WPI Review: Government Forms Working Group With Nilesh Shah As Member

The Union government constituted on Thursday a working group led by a NITI Aayog member for base revision of the current series of wholesale price index from base 2011–12 to 2022–23.

A member of the government's top think tank, Ramesh Chand will be the chairperson of the working group. The panel will include 17 other members drawn from ministries, the Reserve Bank of India and the private sector, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.

Notable members include economist Surjit Bhalla, a former member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist at SBI; Indranil Sengupta, economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; and Nilesh Shah, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management.

The group will suggest the commodity basket of the WPI and producer price index with base year 2022-23 in the light of structural changes in the economy. It will review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement, according to the ministry

Other functions for the working group includes deciding on the computational methodology to be adopted for the WPI and PPI; examining the methodology for compilation of the PPI approved by Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices & Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation and recommend a road map for switch over from the WPI to the PPI.

The panel will examine the method of computing the linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate changes in the method of computing the linking factor, if necessary. It will also suggest any other improvements as may be necessary for enhancing the reliability of the WPI and the PPI.

The working group will submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser within 18 months, the ministry said.

• NITI Aayog Chairperson Ramesh Chand.

• Additional director general, field operations division, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.

• Deputy director general, economic statistics division, Ministry of Statistics.

• Deputy director general, national accounts division, Ministry of Statistics.

• Deputy director general, enterprise survey division, Ministry of Statistics.

• Economic adviser, Department of Economic Affairs.

• Adviser, price and marketing division, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

• Senior economic adviser, Department of Consumer Affairs.

• Deputy director general, Ministry of Petroleum.

• Chief executive officer, Goods & Services Tax Network.

• Representative from the RBI.

• Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist, SBI Group.

• Surjit Bhalla, economist — member (non-official).

• Shamika Ravi, member of the Economic Advisory Council to PM — member (non-official).

• Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at Crisil — member (non-official).

• Nilesh Shah, MD of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management — member (non-official).

• Indranil Sengupta, economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch — member (non-official).

• Deputy director general of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade — member secretary.