India's wholesale-price overhaul replaces the 2011-12 base with 2022-23 and expands the goods basket from 697 to 957 items, according to the June 2, 2026 government announcement. Solar, wind and nuclear power were among the additions described.
A newer basket matters because an index built around older products and production patterns can become less representative. Changing its base and composition is a statistical update, not itself evidence that goods became cheaper or more expensive.
The Office of the Economic Adviser now provides the new WPI and Output Producer Price Index from April 2023 onward. It separately labels the manufacturing Input Producer Price Index as experimental, with data from March 2026, and provides service producer indices quarterly.
Those series answer different questions: the named input and output measures distinguish what producers buy from what they sell, while the service indices extend price measurement beyond the goods basket. Treating them as interchangeable would obscure the part of economic activity being measured.
The official download page also marks the latest two monthly observations and latest service quarter as provisional. Comparisons should therefore identify both the series and its revision status. A new-base index level should not simply be spliced into an old-base chart as though the reference scale and basket were unchanged.
