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Indian Express
11-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Why govts revise GDP base year and methodology, why the proposed 2026 revision matters for India's global standing
Dear Readers, In an interview to The Indian Express, Saurabh Garg, Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, stated that the ministry is in the process of revising the 'base year' for the calculation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP is the central metric to assess the annual economic growth or the overall size of an economy and the so-called 'base year' refers to the year that works as a starting point for calculations. At present, the base year is 2011-12. In other words, the GDP in 2011-12 is used as a 'base' over which the GDP growth of any following year is calculated. The new base year for GDP calculations will be 2022-23 and the revised series of data will be released on February 27, 2026. Garg also confirmed that some other key macroeconomic metrics will also undergo changes in base years. The base year for Index of Industrial Production (IIP) will also be revised to 2022-23 while the base year for Consumer Price Index, which is used to assess the rate of inflation faced by consumers, will be revised to 2023-24. Is this the first time such a revision is happening? No. The revision slated for 2026 will be the eighth such. The first set of estimates of national income (GDP) for India was compiled by the 'National Income Committee', under the chairmanship of PC Mahalanobis in 1949. The first and final reports of national income by this committee were brought out in 1951 and 1954 respectively. Since then, as more and better quality data became available, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) undertook comprehensive reviews of the methodology used for calculating GDP. Apart from shifting base years of national accounts series, the CSO also tried making improvements in the compilation of national accounts series, in terms of coverage of activities, incorporation of latest datasets and latest international guidelines. The base year of national accounts have been revised on seven different occasions: From 1948-49 to 1960-61 in August 1967; From 1960-61 to 1970-71 in January 1978; From 1970-71 to 1980-81 in February 1988; From 1980-81 to 1993-94 in February 1999; From 1993-94 to 1999-2000 in January 2006; From 1999-2000 to 2004-05 in January 2010; and From 2004-05 to 2011-12 on January 30, 2015. It is important to note that revisions in base year and the broader updates in the methodology of estimating the GDP go together. The short answer is: To more accurately understand and report the state of the economy. An accurate reporting, in turn, is an essential requirement both for policymakers as well as all the other economic agents (from large business firms to budding entrepreneurs). But calculating or, more accurately, estimating the GDP of a large country such as India is not as straightforward as it may appear at first glance. The remarkable thing about GDP is that it promises to capture the vast and varied reality of an economy in just one number. Read this piece for a more detailed explainer on GDP. It can be calculated in different ways; say, either by looking at how much people spend or, alternatively, how much they earn. But if one spends some time on the definition of GDP, it will become clear that it is not easy to calculate it. On paper, GDP measures the current market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time (say a quarter or a year). The word 'final' is crucial, but often receives very little attention. Its implication is that the GDP will only include those goods and services that are bought by the final consumers or users. For instance, a cricket bat is a final good. But, of course, it is made of many things: the rubber grip, the wood, the adhesives, the labour used to make the bat, etc. Each of these things likely went through its own production process. For instance, the rubber grip on the handle is a finished product in itself that uses other 'intermediate' and 'primary' (say rubber) products. Same holds true for the wood and how it was cut and sold and processed before it was bought by the cricket bat maker. The use of the word 'final' in the GDP definition means that only the final monetary value (in current day prices) will be used in GDP. That, in turn, means weaning away all the other prices (of intermediate and primary goods and services that went into making the bat) out of the GDP calculations. Even if all the data is available, the complexity of calculations is quite apparent. However, the fact is, all the required data isn't always available in the absolute accurate manner. Moreover, and very importantly, the economy itself undergoes fundamental change as the years roll by. India started off as a predominantly agrarian economy. That meant most of the people were involved in agriculture or related activities and most of the GDP came from those activities. With each passing decade, India's economic structure has changed. Today, most of the GDP (around 55%) comes from the so-called 'services' sector while agriculture etc. contribute less than 20%. However, the number of people involved in agriculture has not fallen in the commensurate manner. Estimating GDP from the farm and estimating from the services sector requires different data sets and different methodologies. Further, these methodologies also change with the improvements in data as well as understanding of the linkages in the economy. For instance, it is noteworthy that up until 1999, India saw the GDP series being revised once in a decade, changing the base to a year that ended with 1. This was no coincidence. The informal (or unorganised) sector playing a major role in the Indian economy and the workforce estimates for the unorganised sector were obtained from the Population Census conducted decennially in the years ending with 1. As such, it was natural to make such years the base years for each revision. However, since the 1993-94 series, the CSO started using the work force estimates from the results of Employment and Unemployment Surveys of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), which are conducted once in every five years. As a result, since 1999, the base year has been changed every five years (until 2015). This practice was also in line with the recommendation of the National Statistical Commission that all economic indices should be 'rebased' at least once in every five years. Regular revisions in base years help in two broad ways. One, they capture the changes in the way India's economy functions — new industries can be included and outdated ones removed from the calculations. Two, they provide a more accurate picture of the 'real' economic growth, which is the economic growth after removing the effect of inflation. For argument's sake, an economy's GDP could double in a year in two very contrasting ways: The total output remains the same but the prices double or the prices remain the same and the 'real' output (say cars manufactured inside the country) doubles. The reality lies somewhere in the middle and revising the base year provides a more accurate understanding of how the real economy is growing. Why was the base year not changed five years after 2011-12? The fact is that the government led by Prime Minister Modi had announced in 2017 that a new GDP series will be released with 2017-18 as the new base year. The government had hoped to use the results of Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) as well as the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS was an annual survey replacing the quinquennial Employment-Unemployment Surveys), both of which were slated in 2017-18, to update the GDP data. However, both the surveys ran into trouble with the government itself raising data quality issues. The PLFS for 2017-18 had shown that the unemployment rate had risen to a 45-year high and the CES for 2017-18 showed that poverty had risen (as evidenced by a fall in spending) since 2011-12, a historic reversal of trend. Although after the election results of 2019, the government accepted PLFS findings, the CES results were never accepted. Eventually, these data gaps led to the government dropping 2017-18 as the new base year because it wasn't 'normal'. It must be noted that 2017-18 experienced the ramifications of key policy led-disruptions such as the government's decision to overnight demonetise 86% of India's currency base in November 2016 as well as the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax regime (replacing multiple indirect taxes) in July 2017. India's GDP growth rate registered a sharp deceleration starting 2017-18, falling from more than 8% in 2016-17 to less than 4% in 2019-20. Since the start of 2020, the Covid pandemic-induced disruptions have meant that neither 2020 nor the years immediately after it could be treated as 'normal' years. Why is this particular revision crucial for India's global standing? Although it is true that each revision improved the estimation of India's GDP, yet the last revision in 2015 created a lot of controversy that dented India's global standing. In particular, many experts claimed that the methodological changes incorporated in 2015 meant that India was overestimating (i.e. overstating) its GDP. These dissenting voices even included the government's own Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, who questioned the credibility of India's GDP soon after he left office. Read this piece to understand the whole controversy better. Experts such as Prof R Nagaraj, formerly associated with the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research and now with IIT Bombay, have repeatedly written that the methodological changes in 2015 overstate India's GDP. In a 2021 paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Nagaraj found that the growth rates in the manufacturing sector are far more muted if one looks at the Annual Survey of Industries data (published by MoSPI) as against the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' MCA-21 database for the Private Corporate Sector (PCS) that is used in GDP calculations. The new base year revision and the new GDP series will be coming out after India has already missed a cycle of revisions in 2017-18, which, in turn, implies that some inaccuracies may have crept in GDP estimation. Moreover, over the past decade, thanks to the controversies surrounding the PLFS and CES data as well as long-standing gaps in poverty and inequality data, not to mention the absence of Census data, the credibility of India's macroeconomic data as well as the government's claims have been increasingly questioned. The new series will also come at a time when India will be on the verge of becoming the third-largest economy after the US and China (in nominal GDP terms). That, in turn, means global investors and analysts are likely to scrutinise the results very carefully. Accuracy of the new series will be central not just for the fortunes of billions of dollars of investor money but also for the credibility of India's data and its usefulness for domestic policymaking. Do you trust India's GDP data? If not, what can the government do to improve the credibility of its GDP data? Share your views and queries at Take care, Udit Udit Misra is Deputy Associate Editor. Follow him on Twitter @ieuditmisra ... Read More
Indian Express
10-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
New data sources and a fresh economic calibration
The government periodically revises the base year for key economic indicators such as the consumer price index (CPI), the index of industrial production (IIP) and gross domestic product (GDP). These revisions are meant to reflect the changing profile of consumption and production in the country and incorporate newer data sources. For instance, in 2015, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the new series of national accounts, revising the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12. Also in 2015, the base year for CPI was revised to 2012 from 2010. And in May 2017, the base year for the IIP was revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12. Continuing with this practice, the next year is likely to witness the release of new data series for several indicators. In an interview to this paper, MoSPI secretary Saurabh Garg has said that the new GDP series, with 2022-23 as the base year, is scheduled to be released on February 27, 2026. The new IIP series, with 2022-23 as the likely base, is expected to be released from 2026-27 onwards, and the CPI series, with the base year of 2024, is likely to be released from the first quarter of 2026. This exercise is likely to involve the use of several new datasets. For instance, in the computation of the GDP estimates, the use of GST and UPI transaction data is being explored. Neither dataset was available the last time around. Similarly, for the new CPI series, MoSPI is exploring new data sources such as online platforms for air and rail fare and price data from e-commerce websites. For CPI, the government has now decided to draw on the latest round of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey of 2023-24 to figure out the items and the weights. Such regular updation of economic indicators using newer sources of information not only helps to improve their accuracy but also aids policymaking. For instance, the current base year for CPI, which forms the basis of the RBI's inflation-targeting framework, is 2012. But the household consumption basket has changed dramatically over the years. For example, cereals accounted for 10.69 per cent of the consumption basket in rural areas in 2011-12. This had declined to 4.97 per cent by 2023-24. For urban areas, the comparable estimates are 6.61 per cent and 3.74 per cent. Reweighting the items of consumption based on the latest data could thus impact headline inflation and possibly have policy implications. These base year revisions are, however, not without controversy. For instance, the release of the GDP 2011-12 series was followed by questions over whether it captured the state of the economy accurately. Questions were raised over the quality of some of the data as well as the deflators used. To avoid a repeat, the government should ensure that all the data sources, along with a detailed account of the methodologies used in the process, are publicly disclosed. This could help users understand the estimation process and address concerns.
Indian Express
08-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
New base year for GDP, CPI, IIP from early 2026; Services survey from Jan: MoSPI Secretary
With the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) undertaking a base revision exercise and expansion of its data indicators, the key economic datasets — GDP, IIP and CPI — will see a new base from next year onwards, MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg said. In an interview with Aanchal Magazine, Garg also said that the weights and items for the new retail inflation basket will now be linked with Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24 instead of the earlier decision to derive it from HCES 2022-23. Edited excerpts: At what stage is the statistics ministry on revision of base years for GDP, IIP and CPI? By when can we expect the base revision? The base year revision exercise of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) is currently underway. For GDP, the new series is scheduled to be released on February 27, 2026 with financial year 2022-23 as base year. For IIP, 2022 -23 has been tentatively identified as the revised base. IIP on revised base would be released from 2026-27. For CPI, 2024 has been identified as the revised base year as the item basket and the weightage of the items would be decided based on the NSO's Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) conducted in 2023-24. The new CPI series is expected to be published from the first quarter of 2026. You mentioned that the item basket and the items' weightage for inflation would be decided based on HCES 2023-24. Some of the earlier statements from the Ministry had pointed out that the item basket would be based on HCES 2022-23. So, is it 2022-23 or 2023-24? Initially, the Ministry decided to use 2022-23 HCES data for deriving weights and item basket for CPI base updation. Now since data for HCES 2023-24 is released and available for use, the Ministry has decided to use the latest data that is HCES 2023-24 data for deriving weights and item basket for the new series. How are the shares of segments in the CPI basket going to change? There were indications earlier that the housing segment will go beyond the government accommodation to capture the real picture of rentals and housing prices. What are the other items that will be included afresh or see a tweak in the current inflation basket? For the new CPI series with base year 2024, the item basket will be based on data from HCES 2023–24. The finalisation of both the item basket and the weighting diagram is currently in progress. In the new series, dwellings provided by the government or employers will not be covered. To better capture the true picture of rental and housing prices, rental data from rural areas is being explored. In December 2024, MoSPI had floated a discussion paper on how to put Public Distribution System (PDS) items, free social transfers, in the new retail inflation index. How has been the response? How has the Ministry decided to include the PDS items in the new inflation index? The methodology for incorporating free PDS items in CPI is under discussion in the Ministry. MOSPI will release a white paper on the methodology in the public domain after its finalisation. As part of its expansion of statistical indicators, what are the new databases being tapped by the MoSPI? What are the collaborations being done with other departments and ministries to improve the statistical indicators of MoSPI? In GDP calculation, in addition to the use of data from Controller General of Accounts, MCA-21, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), etc. as was done in the previous base revision exercise, use of GST data, E-Vahan portal, UPI transaction data from NPCI, etc. (will be done) by NSO. MoSPI has tapped the GSTN database for conducting Annual Survey of Service Sector Enterprises (ASSSE), which is new in the NSS ecosystem. For the new CPI series, MoSPI is expanding its approach by exploring alternative data sources, such as online platforms for airfare, rail fare, OTT platforms and administrative records for price data of petrol, diesel and LPG. Discussions are ongoing with IRCTC, the Ministry of Railways, and the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for direct transfer of data for integration in CPI. The Ministry is exploring the use of scanner data and web scraping to enhance the accuracy, efficiency and comprehensiveness of price data collection. The possibility of collecting price data from e-commerce websites is also being considered. When is the next Economic Census going to be launched? What will be the changes in the statistical design for it? Approval for the conduct of the next Economic Census is awaited. Preparatory activities for the same are underway. The EC will commence as soon as the approval process is completed. This time, the Ministry intends to make EC tech-driven by making use of end-to-end digital solutions having modules for data collection through mobile devices, data supervision & monitoring, data processing & report generation and dissemination dashboard. The Ministry also brought out the forward-looking private capex survey last month. Since the response rate was low at 58.3%, a caveat was given to see the findings as indicative and representative of mainly larger enterprises. How will the survey results be expanded and refined going ahead? To improve the response rate and enhance the quality and representativeness of the Forward-Looking Private Corporate CAPEX Survey, the Ministry plans several strategic interventions: Data User Conference on CAPEX survey has been organised on May 27, 2025 in Hyderabad to sensitise researchers on the findings of the first survey. The Regional Offices of the Field Operations Division will conduct targeted awareness and outreach campaigns to improve visibility and participation among enterprises across regions. Collaborations with key industry bodies and business chambers will be undertaken to build trust, address concerns, and highlight the importance of participating in the survey. The sample size will be expanded to offset non-response bias, ensuring a more robust and statistically reliable dataset that better represents the broader private corporate sector. Field officials will be deployed to assist enterprises in filling out the survey correctly, ensuring better data quality and improving the overall response rate. Web portal will include user-friendly navigation, integrated chatbot support, FAQs, and clearer instructions to facilitate smoother self-compilation by respondents. The Ministry had earlier detailed plans to undertake Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey, National Household Travel Survey and Health Survey. What is the status of these surveys? The survey on Health Expenditure has started from January 2025 and the field work will be conducted till December 2025. The results are expected by the end of first quarter of 2026. The surveys on Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey and National Household Travel Survey are planned to be launched from July 2025. These are also year-long surveys and fieldwork for the same will continue upto June 2026. The Ministry is planning other surveys such as the service sector survey that is also tapping into the data from the GSTN. What do you plan to cover through that survey? When are the results expected? Service sector in India is growing rapidly and its contribution to the GDP of the country is the largest in recent years. But there is no comprehensive publicly available database of the incorporated service sector. The contribution of the incorporated service sector in GDP is captured through the analysis of the data on profit and loss accounts and balance sheets, filed by the companies, to the MCA. NSO does this exercise for all the incorporated companies that have filed data to MCA. However, MCA data does not provide any state-level information and further the data is not available in public domain. This lack of comprehensive granular data at state level for the incorporated service sector enterprises makes it difficult to assess the sector's performance at state level. Like the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) providing data for the registered manufacturing sector, Annual Survey of Service Sector Enterprises (ASSSE) aims to bridge the gap for the incorporated service sector. ASSSE plans to utilise GSTN data as a frame for the survey. A pilot study on this survey has just been carried out and findings of the same have been published in the form of Technical Report on April 30, 2025. The experiences gained during the pilot are being harnessed to launch a full-fledged survey on ASSSE, which is expected to start from January 2026. The results of the same may be expected in 2027. MoSPI has now started with a monthly bulletin for labour force indicators. What are the challenges and advantages in increasing the frequency of the dataset? As we know, policymakers need labour force indicators such as the proportion of people in the labor market, including those who are working and those who are looking for work (LFPR), percentage of population that is employed (WPR) or the percentage of population that is unemployed (UR) to track the labour market and timely policy interventions. The PLFS launched in 2017 provided quarterly estimates of the said labour force indicators for urban areas only and the overall country level labour market estimates including those of the rural areas also, were available only on the annual basis. In order to address this issue, a revamped PLFS has been launched from January 2025 which will provide monthly and quarterly PLFS estimates of labour force indicators for both rural and urban areas. This will give timely insights into the labour market, for better policy decisions. The main challenge in producing the monthly estimates from PLFS was the change in sampling strategy and increase in sample size. In the new PLFS 2025 the number of households to be surveyed is a little over 2.72 lakh, which is almost 2.6 times higher than the earlier sample size of 1.02 lakh households being covered up to December 2024. This needed more resource-mobilisation. How will the issues in the new PLFS series such as comparison with earlier numbers and higher standard error get addressed? Will there be a back series? On the issue of comparability of the estimates it needs to be appreciated that the PLFS sample design has been changed significantly though the conceptual framework covering the concepts, definitions and measurement framework for measuring employment and unemployment has remained unchanged. Hence, the estimates of PLFS can be compared over time accounting for these aspects. Regarding the precision of the estimates, as the sample size has been enhanced substantially, it is expected that the sampling error will be reduced. Since the PLFS sample design has changed, the change in design cannot be replicated in the past PLFS surveys. Hence, it will not be possible to generate a back series estimate. The new PLFS has an enhanced sample size. It also has incorporated additional questions on education, land possession and households' rent income, pension and remittances. Has the data been collected? How and when do you plan to release it? The field work of the revamped PLFS has started from January 2025. Some additional questions to collect information from the persons surveyed on years spent in formal education are collected with a view to generate estimates of Mean Years of Schooling (MYS). In addition, provision has been made to collect information at the household level on earnings from different sources like rent from land and building, pension, remittances etc. through single shot questions. These questions are essentially included to have a better explanation of the activity participation of the population as many a times persons declaring them out of labour force may be found to be having pension, remittances etc. to support them. It may be noted here that these are collected through single shot questions at the household level to keep the focus of the survey interview on employment unemployment particulars of the persons. Questions on land possession were previously collected in quinquennial employment unemployment rounds also. The data will be released as unit level data along with the PLFS Annual release. No separate tabulations on these items have been planned. What was the intent behind introducing these additional questions on education, land possession and rent, remittances etc? What is the additional picture that you hope to get from this? And are there some data collection challenges that you envisage here? The education related questions are introduced to collect information on years spent in formal education. This will then be used to generate estimates of Mean Years of Schooling (MYS). The indicator MYS is an important indicator to assess the quality of the human capital and is used in computation of several global indices. The questions on pension, rent, remittances etc. have been introduced to collect information at the household level on earning from different sources like rent from land and building, pension, remittances etc. These questions are essentially included to have a better explanation of the activity participation of the population as many times persons may be found to be having pension, remittances etc. to support them. However, it is worthwhile to mention that these questions are not incorporated to generate household level income estimates as the same require a detailed focused enquiry. Regarding challenges, some difficulties were faced by the surveyors while collecting information on household earning through interest in savings and investment only. No other difficulty has been faced in collecting information with respect to the new additional items included in PLFS schedule till date. Aanchal Magazine is Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and reports on the macro economy and fiscal policy, with a special focus on economic science, labour trends, taxation and revenue metrics. With over 13 years of newsroom experience, she has also reported in detail on macroeconomic data such as trends and policy actions related to inflation, GDP growth and fiscal arithmetic. Interested in the history of her homeland, Kashmir, she likes to read about its culture and tradition in her spare time, along with trying to map the journeys of displacement from there. ... Read More
Indian Express
05-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
OTT platforms, air & rail portals to be part of new inflation series as MoSPI taps new data sources
Data from over-the-top (OTT) platforms and online portals for airfare and rail fare could soon be part of India's inflation basket. India's statistics ministry is exploring tapping into alternative data sources such as online platforms for air and rail fares, OTT services, and administrative records for price data for petrol, diesel and LPG for the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series, Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) told The Indian Express in an interview. The new CPI series, which is expected to come out from the first quarter of 2026, is also likely to directly incorporate data from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). 'For the new CPI series, MoSPI is expanding its approach by exploring alternative data sources, such as online platforms for airfare, rail fare, OTT platforms and administrative records for price data of petrol, diesel and LPG. Discussions are ongoing with IRCTC, under the Ministry of Railways, and the PPAC under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for direct transfer of data for integration in CPI,' Garg said. The Ministry is also exploring the use of scanner data and web scraping with an aim to enhance the accuracy, efficiency and comprehensiveness of price data collection, Garg said. 'The possibility of collecting price data from e-commerce websites is also being considered,' he added. The Ministry is currently undertaking a base revision exercise for all major datasets such as CPI-based inflation, Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For GDP, the new series is scheduled to be released on February 27, 2026 with financial year 2022-23 as the new base year, Garg said. The revised base year for IIP has also been tentatively identified as 2022 -23, Garg said, adding that the IIP with the revised base would be released from 2026-27. At present, the base year for GDP and IIP is 2011-12 and for CPI is 2012. For CPI, 2024 has been identified as the revised base year. '…the item basket and the weightage of the items would be decided based on the NSO's Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) conducted in 2023-24. The new CPI series is expected to be published from the first quarter of 2026,' Garg said. Among other alternative datasets being tapped by the Ministry, Garg said data of Goods and Services Tax (GST), e-Vahan portal, UPI transactions from NPCI are going to be used for GDP calculation by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in addition to the use of data from Office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA), MCA-21, RBI. MoSPI has also used the GSTN (GST Network) database for its new service sector survey, Annual Survey of Service Sector Enterprises (ASSSE). The latest HCES for 2023-24 had incorporated questions on streaming services, air fare and rail fare. At present, the retail inflation basket based on CPI (Combined) has a weight of 0.077 percent for air fare (economy class), 0.185 per cent for railway fare, 2.187 per cent for petrol for vehicles and 0.148 per cent for diesel for vehicles. There's a 0.08 per cent weightage for internet expenses, 0.82 per cent weight for monthly charges for cable TV connection, and 1.839 per cent for mobile phone charges.
Time of India
04-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Top metros dearer than Pune in co-living rent, except Chennai
Pune: Co-living rentals in Pune are easier on the wallets of renters compared to other metro cities in the country but are marginally costlier than those in Chennai. This is due to the correspondingly lower average rent of entry-level apartments in the city, data from real estate services firm Colliers India showed. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The average co-living rent in Pune ranges from Rs 9,500 to Rs 15,700 per month, while the average rent of a premium co-living facility in a city like Bengaluru or Mumbai is Rs 23,700 and Rs 27,500 per month, respectively. The differential in rent between co-living and regular apartments for all cities is around 25-35%. Despite being the cheaper option, availability of co-living facilities is very limited as it is a relatively untapped market. Colliers India estimated that the overall capacity of the co-living segment is very low at 3 lakh beds compared to 5 crore migrant population moving within the country. However, it is expected to grow to 10 lakh beds by 2030 as more developers enter the segment. In Pune, developers are increasingly incorporating co-living units into standalone or mixed-use developments to cater to the growing demand, Manish Jain, president, Credai's Pune chapter, said. Co-living involves tenants sharing common facilities and spaces while having their own private rooms. It is particularly suitable for single occupants who are not immediately looking to buy a home, want to save on rent, and desire flexibility in the duration of their stay. Typically, the duration of stay ranges from eight to 12 months. "This sector has seen a rebound in Pune post-pandemic, especially during the last couple of years, with most companies from the IT sector adopting a flexible model for work from home and office," Saurabh Garg, co-founder, NoBroker, said. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Co-living is mostly favoured among the service industry-intensive areas, such as Hinjewadi and Kharadi, on the western and eastern sides of the city, and in some pockets, including Vimannagar and Kalyaninagar. Besides single professionals, industry experts expect demand from postgraduate students, as not all educational institutes can accommodate the increasing number of students in their hostels. Rising migration to the top metro cities and the growing preference of white-collar workers for professionally managed spaces are also driving growth in the co-living sector. "With over 1,400 colleges and thriving job opportunities in areas like Hinjewadi, Kharadi, and Chakan, the city continues to attract young professionals and students aged 25–35. For this segment, co-living offers an ideal solution that is affordable, well-maintained, and in preferred locations," said Jain.
