Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index with new base year of 2024 will have data for more than 280 markets each from cities and villages

In an effort to present a more comprehensive print, retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index with new base year of 2024 will include data from more than 280 markets covering cities and villages. Also, data will be from the most-popular shops for each of the items in various markets. The new series is expected to begin by the first quarter of next year.

The new CPI series will replace the current 2012-based series, and is expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year. The item basket and weights for the revised CPI have been derived from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24. Retail inflation is the base for various policy actions, including the crucial monetary policy.

According to a concept note by the National Statistical Office, for the new series data (2024 = 100), the number of urban markets has gone up to 1,395 against 1114 in the present series, showing an increase of 281. Similarly, for rural markets, the number is 1,465 against 1,181, a rise of 284.

“In addition to the prices data collected from physical outlets being done in the current series, prices are also being collected from e-commerce platforms in 12 selected having a population of more than 25 lakhs as per the 2011 census,” the note said.  Per 2011 census, cities with over 25 lakh population include Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow and Kanpur.

base revision

The base revision has gone through multi-stage processes. The first stage focused on sample selection and that was from HCES. The next stages include sample verification, identification of market and dwelling for house rent collection, selection of the most popular shops for each items, and determination of the most representative item specification. After all these data collection started.

For the new series, efforts are to use administrative data. Accordingly, data for rail fares will be sourced from Indian Railways, fuel (petrol, diesel and LPG) prices from Oil Ministry and postal tariffs from the Department of Posts. At the same time, for airfares, telecom services and OTT platforms, price data is proposed to be compiled from online sources using Web-based methods. “The adoption of these alternatives and digital data sources is expected to be substantially improved the representativeness, reliability, accuracy and overall quality of the CPI,” the note said.

According to the note, new data will have more granular data dissemination. In the new series, All India and State-wise item level retail inflation data will be released for the rural, urban and combined sector. As on data, only the all-India item level data for combined sector is being published.

NSO is also focusing on use of modern technology, including AI. “Price collection module on Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) and cloud-based compilation software is in an advanced stage of development using Python as coding platform on Django framework and PostgreSQL as database,” the note said. Further, natural language processing (NLP) using rules based, AI/ML and statistical methods approach is being used for price data scrutiny. “Efforts are underway to develop an effective and robust system to generate accurate and reliable indices,” the note concluded.

Published on December 14, 2025