The Real Price of a Kitchen Plate
What an average Indian thali actually costs today — ingredient by ingredient, kitchen by kitchen.
The Plate We Measured
One adult thali: 150g rice, 100g tur dal, 200g seasonal sabzi, two rotis, 50g curd, 5g ghee, a slice of onion, a wedge of lemon. The most ordinary plate in the country — and the most honest economic indicator we have.
Why The Thali Is The Better Index
Headline CPI averages hundreds of items. A household doesn't eat an index. It eats a plate. When the plate gets expensive, the family quietly reduces the dal, drops the ghee, halves the sabzi — invisible adjustments the macro data never sees.
What Changed In 18 Months
Tur dal rose 51%. Mustard oil 32%. Tomato more than doubled in peak months. LPG, the silent ingredient under every plate, rose 34%. The composite cost of one home-cooked thali moved from roughly ₹28 to ₹41 — a 46% climb against single-digit wage growth.
The Silent Subtractions
In 6 of 9 cities, families reported reducing dal portions, switching from tur to cheaper substitutes, or skipping the evening sabzi entirely. The plate looks the same in a photograph. The nutrition does not.
What This Means For Policy
Procurement, buffer stocks, MSP signals and LPG subsidies all converge on the kitchen plate. When any one of them slips, the plate is the first place it shows — and the last place official statistics arrive.
The numbers behind the story.
What households actually pay.
| Item | Before | Now | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice (150g) | ₹4.8 | ₹6.1 | +27% |
| Tur Dal (100g) | ₹11.8 | ₹17.8 | +51% |
| Seasonal Sabzi (200g) | ₹6.0 | ₹11.2 | +87% |
| Two Rotis (atta) | ₹3.4 | ₹4.3 | +26% |
| Curd (50g) | ₹2.5 | ₹3.2 | +28% |
| LPG share / plate | ₹1.9 | ₹2.6 | +37% |
City-by-City Thali Tracker — Coming Soon
An interactive module is in development. Help us build it faster — contribute data, evidence or volunteer time.
From the ground.
"I cook the same things my mother did. The shopping bag is lighter. The bill is heavier."
"Tiffin used to be ₹40. Now ₹70. My fares haven't moved."
"I cut the dal by a spoon. Nobody complains. Everybody notices."
What this report is built on.
- Agmarknet daily mandi prices
- Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) — LPG retail
- MoSPI CPI food sub-index
- Demoncracy kitchen-bill survey, 9 cities, Nov 2024 – May 2026
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