Business
New CPI series explained: What changed, why it matters, and what’s new
What is CPI and why is the base year revised?
The CPI measures changes in prices of goods and services consumed by households, serving as a key indicator of cost-of-living inflation. The base year is the reference point against which price changes are measured, with its index fixed at 100.
As household consumption patterns evolve, the base year is periodically updated to ensure the index remains representative. The new series adopts 2024 as the base year, drawing item weights from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24.
The revised weights reflect changing consumption patterns. The share of food and beverages has declined to 36.75% from 45.86% earlier, while weights of transport and communication, housing and utilities, and personal care have increased.
What has changed?
The CPI basket has been expanded to 358 items (308 goods and 50 services), up from 299 earlier. These are organised across 12 divisions, 43 groups and 92 classes. Price collection has also widened, now covering 1,465 rural markets (up from 1,181) and 1,395 urban markets (up from 1,114). Newly added items include AirPods, hand sanitisers, OTT subscriptions, air purifiers, ecommerce purchases, and international airfares. Outdated items such as library charges, radio and horse-cart fares have been removed. Despite the overhaul, about 98% of the basket remains comparable with the previous series.
The government has also released more granular data, including state-wise and sector-wise indices across all classification levels.
What is new in the latest series?
For the first time, prices from 12 online markets in cities with populations above 2.5 million have been included to better capture ecommerce trends. Items supplied free under government schemes – such as foodgrains distributed through the Public Distribution System – have been excluded, as the CPI measures household expenditure rather than consumption per se.Several service prices will now be sourced directly from official or digital platforms: airfares (from airline websites), OTT subscription rates (provider platforms), telecom tariffs (operators), postal charges (India Post), and fuel prices (ministry database).
What next?
Going forward, the base year will be revised every five years to keep pace with economic shifts, while the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey will be conducted every three years.
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Along with the annual benchmark revisions, the Bureau lowered its initial estimates for November and December job growth by about 17,000 combined.
Total nonfarm payroll employment for December was lowered by 2,000 positions. That took the initially reported 50,000 jobs added in the final month of the year to now just 48,000.
November payroll growth was revised down by 15,000 to 41,000 jobs added.
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The company said the profit was after exceptional items, which mainly included a ₹327 crore profit net of tax on the sale of its entire equity stake in a joint venture and a ₹37 crore impact from implementing new labour codes.
The quarter marked the fifteenth consecutive quarter of “record performance” with an Ebitda of ₹1,134 crore and an Ebitda margin of 39.1%, managing director and chief executive Puneet Chhatwal said.
The hotel segment reported ₹2,579 crore revenue, helping the chain post its best-ever segmental quarterly Ebitda of ₹1,050 crore.
Third-quarter revenue growth was supported by a 17% expansion in airline and institutional catering and 31% increase in new businesses, Chhatwal said.
He said IHCL continued its growth momentum in FY26 with 239 signings, taking its portfolio of 617 hotels, and opened and onboarded 120 hotels, led by ‘strategic’ partnerships and acquisitions.
As per an exchange filing, Roots Corporation (RCL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IHCL, acquired a 51% stake in ANK Hotels and Pride Hospitality on December 1, 2025, for a total cash consideration of ₹190.5 crore. Under its Accelerate 2030 initiative, the chain expanded its brandscape with the acquisition of a controlling stake in wellness brand Atmantan, entered into definitive agreements to acquire a 51% stake in Brij, a boutique experiential leisure offering, and scaled the Ginger brand with 51% acquisition in ANK & Pride Hospitality.
IHCL had a gross cash balance of ₹3,877 crore as on December 31, he said, adding: “IHCL is well placed to deliver sustained performance enabled by a diversified top line across brands, geographies and contract types.”
He said the chain’s pipeline is as high as the number of rooms in operations.
“IHCL is probably the only company across sectors that is growing and still maintaining an increase in Ebitda and maintaining the Ebitda margins. We are scaling and we are scaling profitably,” he said.
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