Kharab (Indian) to Billions (short Scale) (kharab to B)
1 kharab (Indian) equals 100 billions (short scale) exactly.
How to convert kharab (Indian) to billions (short scale)
To convert kharab (Indian) to billions (short scale), multiply the number of kharab (Indian) by 100. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply billions (short scale) by 0.01.
billions (short scale) = kharab (Indian) × 100
Example: 10 kharab (Indian) = 1,000 billions (short scale).
Large-number names differ around the world: this site uses the short scale (billion = 10⁹) by default, and lists the long-scale billion separately.
About these units
Kharab (Indian) (kharab)
One hundred arab (10¹¹).
Kharab sits two steps above the crore in the sequence of Indian number names, because it is a hundred arab, that is 10 to the eleventh power. Written in Indian digit grouping it is 1,00,00,00,00,000, with a three-digit group on the right and pairs of digits before that. In the Western short scale the same value is 100 billion.
The name is rarely heard in daily speech. Ordinary talk about money stops at lakh and crore, and the common stand-in for larger amounts is lakh crore, meaning 10 to the twelfth power, which Wikipedia says is used inconsistently. Kharab is chiefly seen in lists of the complete series, which continues with neel, padma and shankh at each hundredfold step.
Part of the reason for caution is that Sanskrit tradition has several competing name sets above koti. Shridhara and Bhaskara II give koti, arbuda, abja, kharva and nikharva, while the Valmiki Ramayana uses another set with different values. The kharab used here is the modern South Asian value, one hundred arab.
1 kharab (Indian) = 100,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Indian numbering system
Billion (short Scale) (B)
One thousand million (10⁹). The meaning used in the US, UK and most English-speaking countries today.
For decades British and American speakers meant different things by billion. The short-scale sense, a thousand million, took hold in the United States in the 19th century, while Britain kept the older meaning of a million million. From the 1950s the short scale spread through British technical writing and journalism, and Winston Churchill had remarked in 1941 that for practical financial purposes a billion was a thousand millions.
The official break came on December 20, 1974. Asked in Parliament whether ministers would be required to use the traditional British meaning, Prime Minister Harold Wilson answered no, explaining that billion was now used internationally for 1,000 million and that using it any other way would cause confusion. He conceded it could still be read as a million million and asked colleagues to avoid ambiguity. Today a billion is 10⁹, matching the SI prefix giga, and the UN projected that world population would reach 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
1 billion (short scale) = 1,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Hansard, 20 Dec 1974: Billion (Definition), written answer; Wikipedia: Billion; United Nations: Day of Eight Billion
Related conversions
- Billions (short scale) to kharab (Indian) (reverse)
- Kharab (Indian) to pieces
- Kharab (Indian) to dozens
- Kharab (Indian) to lakhs
- Kharab (Indian) to millions
- Kharab (Indian) to crores
- Pieces to billions (short scale)
- Dozens to billions (short scale)
- Lakhs to billions (short scale)
- Millions to billions (short scale)
- Crores to billions (short scale)
- Pairs to billions (short scale)
- Hundred to billions (short scale)
- Gross to billions (short scale)
- Thousand to billions (short scale)
- Trillions (short scale) to billions (short scale)
- Score to billions (short scale)
- Half dozens to billions (short scale)
See all counting & quantity units.