Poonam Gupta: Timely and topical statistics for agile policy making
Speech by Dr Poonam Gupta, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, at the Pre-release Consultative Workshop on "Base Revision of Consumer Price Index (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP)", Mumbai, 26 November 2025.
The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.
Good morning, Dr. Mahendra Dev, Chairman, EAC-PM, Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), officers from MoSPI, fellow economists, and fellow policymakers. It is my privilege to be a part of this pre-release consultative workshop.
I would like to recognise the leadership of Dr. Saurabh Garg in bringing credibility, ownership, and, may I say, excitement, to the process of base revision of the key macroeconomic data series of India. I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of the experts, academics, and officials, many of whom are present here today, in this exercise. The data and statistics are public goods. In helping create the revised series, you all are performing an important public service.
Our statistical system has a long tradition of professionalism, transparency, and methodological rigour. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Consumer Price Index (CPI), and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) are among the most widely used indicators for decision-making by governments, businesses, financial institutions, and households. Therefore, the base revision of these series is not merely a technical exercise, it is of foundational importance for the wider community. With the economy becoming more diversified and digital, with rising prosperity, demographic shifts, evolving consumer preferences, and deeper financial inclusion, our consumption and production baskets are changing rapidly. But that is not all.