February 10, 2026

Current Affairs

MoSPI to Introduce New Consumer Price Index (CPI) Series

Context: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is revising India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) series to better reflect evolving consumption patterns, technological shifts, and changes in household expenditure. The revision, reported by The Economic Times, marks a significant methodological update aimed at improving the accuracy and relevance of inflation measurement.

Key Changes in the New CPI Series

Revised Base Year

The CPI base year will shift from 2012 to 2024, aligning the index with current consumption behaviour and price structures.

Rebalanced Weights

Food and beverages weight declines sharply from 45.86% to ~36.75%, reducing food dominance in headline inflation.
Housing, water, electricity & gas weight rises from 16.91% to 17.66%.
Transport and communication weight increases significantly from 8.59% to 12.41%, reflecting mobility and digital connectivity costs.

Public Distribution System (PDS) Treatment

Free food grains provided under schemes such as PMGKAY are assigned zero weight, as they do not involve out-of-pocket expenditure.

Expanded Consumption Basket

Number of weighted items increases from 299 to 358.
New inclusions: smartphones, OTT subscriptions, international air travel.
Exclusions: obsolete goods like VCRs and audio cassettes.

Digital Price Collection

For the first time, 12 “Online Markets” in major cities will track prices directly from e-commerce platforms, improving coverage of digital transactions.

Improved Housing Measurement

Rural housing rents are included for the first time.
Employer-provided housing is excluded to avoid price distortion.

Greater Rural Representation

Rural sector weight in CPI-Combined increases from 53.52% to 55.4%, acknowledging India’s demographic structure.

Global Classification Alignment

The CPI structure shifts from 6 to 12 Divisions, fully aligning with UN COICOP 2018 (Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose).

Significance of the New CPI Series

Lower Inflation Volatility: Reduced food weight limits sensitivity to monsoon shocks and vegetable price spikes.
Contemporary Basket: Inclusion of digital services captures modern consumption trends.
Accurate Living Costs: Rural rent inclusion improves housing inflation measurement.
Global Comparability: COICOP alignment enhances international credibility of India’s inflation data.
Engel’s Law in Action: Declining food share reflects rising incomes and diversification of spending.

About Consumer Price Index (CPI)

CPI measures changes in retail prices paid by households for a representative basket.
NSO publishes CPI-Rural, CPI-Urban, and CPI-Combined.
Labour Bureau publishes CPI-IW, CPI-AL, and CPI-RL for wage indexation.
Calculated using the Modified Laspeyres formula.
Released monthly; perishables tracked weekly.
CPI-Combined is India’s official inflation anchor under the RBI’s Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) framework.

Coking Coal Goes Strategic: Securing India’s Steel Backbone

Context: The Government of India has notified coking coal as a Critical and Strategic Mineral under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act). The move is aimed at reducing import dependence, strengthening the domestic steel ecosystem, and supporting the long-term goals of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat @2047.

Why Coking Coal Matters

Coking coal is a premium grade of bituminous coal that transforms into coke when heated in the absence of air. Coke is indispensable in blast furnaces, acting both as a fuel and a reducing agent in iron-making. Unlike thermal coal, coking coal has high carbon content, low moisture, and strong caking properties, which enable it to form a hard, porous mass essential for steel production.

India’s geological endowment of coking coal is limited and geographically concentrated. Over 90% of known reserves lie in the Jharia coalfield of Jharkhand, with smaller deposits in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

Despite being the world’s second-largest steel producer, India imports around 85% of its coking coal requirement, primarily from Australia, Russia, and the United States—making the steel sector vulnerable to global supply shocks and price volatility.

What Does ‘Critical & Strategic Mineral’ Status Change?

Critical minerals are those essential for economic development and national security but exposed to supply-chain risks. The MMDR Act creates a special legal category of “Critical and Strategic Minerals”, for which the Central Government has exclusive authority to auction mining leases.

By bringing coking coal into this category:

Policy priority is accorded to domestic exploration and production.
Faster clearances and coordinated planning become possible.
Supply security for steel—an input sector for infrastructure, defence, and manufacturing—is strengthened.

This aligns with Mission Coking Coal 2030, launched in 2021, which targets 140 million tonnes of domestic coking coal production by 2030 through beneficiation, underground mining, and technology upgradation.

Link with India’s Critical Minerals Strategy

In 2023, India identified 30 critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper, and rare earth elements. These are vital for sunrise sectors including electric vehicles, semiconductors, renewable energy, and defence systems. The National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) 2025 seeks to secure these minerals through domestic mining, recycling, and overseas acquisitions.

Notifying coking coal as critical and strategic reflects a broader shift—from viewing minerals as raw commodities to treating them as strategic assets essential for industrial sovereignty.

Conclusion

The strategic classification of coking coal recognises a hard reality: steel remains the backbone of India’s infrastructure and industrial growth, and steel security depends on assured coking coal supply.

While green steel technologies are evolving, coking coal will remain indispensable in the medium term. The new status under the MMDR Act is thus a pragmatic step to insulate India’s growth ambitions from external vulnerabilities while preparing for a gradual transition to cleaner industrial pathways.

Easing Clinical Research: India Updates Drug Trial Rules

Context: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has notified amendments to the New Drugs and Clinical Trials (NDCT) Rules, 2019 to reduce procedural burdens and promote research-driven pharmaceutical growth. The reforms aim to align India’s regulatory regime with global best practices and enhance the country’s attractiveness as a clinical research hub.

What is CPI?

Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures short-term changes in retail prices paid by households.
Published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) as CPI-Rural, CPI-Urban, and CPI-Combined.
Labour Bureau releases CPI-IW, CPI-AL, CPI-RL for wage indexation.
Uses the Modified Laspeyres formula with fixed base-year weights.
CPI-Combined anchors India’s Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) under the RBI Act, 1934.

(CPI context is relevant as pharmaceutical pricing and affordability intersect with inflation trends.)

Key Amendments to NDCT Rules

1. Test Licence Waiver

Small-quantity drug manufacturing for research no longer needs a mandatory test licence.
Only prior online intimation to CDSCO is required.
High-risk substances (cytotoxic, narcotic, psychotropic drugs) still need licences.

2. Reduced Timelines

Processing time for remaining test licence categories cut from 90 days → 45 days.

3. BA/BE Reform

Bioavailability (BA) and Bioequivalence (BE) studies for low-risk drugs can begin through intimation instead of prior approval.

About NDCT Rules, 2019

Replaced older provisions under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
Administered by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under the Drugs Controller General of India.
A drug is treated as “new” for four years after first approval.

Significance

Time Efficiency: Clinical development timelines may shrink by ~90 days.
Reduced Workload: CDSCO handles 30,000+ test licences and 4,000+ BA/BE applications annually; reforms ease this load.
Generic Sector Boost: Faster BA/BE initiation strengthens India’s global generic competitiveness.
Better Risk Focus: Regulators can focus more on high-risk oversight and pharmacovigilance.
Global Alignment: Moves toward risk-based regulation similar to US FDA/EU frameworks.