Money Matters in India
The currency in India is the Indian rupee (रुपया rupaya in Hindi and similarly named in most Indian languages, but taka in Bengali and Assamese). It trades around 50 rupees to the US dollar, 70 to pound sterling and 65 rupees to the Euro. The Rupee is subdivided into 100 paise (singular: paisa). 5 rupees 75 paise would normally be written as Rs.5.75 and one rupee as Re.1. Common bills come in denominations of Rs. 5 (green), Rs. 10 (orange), Rs. 20 (red), Rs. 50 (purple), Rs. 100 (blue), Rs. 500 (yellow) and Rs. 1,000 (pink). It is always good to have a number of small bills on hand, as merchants and drivers sometimes don't have change. A useful technique is to keep small bills (Rs. 10 - 50) in your wallet or in a pocket, and to keep larger bills separate. In this way you won't be making obvious the amount of money you have available. In many cases merchants will claim that they don't have change for a Rs. 100 or Rs. 500 note. This is often a lie, as they simply don't want to be stuck with a large bill. Rather than giving up your last 6 ten-rupee notes, it is better to make them give you change.
The coins in circulation are 50 paise, Re. 1, Rs. 2 and Rs. 5. Coins are useful for buying tea (Rs. 5), for bus fare (Rs. 2 to Rs. 10), and for giving exact change for an auto-rickshaw.
Indians commonly use lakh and crore for "hundred thousand" and "10 million" respectively. Though these terms come from Sanskrit, they have been adopted so deeply into Indian English that most people are not aware that it is not standard in other English dialects. You may also find non-standard placement of commas while writing numerals. Rupees One crore would be written as Rs. 1,00,00,000. This format may puzzle you till you start thinking in terms of lakhs and crores, after which it will seem natural.
Changing money The Indian rupee is not officially convertible, and a few government-run shops will still insist on seeing official exchange receipts if you're visibly a foreigner and attempt to pay in rupees instead of hard currency. Rates for exchanging rupees overseas are often poor and importing rupees is theoretically illegal, although places with significant Indian populations (eg. Dubai, Singapore) can give decent rates. Try to get rid of any spare rupees before you leave the country.
Outside airports you can change your currency at any one of the numerous foreign exchange conversion units including banks. Some of the more common foreign exchange merchants are Travelex and Thomas Cook .
In big cities, there are now ATMs where you can get rupees against your international debit or credit card (maximum amount is 25,000 - 50,000 rupees depending on the ATM). State Bank of India (SBI) is the biggest bank in India and has the most ATM's. ICICI bank has the second largest network of ATMs, and accepts most of the international cards at a nominal charge. International banks like Citibank, HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered etc. have significant presence in major Indian cities. It is always worthwhile to have bank cards or credit cards from at least two different providers, to ensure that you have a backup available in case one card is suspended by your bank, or simply doesn't work at a particular ATM.
In many cities and towns, credit cards are accepted at retail chain stores and other restaurants and stores. Small businesses and family-run stores almost never accept credit cards, so it is useful to keep a moderate amount of cash on hand.
Costs
In short, India is cheap, even for visitors from most other Asian countries. Rs. 500 ($10) is a perfectly sufficient daily budget for backpacker lodging, three square meals and local transport, although you'll probably want to double that for comforts like air-conditioning. At the other end of the spectrum you can sleep in fancy 5 star hotels, which can be well over $500/night in the major cities, and spend lots of money on Western food, shopping and nightlife.
In short, India is cheap, even for visitors from most other Asian countries. Rs. 500 ($10) is a perfectly sufficient daily budget for backpacker lodging, three square meals and local transport, although you'll probably want to double that for comforts like air-conditioning. At the other end of the spectrum you can sleep in fancy 5 star hotels, which can be well over $500/night in the major cities, and spend lots of money on Western food, shopping and nightlife.
