World Over incompetent Politicians become law makers ignoring the situation and the real state their economies are in. India is no exception and lags miles behind the ground realities. The Government unable to handle inflation due to rampant corruption and black marketing in every pocket of the society went ahead and tweaked Consumer Price Indices (CPI) itself.
The combined CPI is newer – the base year is now 2010 (vs. 1986-87 and 2001 for the existing CPI indices). It is broader – coverage includes 1,182 villages for the rural segment and 310 towns for the urban segment; and has far more than the 360 items covered by the CPI-IW. It provides a state-wise break-up with different weights for each state. It includes services, such as education, recreation, transport, etc but why did they exclude Telecom Services ?
Here is how the new weightage stacks up.
Food, beverages, tobacco – 50%
Fuel and light – 10%
Clothing, bedding, footwear – 5%
Housing – 10%
Miscellaneous – 25%
The rural:urban ratio at an All-India level is 57: 43. Arunachal Pradesh has the highest rural weight while Delhi has the highest urban
weight.