Indian Money

Page First Created: September 21,2003
Page Last Updated: September 07,2008

The official Indian currency is Rupee  (a.k.a. Rupaya, Ruppai), the name derived from its silver coin predecessor.

A Rupee is divided into 100 parts, each of which called a Paise.

Rupee today is a weak currency worth about two US cents (year 2003). So a Paise has become such a small currency that it costs the economy huge amounts of money and effort to keep track of it.

Paise is sometimes referred to as Naya-Paise, meaning the "new-money", a habit continued from when India became free from British -- when the new county introduced new currency, people used Naya-Paise to distinguish it from the old currency.

Because of the smallness of the Rupee, it is very common to hear the word Lakh of Rupees in India, which mean 100,000 Rupees. A Crore of Rupees indicates one hundred Lakhs or ten million Rupees.

In post-independence days, another unit of currency, namely the Ana  was prevalent. An Ana was equivalent of six Naya-Paise, and it was common to approximate a Quarter (25 Paise) to four Anas and Half-of-a-Rupee to eight Anas.

See Also:

• Indian Coins and Currencies - Table of Contents