Indian numbering system

The Indian numbering system is used in India as well as in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is based on the Vedic numbering system in which numbers over 9,999 are written in two-digit groups (or a mix of two- and three-digit groups) rather than the three-digit groups used in most other parts of the world. In Pakistan, this system is used in Urdu and other regional language media, but not in English-language media.

The terms lakh (100,000 or 1,00,000 in the Indian system) and crore (10,000,000 or 1,00,00,000 in the Indian system) are used in Indian English to express large numbers. For example, in India 150,000 rupees becomes 1.5 lakh rupees, written as ₹1,50,000 or INR 1,50,000, while 30,000,000 (thirty million) rupees becomes 3 crore rupees, written as ₹3,00,00,000 with commas at the thousand, lakh, and crore levels, and 1,000,000,000 (one billion) rupees (one hundred crore rupees) is written ₹1,00,00,00,000.

Use of separators

The Indian numbering system uses separators differently from the international norm; in such numbers of at least one lakh (one hundred thousand), a comma divides every two rather than every three digits, thus:

Numbering scheme

There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key of a database management system table, whose table definitions require a database design.

The simplest numbering scheme is simply to assign cardinal numbers to entities. In some cases (such as computing, time-telling, and in some countries the numbering of floors in buildings) zero-based numbering is used, where the first entity is assigned "zero" instead of "one".

Other numbering schemes are listed by field below.

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