Salaried class: : Some of the largest increases in food prices have been in Mumbai. Here food is brought over long distances by truckers who are now paying much more for fuel as the government has passed part of the increase in world oil prices on to the consumers.
Sutapa Ghosh, an MNC executive, living in the city for the last five years, complained that she and her husband have been forced to change their purchasing habits. "We have drastically cut down on binge-buying as price tags don't look as attractive as before."
The couple has been eyeing a plasma television for some time. But with daily expenses now rising by leaps and bounds, the couple has decided to be happy with their old 21-inch colour television.
Wholesale price index has accelerated to 6 per cent from 4 per cent in January. Consumer price indexes have risen nearly 7 per cent in urban areas over the past year and almost 9 per cent in rural areas, where more than two-thirds of the population lives and where higher food prices are having the worst effect.
Image: An activist shouts anti-government slogans during a demonstration against a fuel price hike in New Delhi. | Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
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