new delhi indias inflation data is once again under scrutiny after a member of the central banks monetary policy panel raised questions about its efficacythere was an urgent need to modernise the way changes to prices are being calculated by the government as well as the way inflation expectations are being surveyed by the reserve bank of india rbi ravindra dholakia a dovish member of the panel wrote recently in the economic and political weeklyif a country accepts inflationtargeting framework it has to be extremely serious and cautious about the correct and realistic measurement of its inflation rate dholakia said inflationtargeting framework without proper measurement of inflation rate can involve very high real costs and make the policy counterproductivedholakia said the current practice of measuring the inflation rate from a fixed base weight index is outdated and likely to overstate inflation substantially compared to the chainweighted index used in developed countries the latter refers to the method of continuously changing the weight of goods and services to match prevailing trends as opposed to keeping it fixedthe comments come at a time when inflation continues to undershoot the rbis forecasts inflation averaged 43 per cent in the six months of the fiscal year through september below the rbis range of 47 per cent to 51 per cent from its april monetary policy statement at 331 per cent in october inflation is already underneath the 39 per cent lower end of the range for the second half the rbis target is to keep inflation at 4 per cent over the medium termpart of the reason for the inflation miss this year is volatile oil and benign food prices the rbi twice raised its inflation forecasts for the fiscal secondhalf in june and august when it raised interest rates amid elevated crude prices and a currency slump it then lowered the projection in october as food prices unusually softened which enabled policy makers to keep rates unchangedmost economists in a bloomberg survey predict the rbi will hold its benchmark rate at 65 per cent again on wednesdayquestions about the inflation methodology follow recent concerns about revisions to gross domestic product data prime minister narendra modis administration triggered a political controversy last week when it released figures showing the economy expanded at a much slower pace under the previous government than reported earlierelusive resultssoumya kanti ghosh chief economic adviser at state bank of india sbi said the central bank should stick to forecasts for three to six months as variables like oil prices are difficult to predictgenerating forecasts under and often unstated assumptions about exogenous variables such as oil prices government spending and global growth will throw up illusory or elusive results he saida spokesman for the central bank didnt immediately respond to an email seeking a comment the rbi has in the past said its inflation model is able to ascertain how quickly prices and wages adjustabhishek gupta bloomberg india economist says the rbi should drop its household inflation survey too since it