Economy
Data recap: Rail crash, Apple’s headset, PMI
Summary
- The government’s top auditor found that 22% of the derailment inquiries (FY18 to FY21) began late, and 63% faced delays in inquiry reports
Every Friday, Plain Facts publishes a compilation of data-based insights and charts to summarize the week gone by. Here are this week’s stories:
Off the Tracks
A tragic train accident in Odisha has killed 288 persons. As the focus moves to investigation, it’s worth noting that the Railways’ record in some aspects of accident probes is dismal, Mint reported. The government’s top auditor found that 22% of the derailment inquiries (FY18 to FY21) began late, and 63% faced delays in inquiry reports (see chart 1).
Apple's Foray
At its annual conference, Apple unveiled its mixed reality headset Vision Pro, which will start at $3,499. The tech giant is entering a hopeful market: although shipments of augmented reality/virtual reality headsets dropped last year, IDC sees a 33% average annual growth over 2023-2027 (see chart 2).
Growth Reality
S&P Global released its monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data for May. Manufacturing PMI came in at 58.7, and services PMI was the highest since 2010 (see chart 3). This came on top of higher-than-expected GDP for the 2022-23 year (7.2%), also released last week. However, a Mint analysis showed that GDP has grown just by 3.4% on average since 2018-19, reflecting a long shadow of the pandemic (see chart 4).
Wealth Report
Lastly, Altrata, a data intelligence platform, released a ‘billionaire census’ last week. The world’s billionaire population dropped 3.5% to 3,194 in 2022. Eleven of the 15 countries with the most billionaires saw a drop, with India’s count falling 8.9%. Around 29% of the population was in just 16 cities, Mumbai being the sole Indian city in the list (see chart 5).
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