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The wholesale price index, India's main gauge of inflation, edged up a faster-than-expected 6.95 percent from a year earlier in February after a spike in vegetable prices fanned food inflation. Wholesale prices had risen an annual 6.55 percent in January, the slowest in 26 months. Basu was addressing the media after India's 2012/13 budget was presented in parliament. The Indian government played it safe in unveiling its 2012/13 budget, pledging reforms but setting only modest targets for trimming a ballooning fiscal deficit, disappointing bond market investors.