New Delhi, Feb. 16 -- India's new consumer price index (CPI) series, released last week by the statistics ministry as part of a huge two-year long exercise to revise key macroeconomic variables, is a marked improvement over the one it has replaced.

The CPI's base year, methodology and coverage have been updated to better reflect what Indian households consume. Its base year is now 2024, far more recent than the old series' 2012.

Its basket of items whose retail prices are tracked has been churned in line with findings of the 2023-24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES). The weights assigned to various items represent actual spending patterns across the country far better than before.

Consider. Back in 2012, India was only a ...