Rural consumer confidence survey begins across 31 states and UTs
Household sentiment across 31 Indian states and union territories is being gathered for the September 2026 Rural Consumer Confidence Survey. The Reserve Bank of India engaged Ipsos Research Private Ltd. to capture perceptions on employment, prices, and income.
Five gauges of rural sentiment
The September 2026 round of the Rural Consumer Confidence Survey gathers data on current perceptions and one-year-ahead expectations from households in rural and semi-urban areas.
The exercise tracks five key economic dimensions: the general economic situation, employment scenario, overall price situation, personal income, and household spending.
Coverage spans 31 states and union territories, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and the Union Territory of Ladakh.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) uses the resulting sentiment metrics directly as quantitative inputs for framing monetary policy decisions and evaluating broader macroeconomic conditions across regions.
Private fieldwork with public access
Market research agency Ipsos Research Private Ltd., based in Gurugram, has been commissioned to conduct the field interviews on behalf of the central bank.
Selected households will be approached directly, while unselected individuals can submit responses via a standardized schedule to the Division of Household Surveys in Mumbai.
The operational framework is managed under the Department of Statistics and Information Management, with communications overseen by Deputy General Manager Ajit Prasad.
Vital signal, methodological noise
Tracking rural sentiment is essential given the heavy weight of non-urban consumption in India.
Yet allowing unselected respondents to email survey forms risks introducing self-selection bias into the dataset.
The survey remains a necessary empirical foundation for rate-setting policy.