Finance in a minute

Governments collect money through taxes and other sources of revenue, but sometimes they want to spend more than they currently have. This difference is called a budget deficit, and one way governments cover it is by borrowing money. Governments can borrow to fund large projects such as roads, railways, schools and infrastructure. They may also borrow when tax revenue isn't enough to cover their planned spending. One common way governments borrow is by selling bonds. Investor

A ₹100 note might look simple at first, but it contains several features designed to make it easier to identify and harder to counterfeit. For example, Indian currency notes use features such as watermarks, security threads, colour-shifting elements and raised printing. Some of these can be seen, while others can be felt or checked more closely. The ₹100 note also has an interesting piece of Indian history on its reverse side: Rani ki Vav, the famous stepwell in Gujarat. It w

Investing is often presented as a way to build wealth, but that doesn't mean it is a quick way to get rich. Imagine you invest ₹10,000 and your investment earns 8% in a year. You would have around ₹10,800 — a ₹800 gain. That's useful, but it isn't going to make you a millionaire overnight. The bigger advantage of investing often comes from time. When your investment earns a return, those returns can stay invested and potentially earn returns of their own. Over many years, thi

You might see a headline saying “Stock markets crash” and wonder how thousands of companies can suddenly lose value at the same time. A market crash usually happens when investors become extremely worried about the future and many people start selling their investments at once. There can be many reasons for this. Investors might be worried about a recession, rising interest rates, political events, a financial crisis or companies earning much less than expected. Remember that

We usually think of interest in a simple way: you earn it when you save and pay it when you borrow. But what if interest rates went below zero? Some countries have actually experimented with negative interest rates. Under this system, certain banks could effectively be charged for keeping money with their central bank rather than earning interest on those reserves. Countries including Japan, Switzerland and several euro-area countries used negative policy rates at different p

A savings account is generally considered a low-risk place to keep your money. Your balance doesn't normally jump up and down like the price of a stock, and you can usually access your money when you need it. But there is another risk that is easy to overlook: inflation. Imagine you put ₹10,000 into a savings account and earn 3% interest. After a year, you would have ₹10,300. Sounds good, right? Now imagine that prices across the economy have risen by 6% during that same year

Imagine you really want to buy a ₹60,000 laptop, but you only have ₹20,000 saved. You could wait until you have enough money, or you could borrow the remaining amount and pay it back over time. That is the basic idea behind credit. Credit allows you to use money that you don't currently have, with an agreement to pay it back later. This can happen through things like credit cards, loans, or other forms of borrowing. So how does it work? When a bank or another lender gives you

Imagine you want to buy a ₹1 lakh laptop, but you don't have ₹1 lakh saved. Instead of waiting until you can afford it, you could take a loan from a bank and repay the money over time. That sounds simple, but borrowing ₹1 lakh does not usually mean paying back exactly ₹1 lakh. The lender charges interest, which is the cost of borrowing the money. So, what are you actually paying back? A loan usually has three important parts: Principal: the amount you originally borrowed. Int

Imagine two people apply for the same ₹5 lakh loan. Both have similar incomes, but one has a history of paying back borrowed money on time, while the other has repeatedly missed payments. A bank would probably feel more confident lending to the first person. That is where a credit score comes in. A credit score is a number that gives lenders an idea of how reliably someone has handled borrowed money in the past. It is based on information in their credit history, such as loan

Imagine you're out shopping and find a pair of shoes you really want. They cost ₹5,000, but you don't have ₹5,000 with you right now. With a credit card, you can make the purchase and pay the money back later. That sounds convenient, but a credit card isn't free money. It is a form of short-term borrowing. What happens when you use a credit card? When you make a purchase with a credit card, the card company pays the seller on your behalf. You then owe that amount to the card

We often hear people say that debt is bad. But borrowing money isn't automatically a bad financial decision. The real question is what you are borrowing for, how much you are borrowing, and whether you can afford to repay it. When can debt be useful? Some borrowing can help you achieve something that would be difficult to pay for upfront. Imagine someone takes an education loan to pay for a degree. They are taking on debt today with the expectation that the education will hel

Think about the last time you bought something you really liked. Maybe it was a meal, a movie ticket, or even your favourite chocolate. Now imagine going back a few years and finding out that the exact same thing used to cost less. Nothing about the product necessarily changed. Its price did. That is the basic idea behind inflation. Inflation is the rise in the prices of goods and services over time. When prices rise, the purchasing power of money falls, meaning the same amou

In the last article, we saw that inflation means prices rising over time. But why does a movie ticket, a packet of chips, or a taxi ride suddenly cost more than it used to? There isn’t one single answer. Prices can rise for several different reasons, and often, more than one is happening at the same time. When everyone wants the same thing Imagine a new pair of sneakers is released and thousands of people want them, but only a limited number are available. When there are more

Inflation is not just a number you hear on the news. It shows up in grocery bills, restaurant menus, school supplies, travel and almost everything else we spend money on. A little inflation can be a normal part of a growing economy. The problem starts when prices rise too quickly and people’s incomes and savings struggle to keep up. What happens to your money? Imagine you have ₹1,000 today. You could use it to buy a few meals, a pair of shoes, or save it for something you wan

We’ve seen that inflation can make everyday life more expensive, especially when prices start rising too quickly. But once prices are rising, can anything actually be done about it? The answer is yes, but there is no single switch that can simply turn inflation off. What can we do ourselves? Individuals cannot control inflation, but we can make smarter choices when prices are rising. For example, if your usual ₹500 grocery shop starts costing ₹600, you might compare prices, c

We often hear that the economy is growing, slowing down, or struggling. But what exactly is “the economy”? At its simplest, an economy is the huge network of people, businesses, banks and the government buying, selling, earning, saving and spending money. You can actually see this happening around you. It starts with people Imagine you get ₹2,000 as an allowance. You might spend ₹500 on food, ₹300 on a movie, and save the rest. That ₹800 you spend doesn't just disappear. It b

Financial scams are increasing not because people are careless, but because scammers have become very good at sounding convincing. They know how to create urgency, excitement, or fear, and that’s often enough to make someone act without thinking. The goal is to rush you into making a decision before you have time to question it. Common financial scams you should know about 1. The “You’ve won something” scam You receive a message saying you’ve won a prize, scholarship, cashbac

The world’s first stock exchange opened in Amsterdam in 1602 and it didn’t look anything like what we imagine today. At the time, global trade was risky and slow. Ships travelled for months to bring back spices, silk, and other goods. If a ship sank, investors could lose everything. Earlier, people funded these voyages individually, which meant one bad journey could wipe someone out. The Dutch East India Company solved this problem by creating a new idea. Instead of investing

Needing a lot of money to start investing is one of the most common beliefs about investing and also the most misleading. Many people believe that it is only the wealthy adults with large sums of money who are able to invest, but in reality investing is about habit, not how rich you are. Investing is like planting a seed. You don’t need a huge garden to start growing the tree. If the seed is planted early and taken care of regularly, it can grow into something meaningful ove

Financial planning sounds like something only adults do, but in reality, it’s something we all do in small ways already. Anytime you decide whether to spend, save, or set money aside for later, you’re planning out your financials. At its core, financial planning is about deciding what you want your money to do for you, both now and in the future. To understand it better, it helps to break it down into a few simple parts. Income Income is the money that comes in. For adults,