The Hindu Analysis

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India's retail inflation eased from 6.83% in August to 5.02% in September, breaking a two-month streak over the tolerance threshold of the Reserve Bank of India, with the rise in food prices easing to 6.6% from almost 10%.
Rural inflation stood at 5.33% in September, compared to 7% in August, while the price rise faced by urban consumers moderated to 4.65% last month from 6.6% in August.
Inflation in vegetables crashed from 26.1% in August to just 3.4% in September. But inflation in cereals remained sticky at 11% and the pace of price rise in pulses rose from 13% in August to 16.4% last month.

Retail Inflation:

Retail inflation, also known as Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation, is the rate at which the prices of goods and services that consumers buy for personal use increase over time.
It measures the change in the cost of a basket of goods and services that are typically purchased by households, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, and medical care.

Four types of CPI are as follows:

CPI for Industrial Workers (IW).
CPI for Agricultural Labourer (AL).
CPI for Rural Labourer (RL).
CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME).
Of these, the first three are compiled by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Fourth is compiled by the NSO in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Base Year for CPI is 2012.
In 2020, the Ministry of Labour and Employment released the new series of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Worker (CPI-IW) with base year 2016.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) uses CPI data to control inflation. In April 2014, the RBI adopted the CPI as its key measure of inflation.

India ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023, with its progress against hunger nearly halted since 2015, reflecting a global trend.
The Union government, though, contested India's performance for the third year in a row, citing flawed methodology.
Afghanistan, Haiti and 12 sub-Saharan countries performed worse than India on the GHI. India's ranking is based on a GHI score of 28.7 on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. This categorises India's severity of hunger as "serious".
The GHI score is based on a formula which combines four indicators that together capture the multi-dimensional nature of hunger, including under- nourishment. child stuntina, child wastina, and child mortality.
The GHI is prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
India ranked 107th out of 121 countries in the 2022 edition of the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
While the rate of undernourishment in India stood at 16.6 percent and under-five mortality at 3.1 percent, the prevalence of anemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years stood at 58.1 percent.
As per the index, India also has the highest child wasting rate in the world at 18.7 percent, reflecting acute undernutrition. Wasting is measured based on children's weight relative to their height.

On October 2, the Bihar government released the data of its caste survey.The data showed that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) together account for about 84% of the population. This has reopened the debate on whether the 50% legal
Ceiling on caste-based reservation should be removed. ceiling of 50% on reservation set by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case in 1992
Tamil Nadu provides 69% reservation through a 1994 law, which it has protected from judicial review by getting it placed under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
On October 2, the Bihar government released the data of its caste survey. The data showed that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) together account for about 84% of the population. This has reopened the debate on whether the 50% legal ceiling on caste-based reservation should be removed.
Ceiling of 50% on reservation set by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case in 1992
Tamil Nadu provides 69% reservation through a 1994 law, which it has protected from judicial review by getting it placed under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

IIP is a composite indicator measuring changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products over a period, with respect to a chosen base period.
It is compiled and published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:
Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.
Use-based sectors, namely Basic Goods, Capital Goods, and Intermediate Goods.
Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012.

About Eight Core Sectors:

These comprise 40.30% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IP).
The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

The Mandal Commission recommended a 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government services and educational institutions, aiming to maintain the 50% ceiling for reservations set by the Supreme Court.
The Indra Sawhney case in 1992 upheld the OBC reservation based on criteria other than caste, allowing for OBC reservation in public employment and educational institutions.
The opposition to a caste census arises from fears that revealing the actual population share of OBCs could lead to increased demands for reservation quotas.
With the Supreme Court validating reservation quotas beyond the 50% threshold, there is a growing demand to expand OBC reservation beyond the 27% set by the Mandal Commission.
The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, provided 10% reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS) in the general category, which challenged the 50% reservation ceiling but was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court in 2022.