Concept 2 of 7
The Indian System: Lakhs & Crores
Today's big idea
Indian grouping runs 2-2-3 from the right: ones, thousands, lakhs, then crores.
First comma sits after three digits, then every two, which is the usual slip.
How it works
👀 What's going on?
Indian numbers are punctuated differently from the ones you meet online. That is not carelessness on anybody's part, it is a genuinely different grouping, and mixing the two is where the errors come from.
💡 Here's the trick
Look at the number above. Counting from the right, the Indian system takes three digits first, then two, then two, then two. Those groups are ones, thousands, lakhs and crores. The commas are what make a long number readable at a glance.
🪄 How to do it
- 1.Start at the right of the number above and mark off three digits.
- 2.Mark off two digits at a time after that, as far as the number goes.
- 3.Name the groups outwards: thousands, then lakhs, then crores.
✍️ Try it
Put the Indian commas into 40567823. Then read 2,60,04,015 aloud.
Three from the right gives 823, then twos give 67, 05 and 4, so it is 4,05,67,823. The second reads as two crore sixty lakh four thousand and fifteen.
⚠️ Watch out
You might be thinking the commas fall every two digits throughout. The first one does not. It comes after three digits, and only then do they settle into twos, which is why 40567823 is not 4,05,67,8,23.
🌟 Why this matters
Every price, population figure and news headline in India is written this way. Reading it fluently is ordinary literacy rather than a maths skill.
Exam tip: Papers switch between the two systems deliberately, so check the commas before trusting a number.
Watch me solve one
Quanta solves it
“Watch how I think through one of these — then you try.”
THE PROBLEM
“Write 50,000,000 in the Indian system.”
- 1
Read the international form
50,000,000 = fifty million. 🇮🇳
- 2
Convert to lakhs/crores
1 million = 10 lakh, so 50 million = 500 lakh = 5 crore.
- 3
Place Indian commas
Ones (3 digits) · Thousands (2) · Lakhs (2) · Crores (left over).
- 4
Indian form ✓
50,000,000 = 5,00,00,000
Now you try one — same steps, different story 👇
See it in action
⚡ Time to play!
Tap the gaps to drop commas. Indian system: 3 digits for ones, then groups of 2.
PLACE COMMAS · ROUND 1 OF 3
Tap the dots to add commas.
Quick check
✅ VERIFICATION
How many zeros follow the 1 in one crore?
⚡ Finish the activity above first to answer.
Keep going!
Up next: The International System
Periods of 3, thousand, million, billion.