The Indian Number System — Lakh, Crore, Arab & Kharab
The Indian scale advances every two digits after a thousand. Lakh at 10⁵, crore at 10⁷, arab at 10⁹, kharab at 10¹¹ — where the international scale advances every three, at thousand, million, billion and trillion. Same numbers, different grouping.
How the scale is built
Up to a thousand, the Indian and international systems are identical. After that they part company. The international system takes a new name every three digits — thousand, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion. The Indian system takes one every two — lakh at 10⁵, crore at 10⁷, arab at 10⁹, kharab at 10¹¹, then neel, padma and shankh.
Because the units advance in twos, the commas do too. An Indian figure marks off the last three digits, then works leftwards in pairs: 1,00,00,000. Each comma sits exactly where a unit name begins, so a reader can name the groups straight off the page — one crore, zero lakh, zero thousand.
The two scales meet cleanly at 10⁹, where 1 billion and 1 arab are the same number, and again at 10¹², where 1 trillion is exactly 1 lakh crore. Those two equalities are the ones worth memorising; everything else follows from them.
The anchors worth memorising
| 1 lakh | 1,00,000 — 100 thousand |
| 1 million | 10,00,000 — 10 lakh |
| 1 crore | 1,00,00,000 — 10 million |
| 1 billion | 1,00,00,00,000 — 100 crore, or 1 arab |
| 1 trillion | 10,00,00,00,00,000 — 1 lakh crore |
| 10 crore | 100 million — the point where the two scales cross |
Where usage diverges
India and Pakistan share the scale but not the habit. Indian English effectively stops at crore: a ₹48 trillion budget is reported as "48 lakh crore" rather than climbing to kharab. Urdu-language and Pakistani media keep going, using arab and kharab in ordinary news copy.
This is why a conversion can be arithmetically right and still read wrong. 4,00,00,00,000 is exactly 4 arab, but an Indian audience expects "400 crore", and a Pakistani one expects "4 arab". Both are the same number.
The written-out forms diverge too. In the Indian reading 10,00,000 is Ten Lakh; internationally the identical figure is One Million. Neither is a translation of the other — they are two different groupings of the same digits.
Answers to the common questions
The full scale
| Indian unit | Digits | Power | International |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thousand | 1,000 | 10³ | 1 Thousand |
| Lakh | 1,00,000 | 10⁵ | 100 Thousand |
| Crore | 1,00,00,000 | 10⁷ | 10 Million |
| Arab | 1,00,00,00,000 | 10⁹ | 1 Billion |
| Kharab | 1,00,00,00,00,000 | 10¹¹ | 100 Billion |
| Neel | 1,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 10¹³ | 10 Trillion |
| Padma | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 10¹⁵ | 1 Quadrillion |
| Shankh | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 10¹⁷ | 100 Quadrillion |
Convert any amount
Indian system
International system
Frequently asked questions
What comes after crore in the Indian number system?
Arab (10⁹), then kharab (10¹¹), neel (10¹³), padma (10¹⁵) and shankh (10¹⁷). Each is a hundred times the one before it. Indian English usually stops at crore and expresses larger figures as "lakh crore" instead.
Is a billion the same as an arab?
Yes, exactly — both are 10⁹, or 100 crore. It is the cleanest crossover point between the two systems, which is why large conversions are often easiest routed through it.
Why is a lakh written 1,00,000 and not 100,000?
Because the commas follow the units. The Indian scale names a unit every two digits above a thousand, so after the first three-digit group the commas fall in pairs. Both forms are the same number; only the punctuation differs.
Do Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal use the same units?
Yes. Lakh and crore are standard across South Asia with identical values. Usage above crore differs — arab and kharab remain common in Urdu, while Indian English prefers to keep counting in crore.
Is there an official standard for this?
The Indian numbering system is the everyday convention rather than a legislated standard, but it is used consistently by the Reserve Bank of India, the Union Budget, company filings and the press. International reporting on the same figures converts to million and billion.