It measures changes in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households.
CPI data is released monthly by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which functions under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
There are four types of CPI: a) CPI-IW (Industrial Worker), b) CPI-UNME (Urban Non-Manual Employees), c) CPI-AL (Agricultural Labourers) and d) CPI-RL (Rural Labourers)
RBI has adopted CPI as the key measure for determining the inflation situation of the Indian economy on the recommendation of the Urjit Patel Committee.