles.
3. We may edit your post.
4. You post should be above 400 words.
5. We encourage you to use images in your post where necessary.
6. Any link within the article linking back to your site must be relevant to the article. We may remove it if we are not comfortable with it.
7. After publishing, the article is ours and may not appear anywhere else.
8. We will contact you whether or not the post will be published. Please be patient as we may need to go through the post and do some background work on it to determine its authenticity.

Again,we won’t accept posts that link to sites that are unrelated to personal growth. That means that you can’t sell links to your clients from your article. Any link you add in your post should either serve a purpose for the article or shall be a link back to your page but no affiliate links please.

We reserve the right to edit the post as needed (for example, to fix spelling or grammar errors) and to reject post that is not appropriate for this website or for the niche it belongs to.

No affiliate links, no link selling, no link stuffing.
As mentioned earlier, If you intend to write a post for advertising purpose, please visit.

Cool, I Am Interested.  What Should I Do? 
Send a mail to ehijoshua@YAHOO.com with the subject "Interested in Written For You". I will get back to you asap.
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and its top five features

Qualcomm introduced Snapdragon 835, world's first 10 nm processor at CES 2017. At its Qualcomm Technology Day in Singapore, the company has showcased the key features of the Snapdragon 835 mobile platform, which is centered around five main pillars – battery life, immersion, capture, connectivity, and security.

The highlight Snapdragon 835 is smaller and packs more efficient transistors when compared to Snapdragon and 821 processors. It integrates more features, is smaller in size and consumes less power to increase battery life in smartphones.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 comes with support for dual-rear cameras on smartphones.

Qualcomm Snapdragon is presently being used in Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, Xiaomi Mi 6 and Sharp Aquos R, though more smartphones with this processor as expected to hit the market soon. The company is planning to ship 3 billion of these.  So what is really new in the Snapdragon 835 processor? We take a look:

Design

Qualcomm 835 features a 10-nanometer design, claimed to be the world's first. It is 35 percent smaller when compared to its predecessor and uses 25 percent less power than Qualcomm's previous chipsets. A smaller chipset means slimmer smartphones with bigger batteries.

Xiaomi Mi 6 is 7.5 mm thin and backed by a 3,350mAh battery. Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ measure 8.0 mm and 8.1 mm in thickness packing 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh batteries respectively.

Another major focus area for Qualcomm with Snapdragon 835 is connectivity.

Camera

One of the biggest highlights with the Snapdragon 835 is support for dual camera setup in smartphones. The mobile platform allows for a better zoom in designed to capture hi-res images as well as video stabilization. The electronic image stabilization (EIS) technology in Snapdragon 835 processor lets users shoot videos with minimum distortion.

In Samsung Galaxy S8 series, the iris scanning feature was launched with Snapdragon 835. The flagship smartphones use a secure camera. The mobile platform also supports dual-pixel phase detection as well, which can intelligently adjust autofocus in different light conditions, claims Qualcomm.

Sachin Kalantri, Director, Product Marketing, Qualcomm India quoted DXO mark's 2016 camera rating that puts 10 out of top 15 best smartphone camera devices with Snapdragon chipsets.

Battery

The need to quickly charge smartphones is growing thanks to bigger battery size in devices these days. With support for Quick Charge 4 technology in Snapdragon 835, the company is promising 5 hours of talk time on smartphones with 5 minutes of charging. The charging time is said to reduce by about 20 percent when compared to Quick Charge 3.0 technology seen on Snapdragon 820 and 821.

Qualcomm is going big on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) with the Snapdragon 835 mobile platform

Connectivity

Another major focus area for Qualcomm with Snapdragon 835 is connectivity. The mobile platform now packs a 1.2 Gbps X16 LTE modem, said to be world's first announced gigabit-class LTE modem. It supports LTE Category 16, which offers up to 1GBps of download speeds. This is faster compared to older Snapdragon 820/821 processors that support LTE Category 12 offering download speeds of up to 600Mbps.

Virtual Reality

Qualcomm is going big on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) with the Snapdragon 835 mobile platform, which offers 25 percent faster graphics rendering, and up to 60x more display colors. This makes watching immersive or 360 degree videos a better experience.

Additionally, support for Multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi brings with it the ability to watch 360-degree virtual reality (VR) videos on smartphones. Qualcomm has added 4K resolution to these chipsets as well. It supports object and scene-based audio.

Disclaimer: The reporter is in Singapore at the invite of Qualcomm India

 

 

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