7.14            ndian    onom
           (i) 1952–53 Base Year (112 Commodities)                  It is more representative with increase
                 issued from June 1952.                             in number of quotations from 5482 to
          (ii) 1961–62 Base Year (139 Commodities)                  8331—an increase by 2849 quotations
                 issued from July 1969.                             (52 per cent).
         (iii) 1970–71 Base Year (360 Commodities)                  The prices used for compilation do not
                 issued from January 1977.                          include indirect taxes in order to remove
         (iv) 1981–82 Base Year (447 Commodities)                   impact of fiscal policy. This is in
                 issued from January 1989.                          consonance with international practices
                                                                    and will make the new WPI conceptually
          (v) 1993–94 Base Year (435 Commodities)
                                                                    closer to Producer Price Index (PPI).
                 issued from July, 1999.
                                                                    Item level aggregates for new WPI
         (vi) 2004–05 Base Year (676 Commodities)                   have been compiled using Geometric
                 released in September 2011.                        Mean (GM) following international
        (vii) 2011–12 Base Year (697 Commodities)                   best practice and as is currently used for
                 released in May 2017.                              compilation of the CPI-C.
                                                                    The major changes in weights, number
     reviseD WPi                                                    of items and quotations between WPI
     The new series of the WPI was released41 by the                2004-05 and WPI 2011-12 are given in
     Government with the revised base year as 2011-12.              the Table 7.1.
     The existing base year was 2004-05. The new base               A new Wholesale Food Price Index (WPFI)
     year aligns with the base year of other indicators             has been introduced—combining the
     like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Index                Food Articles (belonging to the group
     of Industrial Production (IIP). A Working Group                Primary Articles) and Food Products
     was set up (March 2012) by the Government to                   (belonging to the group Manufactured
     advise on the new series of the WPI (headed by                 Products). Together with the Consumer
     Saumitra Chaudhuri, Member, erstwhile Planning                 Food Price Index (CPFI) released by
     Commission). Key highlights of the revised series              Central Statistics Office, this would help
     are as given below:                                            monitor the price situation of food items
                 WPI continues to constitute three major            better.
                 groups—Primary Articles, Fuel and                  To keep pace with the changing structure
                 Power, and Manufactured Products. The              of the economy it is necessary to follow
                 number of items has been increased from            a dynamic review process of the WPI
                 676 to 697—in all 199 new items have               and related aspects it. That is why the
                 been added and 146 old items have been             Government has set up (for the first time)
                 dropped.                                           a high level Technical Review Committee
                                                                    (TRC) for this purpose. The committee is
       41.      ffice of co o ic     i o , Department of Industrial
              Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce     headed by the Secretary, Department of
              and Industry, GoI, N. Delhi, May 12th, 2017.          Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).