The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Rural is compiled and published by the National Statistics Office (NSO), under the M/o Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). MoSPI started releasing CPI on base 2010=100 for all-India and States/UTs separately for rural, urban and combined every month with effect from January, 2011. In the current CPI series, base is 2012=100 and the item basket and their corresponding weights were derived from the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) conducted by the NSO in 2011-12. Monthly price data is collected by Field Office Division (FOD), MoSPI.
The Labour Bureau, M/o Labour & Employment compiles and releases the Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers (CPI – AL & RL). The compilation of CPI Numbers for Agricultural Labourers started w.e.f. September, 1964. The series of CPI Numbers for Agricultural and Rural Labourers (base 1986-87=100) replaced the same w.e.f. November, 1995. The coverage of CPI-AL is confined to households of the agricultural labourers whereas the CPI-RL covers the households of rural labourers which includes agricultural labourers households also. Price data collection for this CPI is also done by Field Office Division (FOD), MoSPI.
Recently, Labour Bureau has revised the base year of the CPI for Agricultural Labourers / Rural Labourers with base year 2019, with effect from July, 2025. The indices for CPI-AL/RL is based on a new and expanded dataset, collected from 787 sample villages spread across 34 States and Union Territories. A comparison of CPI (Rural) and CPI (AL / RL) is as under:
