The women who stayed

Since 2000-01, rural men have been leaving farm work for building sites, factories and shops. Most rural women who work are still in agriculture.

From field to thali

What India grows and in which states, what the government buys from farmers, how support prices compare with everyday costs, and what India sells abroad and buys from abroad.

The 10-gram question

Ten grams of gold cost about 42 times as many rupees as in 1990. How much of that is gold getting dearer in dollars, how much the rupee getting cheaper, and how much the gap between the world price and Mumbai’s.

How do you measure a rupee?

A dollar costs more than twice as many rupees as in 2004, yet Indian goods cost buyers abroad about what they did then. Three ways to measure the rupee, and the question each one answers.

How households took over the bank loan book

Individuals owe ₹47 of every ₹100 banks have lent, up from ₹31 in 2015, and private companies ₹27, down from ₹40. Individuals’ loan accounts tripled while the average loan, after prices, did not grow.

The ₹2 lakh line

Nearly two in every three bank loans have a limit of ₹2 lakh or less. They hold ₹6 of every ₹100 banks have lent, carry the highest rates in the banks’ books, and there are about 4 crore fewer of them at banks than at the end of 2024.

What got cheaper

Of the 697 goods in India’s wholesale price index, 33 cost less in 2025-26 than in 2011-12 and 103 cost at least twice as much. Solar power systems fell by more than half, and jasmine costs six times what it did.

What ₹1 lakh could buy

One sum, carried from 2001 to 2026: what it bought each year in gold, silver, a mason’s days, dollars and wheat, and what it is worth today.

The phone pays, but the cash stays

UPI payments grew 19.4 times between November 2019 and July 2026. Over the ten years to March 2026, currency in circulation grew 2.5 times.

Money in, money out

Indians abroad sent home $135.4 billion in 2024-25 and keep $165.7 billion in Indian banks; in 2023-24 they sent 1.67 times what foreign companies invested. Indians at home sent $29.6 billion abroad, more than half of it for travel.

Beyond UPI: everything else India pays with

In 2025-26 an RTGS payment averaged ₹65.0 lakh, a cheque ₹1.28 lakh and a UPI payment ₹1,301. RTGS carried 68.4% of all payment value in 0.12% of payments; cheques peaked at 146.1 crore in 2007-08.

What India owes the world

In 1991 India pledged its gold to borrow abroad. Its reserves now cover most of what it owes, but what it pays for foreign money has doubled since 2011-12.