(a) whether the Government has prepared any Consumer Price Index (CPI) recently;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the CPI in the country is better than other countries and if so, the details thereof;
(d) whether the farmers are in a better position as per the CPI now; and
(e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor and the steps taken by the Government in this regard?
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MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS [GENERAL (Dr.) V.K. SINGH (Retd.)]
(a) : Yes, Madam.
(b) : Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation compiles monthly Consumer Price Index (Rural, Urban, Combined) based on the prices collected from 1181 villages covering all districts of the country and 1114 markets distributed over 310 towns. The Base Year of the current series is 2012. In addition, Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment also compiles monthly Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (Base Year: 2001), Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (Base Year: 1986-87) and Consumer Price Index for Rural Labourers (Base Year: 1986-87) catering to the specific segments of population. Year on Year all India Inflation rates based on these indices for different months of 2016 are given below:
All India Year on Year Inflation Rates (%) based on different CPIs
<pre>
Month CPI(R) CPI(U) CPI(C) CPI(AL) CPI(RL) CPI(IW)
Jan-16 6.48 4.81 5.69 5.60 5.69 5.91
Feb-16 6.05 4.30 5.26 4.98 5.33 5.53
Mar-16 5.70* 3.95* 4.83* 4.98 5.08 5.51
</pre>
Note: R – Rural, U – Urban, C – Combined, AL – Agricultural Labourers
RL – Rural Labourers, IW – Industrial Workers.
* : Provisional.
(c) : The Central Statistics Office, has revised the Base Year of the Consumer Price Index from the Base Year 2010 to 2012. In this revised series, many methodological changes have been incorporated, in consonance with the international practices to make the indices technically better.
(d) : None of the Consumer Price Indices are exclusively meant for farmers in the country. Therefore, assessment of the position of the farmers based on any of these Consumer Price Indices may not be appropriate.
(e) : The question does not arise.
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