(a) the details of Consumer Price Index (CPI) of food articles in urban and rural areas
during the current financial year;
(b) whether a new CPI is being prepared by the Government;
(c) if so, the additional benefits this system is estimated to yield; and
(d) the extent of representation each factor would be given in the new CPI and the basis
thereof?
MINISTER OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT (SHRI MALLIKARJUN KHARGE)
(a)to(d): According to the information furnished by the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released a new Consumer
Price Index (CPI) on 18th February, 2011 with 2010 = 100 as the base year. The new index
covers both rural and urban areas.
The CPIs for Industrial Workers, Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers reflect change
in price level of goods and services consumed by these population segments. The new series
is broad based and covers the entire rural and urban population. In the new series consumption
patterns have been derived from the results of the Consumer Expenditure Survey conducted by
the National Sample Survey Office during 2004-05. All India weights for Rural, Urban and
Combined used in the survey are given in Annexure. Food group weights in all-India CPI (Rural),
CPI (Urban) and CPI (Combined) are 59.31%, 37.15% and 49.71% respectively. Remaining weights
are for non-food groups i.e. housing, fuel & light, clothing & footwear and miscellaneous
group.