Hacker News Reader

Comment by xxpor | Hacker News Reader

Random language usage question: in India, if someone is referred to as a billionaire, would that be in terms of rupees or dollars? (1 billion INR is ~13.3 million USD)

Or does it essentially never come up because a typical Indian would use lakh/crore instead? Is there's something like a "lakh croreaire"?

View on HN

Indians use "crorepati" for someone with a crore rupees. Interestingly, the Indian equivalent of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" is "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (who will become a crorepati).

As for millionaire/billionaire, imo it's hard to tell but on HN I would infer USD. (Amitabh Bachchan's net worth is ~$400M based on a quick search.)

> the Indian equivalent of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" is "Kaun Banega Crorepati"

The North Indian equivalent is called so. Atleast, In TN we have our own version of the show, based on the same "Crore" denomination but not thus called.

What is this fetish by some people to always label things "North Indian"? It is a national show on a national television where the participants are from all around India (from Ladakh to Tamil Nadu, Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh).

> Or does it essentially never come up because a typical Indian would use lakh/crore instead?

Exactly. USD is almost always implied when million/billion is used

Yeah, for millionaire/billionaire the definition shifts to the western one. Mukesh was/is also top 10 richest globally I believe.

If you see a billion being used it is usually the Western style. So when you say someone is a billionaire it is in USD. If you want an Indian take on it, it would be: Lakhpati and Crorepati.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com