Key Terms, Decoded.
231 terms the articles and the indicator board lean on, from basis points to the yield curve, each explained the way a friend would explain it and tied to a real Indian example.
A
4 termsAnchor Investor
Big institutions that commit to buy IPO shares a day before it opens.
Read→Anti-Dumping Duty
An extra tariff on imports sold below fair price to grab market share.
Read→Asset Allocation
How you split money between shares, bonds, gold and cash.
Read→Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
How much a typical customer pays a company each month.
Read→B
11 termsBalance of Payments
The complete record of money flowing in and out of a country.
Read→Base Effect
When this year’s number looks dramatic only because last year’s was unusual.
Read→Base Year
The reference year a statistic is measured against.
Read→Basis Point
One hundredth of a percentage point. How central banks talk about small moves.
Read→Bear Market
When prices keep falling and everyone remembers risk exists.
Read→Blue-Chip Stock
A large, well-established, financially sound company.
Read→Bond
A loan you give to a government or company, which pays you interest.
Read→Bond Yield
What a bond actually pays you, and why it moves opposite to its price.
Read→BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange)
Asia’s oldest stock exchange, home of the Sensex.
Read→Buffer Stock
Grain the government stores to steady prices and feed the poor in bad years.
Read→Bull Market
When prices keep rising and everyone starts feeling like a genius.
Read→C
20 termsCapital Expenditure (Capex)
Spending on long-lasting assets like roads, railways and factories.
Read→Capital Gains Tax
Tax on the profit you make when you sell an investment.
Read→Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR)
The share of deposits banks must keep with the RBI, earning nothing.
Read→Chokepoint
A narrow passage that a large share of global trade must pass through.
Read→Circuit Breaker
An automatic pause in trading when prices move too far, too fast.
Read→Collateral
Something valuable a borrower pledges, which the lender can take if the loan isn’t repaid.
Read→Commodity
A basic good that is the same no matter who produces it.
Read→Comparative Advantage
Being relatively better at making something than your trading partners.
Read→Competition
Businesses rivalling each other for customers, which pushes prices down and quality up.
Read→Compound Interest
Interest that earns interest. The most powerful idea in personal finance.
Read→Consumption
Spending by households on goods and services. The biggest engine of India’s economy.
Read→Core Inflation
Inflation with the volatile bits, food and fuel, taken out.
Read→CPI Weights
How much each item counts in the inflation number.
Read→Credit Card
A short-term loan in your pocket, interest-free if you pay in full on time.
Read→Credit Rating
A grade for how likely a borrower is to repay.
Read→Credit Score
A three-digit number that tells lenders how reliably you repay.
Read→Cryptocurrency
Digital tokens recorded on blockchains, like Bitcoin. Highly volatile.
Read→Currency Intervention
A central bank buying or selling currencies to influence the exchange rate.
Read→Currency Swap
Exchanging currencies now and agreeing to swap them back later.
Read→Current Account Deficit
When a country pays the world more than it earns from it, mainly through trade.
Read→D
18 termsDebt Fund
A mutual fund that invests in bonds and other fixed-income securities.
Read→Debt-to-GDP Ratio
How much a government owes compared with the size of its economy.
Read→Default
When a borrower fails to make a promised payment.
Read→Deflation
When prices fall across the economy, not just for a few items.
Read→Demat Account
The digital locker where your shares actually live.
Read→Demographic Dividend
The growth boost a country gets when most of its people are of working age.
Read→Deposit Insurance
Government-backed protection for bank deposits, up to ₹5 lakh.
Read→Depository (NSDL and CDSL)
The institution that actually holds your shares electronically.
Read→Derivatives
Contracts whose value depends on something else, like an index or a share.
Read→Digital Rupee (e₹)
Cash, issued by the RBI, but in digital form.
Read→Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)
Sending subsidies straight into beneficiaries’ bank accounts.
Read→Direct Tax
A tax paid directly to the government on income or profits.
Read→Diversification
Not putting all your money on one horse, even when that horse looks great today.
Read→Dividend
A share of profits a company pays out to its shareholders.
Read→Dollar Index (DXY)
A measure of the US dollar’s strength against major currencies.
Read→Domestic Institutional Investor (DII)
Indian mutual funds, insurers and pension funds that invest in the market.
Read→DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus)
The first detailed document a company files with SEBI before an IPO.
Read→Duopoly
A market dominated by just two companies.
Read→E
11 termsEarnings Per Share (EPS)
A company’s profit divided by its number of shares.
Read→Economic Survey
The government’s annual report card on the economy, released just before the Budget.
Read→Economies of Scale
Why making more of something often makes each unit cheaper.
Read→El Niño
A Pacific Ocean warming that often weakens India’s monsoon.
Read→Emergency Fund
Money set aside for surprises, so you never have to borrow in a crisis.
Read→EMI (Equated Monthly Instalment)
The fixed monthly payment on a loan, mixing interest and repayment.
Read→Essential Commodities Act
A 1955 law that lets the government control supply and prices of vital goods.
Read→ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund)
A fund that trades on the stock exchange like a share.
Read→Exchange Rate
The price of one currency in terms of another.
Read→Expense Ratio
The annual fee a mutual fund charges, as a share of your money.
Read→Export
Goods and services sold to buyers in other countries.
Read→F
13 termsFederal Reserve (the Fed)
America’s central bank. Its decisions move money, currencies and markets worldwide.
Read→Fiscal Deficit
What happens when the government spends more than it collects, and how it covers the gap.
Read→Fiscal Federalism
How taxes and spending are shared between the Centre and the states.
Read→Fiscal Policy
How the government uses taxes and spending to steer the economy.
Read→Fitment Factor
The multiplier a pay commission applies to old pay to set new pay.
Read→Fixed Deposit (FD)
Money locked with a bank for a set time at a guaranteed rate.
Read→Food Inflation
How fast the cost of the family’s food basket is rising.
Read→Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
Foreign companies building or buying businesses in India for the long term.
Read→Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI)
Foreign money buying Indian shares and bonds. Fast to arrive, fast to leave.
Read→Forex Reserves
The RBI’s stockpile of foreign currency and gold, used to defend the rupee.
Read→Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
A deal between countries to cut tariffs on each other’s goods.
Read→Fresh Issue
New shares created in an IPO, with the money going to the company.
Read→Futures
An agreement to buy or sell something at a set price on a future date.
Read→G
13 termsGDP
The total value of everything a country produces in a year. The economy’s scoreboard.
Read→GDP Deflator
The broadest measure of inflation, covering everything the economy produces.
Read→Gig Economy
Work done task by task through apps, rather than as a regular job.
Read→Global Capability Centre (GCC)
An office in India owned by a foreign company to do its own tech, analytics and operations work.
Read→Gold
Half investment, half tradition, and priced differently in India than anywhere else.
Read→Gold ETF
A way to own gold through your demat account, without holding the metal.
Read→Government Securities (G-Secs)
IOUs the government sells to borrow money. The safest loan in the country.
Read→Gratuity
A lump sum employers pay for long service when you leave.
Read→Grey Market Premium (GMP)
An unofficial guess at how much an IPO will list above its issue price.
Read→Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)
The total value of goods sold through a platform, before its own cut.
Read→Gross Value Added (GVA)
Economic output measured by sector, before taxes and subsidies.
Read→GST (Goods and Services Tax)
A single tax on most goods and services, shared between the Centre and states.
Read→GST Council
The body of central and state finance ministers that sets GST rates.
Read→H
4 termsH-1B Visa
The US work visa for skilled foreign professionals, mostly in technology.
Read→Health Insurance
Cover that pays hospital bills so a medical emergency doesn’t wipe out savings.
Read→Hedging
Taking a position that offsets a risk you already have.
Read→Household Consumption Survey
A nationwide survey of what Indian families actually spend money on.
Read→I
11 termsImport Bill
The total amount a country spends buying goods from abroad.
Read→Import Duty
A tax charged on goods brought into the country.
Read→Income Tax
The tax on what individuals earn, collected at rising rates.
Read→Index Fund
A fund that simply copies a market index, like the Nifty 50.
Read→Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
A monthly measure of how much factories, mines and power plants are producing.
Read→India VIX
The market’s fear gauge.
Read→Indirect Tax
A tax built into the price of what you buy, paid by everyone at the same rate.
Read→Inflation (CPI)
Why the same snack costs more this year than last year.
Read→Informal Economy
Work and businesses outside formal registration, contracts and social security.
Read→Interest Rate
The cost of borrowing money, or the reward for saving it. The same number does both jobs.
Read→IPO
How a private company sells a piece of itself to anyone with a demat account.
Read→K
2 termsL
7 termsLabour Codes
Four laws that replaced 29 older labour laws in November 2025.
Read→Labour Force Participation Rate
The share of working-age people who are working or looking for work.
Read→Large-Cap
India’s biggest listed companies by market value.
Read→Leverage
Using borrowed money, or a small deposit, to control a bigger position.
Read→Liquidity
How easily money, or an asset, can be turned into spendable cash.
Read→Listing Gains
The profit from an IPO share’s first-day jump above its issue price.
Read→Lot Size
The minimum number of shares you can bid for in an IPO, or trade in a derivative contract.
Read→M
16 termsMargin
The deposit a trader must put down to open a leveraged position.
Read→Marginal Standing Facility (MSF)
The RBI’s emergency overnight loan window for banks. The ceiling of the rate corridor.
Read→Market Breadth
Whether most stocks are rising with the index, or only a few.
Read→Market Capitalisation
What the stock market thinks an entire company is worth, right now.
Read→Market Correction
A fall of about 10% from a recent peak.
Read→Market Share
The slice of an industry’s sales that one company captures.
Read→MGNREGA
The 2005 law that guaranteed rural households 100 days of paid work. Replaced in 2025.
Read→Mid-Cap
Companies ranked 101st to 250th by market value.
Read→Minimum Support Price (MSP)
A guaranteed price at which the government buys certain crops from farmers.
Read→Monetary Policy
How the RBI steers the economy using interest rates instead of laws.
Read→Monopoly
A market with only one seller, who can set the price.
Read→Monsoon
The June–September rains that water roughly half of India’s farmland.
Read→Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) Tariff
The standard tariff a country charges all WTO members equally.
Read→Muhurat Trading
A one-hour trading session held on Diwali to mark the new financial year.
Read→Multiplier Effect
When one rupee of spending becomes several rupees of income across the economy.
Read→Mutual Fund
A pool of money from many investors, managed by professionals.
Read→N
11 termsNAV (Net Asset Value)
The price of one unit of a mutual fund.
Read→NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company)
A lender that is not a bank. It can lend, but cannot run your savings account.
Read→NEFT, RTGS and IMPS
The three older ways banks move money between accounts.
Read→Net Worth
Everything you own minus everything you owe.
Read→Nifty 50
India’s 50 largest listed companies, tracked as one number.
Read→Nifty Bank
An index of India’s largest listed banks.
Read→Nominal GDP
The size of the economy at today’s prices, before removing inflation.
Read→Non-Performing Asset (NPA)
A loan that has stopped being repaid. A bank’s bad debt.
Read→Non-Tariff Barrier
Anything other than a tax that makes importing harder.
Read→NPS (National Pension System)
A government-regulated retirement scheme that invests in shares and bonds.
Read→NSE (National Stock Exchange)
India’s largest stock exchange by trading volume, home of the Nifty.
Read→O
7 termsOffer for Sale (OFS)
Existing shareholders selling their shares in an IPO. The company gets nothing.
Read→Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs)
The companies that sell petrol, diesel and LPG to Indian consumers.
Read→Open Market Operations
The RBI buying or selling government bonds to add or drain cash from banks.
Read→Opportunity Cost
The value of the best thing you gave up to do something else.
Read→Options
The right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell at a set price.
Read→Outsourcing
Hiring another company to do work you could do yourself.
Read→Oversubscription
When investors bid for more shares than an IPO is offering.
Read→P
15 termsP/E Ratio
How many years of current profits you are paying for when you buy a share.
Read→Pass-Through
How much of a cost increase a business passes on to its customers.
Read→Pay Commission
A committee that recommends salaries and pensions for central government staff.
Read→Pension
Regular income paid after retirement.
Read→Per Capita Income
National income divided by population. The average income per person.
Read→Policy Stance
The RBI’s hint about which way rates are likely to move next.
Read→Ponzi Scheme
A fraud that pays old investors with new investors’ money.
Read→Portfolio
Everything you own as investments, taken together.
Read→PPF (Public Provident Fund)
A government-backed 15-year savings scheme with tax-free returns.
Read→Price Band
The range of prices within which investors can bid for an IPO.
Read→Production-Linked Incentive (PLI)
Government payments to companies for every extra unit they make in India.
Read→Profit Margin
How much of each rupee of sales a company keeps as profit.
Read→Provident Fund (EPF)
A retirement savings account funded by you and your employer every month.
Read→Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)
A monthly survey of business managers. Above 50 means growth.
Read→Purchasing Power
How much your money can actually buy.
Read→Q
3 termsQualified Institutional Buyer (QIB)
Large professional investors such as mutual funds, banks and foreign funds.
Read→Quick Commerce
Grocery and essentials delivered in ten to thirty minutes.
Read→Quota
A limit on how much of a good can be imported, or imported cheaply.
Read→R
17 termsRabi Crops
Crops sown after the monsoon and harvested in spring.
Read→Real Interest Rate
The interest you earn after inflation has taken its share.
Read→Real Wage
Your pay after adjusting for inflation. What your salary actually buys.
Read→Recession
A significant, sustained fall in economic activity.
Read→Reciprocal Tariff
A tariff set to match, or punish, another country’s trade barriers.
Read→Regulation
Rules set by government bodies that businesses must follow.
Read→Remittances
Money sent home by people working abroad.
Read→Repo Rate
The rate the RBI charges banks. Move it, and every loan in the country feels it.
Read→Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
India’s central bank. It sets interest rates, manages the rupee and regulates banks.
Read→Reserve Currency
A currency held in large amounts by central banks worldwide. Mostly the dollar.
Read→Revenue Deficit
When the government’s day-to-day spending exceeds its income.
Read→Reverse Flipping
When a startup moves its legal home back to India from abroad.
Read→Risk Premium
The extra return investors demand for taking on extra risk.
Read→Rule of 72
A shortcut to work out how fast money doubles.
Read→Rupee Cost Averaging
Buying more units when prices are low, fewer when high, by investing the same amount regularly.
Read→Rupee Depreciation
When the rupee loses value against other currencies.
Read→Rural Economy
Farming, small enterprise and spending in India’s villages, home to most Indians.
Read→S
27 termsSafe Haven
An asset people rush to when markets get scary.
Read→Sanctions
Penalties one country imposes on another to change its behaviour.
Read→Savings Account
An everyday bank account that pays a little interest and lets you withdraw any time.
Read→SEBI
The regulator that writes the rules for India’s securities markets.
Read→Securities Transaction Tax (STT)
A small tax charged every time shares or derivatives are traded.
Read→Sensex
The BSE’s own 30-company index, and the Nifty’s older cousin.
Read→Services Sector
Everything the economy produces that you cannot drop on your foot.
Read→Share Buyback
A company buying back its own shares from investors.
Read→Short Selling
Betting that a share price will fall, by selling shares you don’t yet own.
Read→Silver
A precious metal that is also an industrial workhorse.
Read→SIP (Systematic Investment Plan)
Investing a fixed amount in a mutual fund every month, automatically.
Read→Small-Cap
Smaller listed companies, ranked 251st and below by market value.
Read→Social Safety Net
Programmes that stop people falling into destitution when things go wrong.
Read→Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB)
Government bonds linked to gold, which also paid interest.
Read→Stagflation
Slow growth and high inflation at the same time. A central banker’s nightmare.
Read→Standing Deposit Facility (SDF)
Where banks park spare cash with the RBI overnight. The floor of the rate corridor.
Read→Startup
A young company built to grow fast, usually funded by investors before it makes a profit.
Read→Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)
The share of deposits banks must hold in safe, liquid assets like government bonds.
Read→Stock (Share)
A small slice of ownership in a company.
Read→Stock Exchange
The marketplace where shares of listed companies are bought and sold.
Read→Stock Split
Dividing each share into several cheaper ones. Nothing real changes.
Read→Stockbroker
The firm that places your buy and sell orders on the exchange.
Read→Strategic Reserve
An emergency stockpile of something vital, held by the government.
Read→Subsidy
Government money that makes something cheaper than its real cost.
Read→Supply and Demand
The basic tug-of-war that sets almost every price.
Read→Supply Chain
Every step that turns raw materials into a product in your hands.
Read→Supply Shock
A sudden drop in the supply of something important, pushing its price up.
Read→T
11 termsTake-Home Pay
The salary that actually lands in your bank account each month.
Read→Tariff
A tax on imports, often used as a weapon in trade negotiations.
Read→Tax Regime (New vs Old)
India’s two income tax systems: lower rates with few deductions, or higher rates with many.
Read→Tax Slab
An income band taxed at a particular rate.
Read→Tax Year
The twelve months in which income is earned and taxed. Replaced “assessment year” in 2026.
Read→TDS (Tax Deducted at Source)
Tax taken out of a payment before it reaches you.
Read→Term Insurance
Pure life insurance: a large payout if you die, nothing if you don’t.
Read→Terms of Trade
How much a country’s exports can buy in imports.
Read→The 50-30-20 Budget
Half for needs, 30% for wants, 20% for savings. A simple starting rule.
Read→Trade Deficit
When a country imports more goods than it exports.
Read→Treasury Bill (T-Bill)
A short-term government IOU, repaid in a year or less.
Read→U
5 termsUnemployment Rate
The share of people who want a job and cannot find one, which is trickier to measure than it sounds.
Read→Unicorn
A privately held startup valued at $1 billion or more.
Read→Union Budget
The government’s annual plan for what it will earn, spend and borrow.
Read→Unit Economics
Whether a business makes or loses money on each sale.
Read→UPI (Unified Payments Interface)
India’s instant phone-to-phone payment system. Free, fast and everywhere.
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