The Price Statistics Division (PSD) of the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation carry out following
Compilation
Compilation of All India as well as State-wise Consumer Price Index (CPI) Numbers
Coordinating
Coordinating the activities of International Comparison Programme (ICP)
Technical Guidance
Providing technical guidance to States in the field on Price Statistics
Working as Secretariat
To the Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices and Cost of Living.
International Comparison Program (ICP)
The International Comparison Program (ICP) is the largest worldwide data-collection initiative, under the guidance of UN Statistical Commission (UNSC), with the goal of producing Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) which are vital for converting measures of economic activities to be comparable across economies. Along with the PPPs, the ICP also produces Price Level Indices (PLI) and other regionally comparable aggregates of GDP expenditure. India has participated in all ICP rounds, except for 1993, since its inception in 1970. The programme has generally been conducted at an interval of six to seven years. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is National Implementing Agency (NIA) for India, which has the responsibility of planning, coordinating and implementing national ICP activities under the overall work program of the ICP Asia-Pacific Region. MoSPI collects & compiles the data and metadata required for estimating PPPs following agreed standards, protocols and guidelines for ensuring cross-country comparability.
Consumer Price Indices (CPI) measure changes over time in general level of prices of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption. CPI is widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by governments and central banks for inflation targeting and for monitoring price stability, and as deflators in the national accounts.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has revised the Base Year of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 2010=100 to 2012=100 with effect from the release of indices for the month of January, 2015. The earlier series on Base 2010=100 was started w.e.f January 2011. In this revised series, many methodological changes have been incorporated, in order to make the indices more robust. Details of Base Revision may be seen in the publication CPI-Changes in the Revised Series (2012=100) and also in the Report of the Group of TAC on SPCL on Base Revision of CPI.
Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) is also being released as weighted average of the indices of ten subgroups
Cereals and products
Meat and Fish
Egg
Milk and products
Oils and fats
Fruits
Vegetables
Pulses and products
Sugar and confectionary
Spices