The Government of India has decided to constitute a Working Group for base revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from base 2011-12 to 2022-23. The composition of the Working Group is as follows:
| 1. | Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog | Chairman |
| 2. | Additional Director General, Field Operations Division, Ministry of Statistics & P.I. | Member |
| 3. | Deputy Director General, Economic Statistics Division, Ministry of Statistics & P.I. | Member |
| 4. | Deputy Director General, National Accounts Division, Ministry of Statistics & P.I. | Member |
| 5. | Deputy Director General, Enterprise Survey Division, Ministry of Statistics & P.I. | Member |
| 6. | Economic Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, | Member |
| 7. | Adviser, Price & Marketing Division, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare | Member |
| 8. | Senior Economic Adviser, Department of Consumer Affairs | Member |
| 9. | Deputy Director General, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas | Member |
| 10. | Chief Executive Officer, Goods & Services Tax Network | Member |
| 11. | Representative from RBI | Member |
| 12. | Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economist, SBI Group | Member |
| 13. | Dr Surjit Bhalla, Economist | Member (Non official) |
| 14. | Dr Shamika Ravi, Member, Economic Advisory Council to PM | Member (Non Official) |
| 15. | Dr Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist, Crisil | Member (Non Official) |
| 16. | Shri Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management | Member (Non Official) |
| 17. | Shri Indranil Sengupta, Co-Head & Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch | Member (Non Official) |
| 18. | Deputy Director General, DPIIT (Member Secretary) | Member |
The Terms of Reference of the Working Group will be as follows: –
- To suggest the commodity basket of WPI and PPI with base year 2022-23 in the light of structural changes in the economy.
- To review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement.
- To decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for WPI / PPI.
- To examine the methodology for compilation of PPI approved by Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices & Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation and recommend roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI.
- To examine the method of computing the linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate changes in the method of computing the linking factor, if necessary.
- To suggest any other improvements as may be necessary for enhancing the reliability of WPI / PPI.
The Chairman of the Working Group may co-opt experts/ representatives of other agencies, as may be considered necessary.
The Working Group has been asked to submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser within 18 months of issue of this notification.
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