CHANGES IN CPI NEW SERIES
- The CSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) has been, since January 2011, releasing separate rural, urban, and combined CPIs on monthly basis with base year (2010=100) for all-India and states/UTs. In addition to this, separate rural, urban, and combined Consumer Food Price Indices (CFPI) for all India were released from May 2014.
- The weighting diagram for the new CPI series was derived on the basis of average monthly consumer expenditure of an urban/rural household obtained from the Consumer Expenditure Survey data (2004-05) of 61st Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS).
- The CSO has revised the base year of the Consumer Price Index from 2010=100 to 2012=100 and the revised index numbers were released on 12 February 2015.
- The basket of items and weighting diagrams for the revised series have been prepared by using the Modified Mixed Reference period ( MMRP) data of the Consumption Expenditure Survey, 2011-12 of the 68th Round of NSS.
RECENT INITIATIVES IN AGRICULTURAL MARKETING
- The Department of Agriculture (DAC) has issued a comprehensive advisory to states to go beyond the provisions of the Model Act and declare the entire state a single market with one licence valid across the entire state and removing all restrictions on movement of agricultural produce within the state.
- In order to promote development of a common national market for agricultural commodities through e-platforms, the department has approved ` 200 crore for a central-sector scheme for Promotion of National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) to be implemented during 2014-15 to 2016-17. Under the scheme, it is proposed to utilize the ATIF for migrating towards a national market through implementation of a common e- platform for agrimarketing across all states.
- On the request of the central government, a number of state governments have exempted the marketing of fruits and vegetables from the purview of the APMC Act. The NCT of Delhi has taken the initiative in this direction by issuing a notification on 2 September2014 , ending the regulation of fruits and vegetables outside redefined market yard/ sub-yard area of the APMC, MNI, Azadpur, APMC, Keshopur, and APMC Shahdara. The Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) has taken the initiative for developing a kisan mandi in Delhi with a view to providing a platform to FPOs for direct sale of their produce to prospective buyers totally obviating or reducing unnecessary layers of intermediation in the process. They plan to scale their activities in other states based on the outcome of the experience of the Delhi kisan mandi.
