What it means
Indian notation also groups digits differently. After the first three digits, commas come every two digits: 1,00,000 is one lakh, and 1,00,00,000 is one crore. One crore equals 100 lakh. One million equals 10 lakh. One billion equals 100 crore.
Common conversions: 5 lakh is 500,000. 25 lakh is 2.5 million. 1.5 crore is 15 million. 1,000 crore is 10 billion.
How it applies in India
In Indian government documents, project costs are usually given in rupees crore (for example, "Rs 500 crore"), and traffic or registration figures in lakh or crore of vehicles. When you compare an Indian tender with an international one, convert carefully: a misplaced unit changes the value by a factor of ten or a hundred.