Thalinomics goes for a toss as LPG fuels food price rise, Telangana logs 6.32% inflation

A new notice has gone up in Panchakattu Dosa, a popular restaurant franchisee in Hyderabad, that listed how the prices of various items that affect food business have changed. Gas is up by 85%, urad dal by 17%, disposables by 10% and rice upto 10%.

The notice left a message: “Due to increased costs of all the raw materials in the last six months, we have no choice but to increase our prices”.

In another part of the city, Kakatiya Deluxe Mess pegged its new ‘all-you-can-eat’ thali price at ₹250 from August 1. Just eight months earlier, on January 1, the same meal at the same restaurant cost ₹200. Between the jump from ₹200 to ₹250 or a 25% jump in prices, is the impact of food inflation in Hyderabad, or as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called it, the impact of ‘thalinomics’.

Smaller restaurants too, have increased the prices in Hyderabad by upto 20% over the last six months, since the outbreak of the war of Israel and US combine against Iran that has spilled over to much of the Middle East.

“How can I reduce the price? The government has executed only one price drop while it hiked multiple prices, like taking the price of a commercial cylinder above the ₹3,000 mark. It was less than half that before the war began,” says a food kiosk owner in Ameerpet, where a street is filled with food carts selling everything from bhajjis to biryani.

The rise in price is across the board from restaurants inside malls to standalone cafes and restaurants. At the newly-opened Lakeshore Mall, a vegetarian north-Indian thali’s price has gone up from ₹325 to ₹399 in a span of four months.

The price of a commercial 19 kg LPG cylinder in Hyderabad is currently ₹2,985 after a reduction of ₹209 at the beginning of August. The same gas cylinder was priced at ₹1,742 on January 1, showing a price jump of 71%. Added to this is the factor that a majority of small and medium food businesses rely on private parties to supply the LPG cylinders, who add their own share to the high price.

“The food prices are up everywhere, and it makes it really difficult for those with student-sized pocket money to not only go out, but even to eat at home, because even the prices of groceries have increased, so we are buying ready to eat meals like cup noodles or bread, which would use less gas, rather than proper meals with rice, dal, etc,” said a student preparing for the Telangana Group-1 exam at S.R. Nagar.

The anecdotal accounts are backed by statistics released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. According to MOSPI’s the All India Consumer Price Index data, Telangana recorded the highest inflation in the country at 6.32%, while the national average is 4.45% year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) with base year 2024 for the month of July 2026 over July 2025.

Nationally, the year-on-year inflation rate based on the All India Consumer Food Price Index for the month of July this year, compared to July 2025 is 5.52%.