AirPods, pet food, sanitisers enter CPI basket as India updates inflation gauge

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Wireless earphones such as AirPods, pet food, sanitisers, fitness bands and air purifiers are among the new items added to India’s revised consumer price index (CPI) basket, which will be released on February 12, according to the expert group report on the CPI revision.

The inclusion of these products underscores changing consumption patterns in Indian households, marked by rising discretionary spending, deeper digital penetration and greater emphasis on health and lifestyle-related goods. The revised basket increases the number of weighted items to 358 from 299 in the earlier series, broadening coverage across services, technology-driven consumption and personal care.

Pet food has been introduced to reflect lifestyle changes associated with rapid urbanisation and higher disposable incomes, while sanitisers capture post-pandemic shifts in hygiene and health behaviour. Fitness bands and wireless earphones signal the growing role of wearable technology and digital connectivity in everyday consumption, while air purifiers reflect heightened awareness around air quality and indoor health.

The new CPI series adopts 2024 as the base year and aligns India’s inflation measurement with the COICOP 2018 international classification framework, improving global comparability. It also marks a methodological shift in data collection, with prices for items such as air travel, OTT subscriptions, telecom services, and fuels increasingly sourced from online platforms and administrative datasets, reducing dependence on physical market surveys.

Structurally, the revised index reflects a gradual rebalancing away from food. Food’s weight in the CPI is set to decline below 40 percent for the first time, while the contribution of non-food categories rises to over 60 percent from about 45 percent earlier. At the same time, rural consumption is expected to carry a higher weight in overall inflation calculations, recognising its growing role in aggregate demand.

Within the expenditure groups, several non-food categories have gained prominence. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels now account for 17.7 percent of the index, up from 16.9 percent earlier. Health has edged up to 6.1 percent from 5.9 percent, while transport and communication have seen a sharper increase to 12.4 percent from 8.6 percent, reflecting higher mobility, connectivity and service usage.