Weekly Numbers: The warmest year ever, widening income disparity, and OTT growth

 Weekly Numbers: The warmest year ever, widening income disparity, and OTT growth

The last 12 months were the warmest on record, with average warming of about 1.3°C. In the meanwhile, India's wealth and income disparities are widening. Additionally, statistics indicates that October saw a sharp decline in the number of employed people.

In the Weekly Numerics column, we showcase three to five charts that highlight significant occurrences or intriguing data points that surfaced during the course of the week. The numbers we want to draw attention to are as follows.

This past year was the warmest on record.

According to a research issued this week by Climate Central, a climate analytics organization, global temperatures increased frighteningly high over the 12-month period from November 2022 to the end of October 2023, being the hottest year-long period in recorded history.

According to data, during this time, global temperatures rose by up to 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The previous record, which covered the period from October 2015 to September 2016, was 1.29 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline.

According to the analysis, within the previous 12 months, at least 90% of the world's population has seen anomalous temperatures caused by climate change on at least 10 occasions. During the course of the year, abnormal temperatures affected up to 98% of India's population for at least 10 days. Additionally, 86 percent of Indians had to endure unusually high temperatures for at least a month.

The Climate Shift Index (CSI) from Climate Central, which measures how localized climate change affects global daily temperatures, is the foundation of the study. Zero is in the center of the CSI scale. Climate change is observable if the CSI level is 1. The multiplier effects (2 = at least 2X hotter, 3 = at least 3X hotter, etc.) correlate with CSI levels of 2 and above. Unusually cold temperatures might be indicated by a negative CSI, such as -2.

India's total CSI grew to 1.6 from May to October, after recording a CSI of 1 for the previous year.

Temperature increases were more pronounced in certain states than others. Kerala had the most temperature increase from normal, with a CS1 of 3.6. Andaman & Nicobar and Puducherry have respective CSI scores of 3.3 and 3.2. Karnataka and Mizoram both achieved CSI scores of 3.

Growing disparities

In a recent study, the UNDP noted that although India has succeeded in reducing the percentage of its people living in multidimensional poverty, the government has not been able to stop the spread of income and wealth disparity in the nation.

India's per capita income increased from $442 to $2,389 between 2000 and 2022. In the meanwhile, the nation's poverty rates have decreased from 40 to 10 percent between 2004 and 2019 (based on the international poverty benchmark of subsistence of $2.15 per day). Furthermore, the percentage of the population living in multidimensional poverty decreased from 25 to 15 percent between 2015–16 and 2019–21.

"In spite of these advancements, 62 percent of the nation's impoverished live in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, which together account for 45 percent of the nation's population. The survey also said that a large number of individuals who live just over the poverty line are very vulnerable.

The analysis, which used data from the World Inequality Database, said that income distribution in India has skewed as inequality has persisted despite the country's tremendous expansion.

India's national revenue goes to the top 10 percent of the population for 57% of the time, while the lowest 50 percent receives just around 13 percent. In actuality, the wealthiest 1% receives 22% of the country's revenue. This is one of the world's most uneven income distributions, according to the UNDP.

There is a similar disparity in wealth. Up to 65 percent of the country's wealth is held by the top 10 percent of the population, while less than 6 percent is held by the poorest 50 percent.

The rise of OTT

Estimates from media research company Ormax Media in a recent study show that OTT applications have reached as much as 34 percent of the population, with an audience of 481.1 million.

There are already 75.9 million paying customers in India, and the country's OTT viewership increased by 13.5 percent between 2022 and 2023, according to the survey. However, rather than being directly subscribed, over 52% of them are via bundled telecom bundles. Furthermore, 77.2 million people utilize friends' and family's memberships to access paywalled OTT applications and watch content.

Still, 68 percent of the OTT audience only uses free services to get content. About 27% of OTT viewers just use YouTube and social media, compared to 41% who watch material on at least one additional site.

Reduced employment

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reported that in October 2023, there were 422.3 million employed people in India, down from 427.2 million the previous month.

"The construction sector, in particular, had the worst decline in employment. The number of employed people in services decreased as well, mostly in the retail sector. A portion of the employment lost in industry and services were partially filled in agriculture. An extraordinary number of labor was also employed in the manufacturing sector throughout the month, according to a CMIE study.

The percentage of Indians of working age who are employed, or the employment rate, decreased from 38% in September to 37.5 percent in October.

October saw a decrease in industrial employment from 113.5 million to 107.1 million, indicating a seasonal shift of labor from manufacturing to services and agriculture. The rabi planting in late October and the growing need for labor for kharif crop harvesting are probably the causes of the sectoral turbulence. The size of the industrial workforce's decline, however, is what caught me off guard in this year's statistics.

October had an average of 3.4 million fewer industrial employment in 2022 than it had in 2016. But the amount of industrial jobs lost this year has increased dramatically to 6.4 million.

In terms of industries, the construction and real estate sectors lost almost 20 million employment in October as opposed to the 3.8 million average from the previous month. "There is a possibility that the abrupt decline in air quality levels, which resulted in construction restrictions, may have caused a labor exodus from the industry," CMIE said in its research.