New Delhi: Union Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Thursday released the Compendium on Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (Volume I-IV, 1945 to 2020).
Speaking on the occasion, Gangwar said, digitization of historical data on CPI-IW for more than seven decades in the shape of compendium will bridge the data gap on the subject & it will be an inspiration to other agencies compiling price indices or other statistics to follow the suit.
He said, the Compendium is a first of its kind publication and is being released at a time when the Labour Bureau, a pioneer public institute in this country on index compilation and labour statistics, is celebrating the centenary year of its formation. It contains detailed and comprehensive information and explanations on compiling consumer price index (CPI).
Secretary, Labour & Employment Apurva Chandra said, that the compendium on consumer price index for industrial workers is a milestone achieved by the Labour Bureau & it will open a new prism to analysis on price index and related subject.
Director General of Labour Bureau, D.P.S. Negi said that the compendium on CPI-IW, the mainstay of Labour Bureau India, is the beginning of digitization process of data on labour and price statistics stored in its warehouse.
Labour Bureau began compiling the index since 1945. Collating index at one place right from its inception till date in the form of a compendium was keenly felt keeping in view the interests of a variety of institutional and individual stakeholders, said a government press release.
The Labour Bureau is the competent authority under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 to ascertain, from time to time, the Consumer Price Index Numbers applicable to employees employed in the Scheduled employments in respect of all the undertakings in the Central Sphere and the Union Territories.
The Consumer Price Index is the most used out of the numerous statistical products that are currently available to the common man. For millions of individuals whose wages are linked to a consumer price index series, the index is almost a household word. The extent to which their real wages are protected from erosion on account of price rises depends on the quality and reliability of the consumer price index series. As such, it becomes necessary to examine critically the consumer price index numbers that are currently being published and used with a view to assuring the users of their reliability and also standardizing the concepts and methods of compilation. (PR)
