Some important improvements have been made under the new series vis--vis old series. A total of 88 centers have been covered in the 2016 series. The number of States/UTs has increased to 28 and the number of items directly retained in the index basket has increased to 463 items.
In the new series, as per the direction of Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices and Cost of Living, the Geometric mean-based methodology is used for compilation of indices as against Arithmetic mean used in 2001 series.
The group level weights under new series has changed in comparison to earlier series (1982 and 2001). The weight of Food & Beverages has declined over time whereas the weight of miscellaneous group has increased substantially.
Unlike predecessors, the new series has same survey base year and price base which in itself is a major improvement. It is also released in the shortest time span of less than 4 years as never before. The 2001 series was released on 9th March, 2006