Indian numbering system

The Indian numbering system, used today in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar (Burma), is based on grouping by two decimal places, rather than the three decimal places commonplace in most parts of the world. This system of measurement introduces separators into numbers in places appropriate to the two-digit grouping. For example, 30 million (3 crore) rupees would be written as Rs.3,00,00,000, with commas at the thousand, lakh, and crore levels, instead of Rs.30,000,000.

The terms "crore" and "lakh" are in widespread use today in Indian English.

The table below follows the short scale usage of billion being a thousand million. In India, following British usage, the long scale was used, with one billion equivalent to a million million.

The higher numbers listed above "arawb" are not commonly used, though "padma" and "kharawb" are sometimes used in Hindi. "Neel", "Padma", "Shankh" are more commonly found in old sections of Indian Mathematics.

Instead of saying the higher numbers, it is more common to use "lakh" and "crore" repeatedly or in combination, saying "1 lakh crore" for 10¹² or one trillion.

In Mumbai (Bombay), "khokha" is underworld slang for a crore and "peti" is slang for a lakh.Fact|date=August 2008

The term "crore" (کرور [Korur] in Persian) was also used in Iran until recent decades, but with the meaning of 500,000.

In Sinhalese, a crore is called "kōţiya" (Sanskrit: कोटि / Koti), and a lakh is called "lakshaya" (Sanskrit: लक्ष / Laksha) .

Lakh has entered the Swahili language as "laki" and is in common use.

ee also

* Traditional number system
* Indian numerals