What is a Crorepati?
The word “crorepati” is made up of two different words – “crore” and “pati.”
Where “crore" is the Indian Numbering System for 10 million, “pati” refers to the master or guard.
So the idea of "crorepati" kicks in when a person is the master of ten millions.
A crorepati is a person who lives in a family whose net worth exceeds ten million units of the local currency (Rupees in India). According to the data from the Income Tax Department, as many as 97,689 showed income above Rs 1 Crore in assessment year 2018-19.
Lakhpati
Like Crorepati, the word Lakhpati also has a unique inference. It is also a combination of two words – “lakh” and “pati.” Where “lakh” is the Indian Numbering System for a hundred thousand, “pati” refers to the master or guard.
The relation between a crore and lakh can be mentioned as, “One tenth of a crore is ten lakh.”
Indian Numbering System
In the southwest Asian numbering system the word "thousand" gets retired at 99,999 and from there on the counting starts by 100,000s. However, lakhs do not exist in the west.
Interestingly, not only the Indian numbering system has different names for the units, the application of commas also varies from international numbering system. Here is a pictorial representation of the same:
| British/American | Notation | Indian | Notation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ten | 10 | Ten | 10 |
| Hundred | 100 | Hundred | 100 |
| Thousand | 1,000 | Thousand | 1,000 |
| Ten thousand | 10,000 | Ten thousand | 10,000 |
| Hundred Thousand | 100,000 | Lakh | 1,00,000 |
| Million | 1,000,000 | Ten Lakh | 10,00,000 |
| Ten Million | 10,000,000 | Crore | 1,00,00,000 |
| Hundred Million | 100,000,000 | Ten Crore | 10,00,00,000 |