Financial Glossary
Plain-language definitions of 33 Indian personal finance, investing, and tax terms — each linked to the calculator you need to act on it.
Investing
CAGR — Compound Annual Growth Rate
CAGR is the average annual rate at which an investment grows over a period of years, assuming profits are reinvested each year. It smooths out year-to-year volatility into a single, comparable number.
ELSS — Equity Linked Savings Scheme
ELSS is a category of diversified equity mutual funds that qualifies for a tax deduction of up to ₹1.5 lakh under Section 80C of the old tax regime. It carries the shortest mandatory lock-in — just 3 years — among all Section 80C options.
Expense Ratio
The expense ratio is the annual fee a mutual fund charges investors, expressed as a percentage of the fund's assets, to cover management, administrative, and distribution costs. It is deducted directly from the fund's returns before NAV is published.
Gold Purity (24K, 22K, 18K, 916)
Gold purity is measured in Karats (K), indicating how many of 24 parts are pure gold. 24K is 99.9% pure gold; 22K (91.6% pure, marked "916") is the standard for Indian jewellery; 18K (75% pure) is common in modern, more durable jewellery designs.
Mutual Fund
A mutual fund pools money from many investors and invests it in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities, managed by a professional fund manager. Investors own units of the fund proportional to their contribution.
NAV — Net Asset Value
NAV is the per-unit price of a mutual fund, calculated by dividing the total value of the fund's holdings (minus liabilities) by the number of outstanding units. It is published once daily after markets close.
SIP — Systematic Investment Plan
A SIP is a method of investing a fixed amount into a mutual fund at regular intervals — usually monthly — instead of investing a lump sum all at once. It automates disciplined investing and averages your purchase cost over market ups and downs.
SWP — Systematic Withdrawal Plan
An SWP lets you withdraw a fixed amount from your mutual fund investment at regular intervals, while the remaining corpus stays invested and continues to grow (or shrink) with the market. It is essentially the reverse of a SIP.
XIRR — Extended Internal Rate of Return
XIRR is the annualised return of an investment where money goes in and out at irregular dates and amounts — like a SIP. Unlike CAGR, it correctly accounts for the exact date and size of every cash flow.
Tax
GST — Goods and Services Tax
GST is a single, unified indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services across India, replacing the earlier system of separate central and state taxes. Under GST 2.0 (effective 22 September 2025), goods and services fall into three main slabs — 5%, 18%, and 40% — plus a 0% exempt category.
HRA — House Rent Allowance
HRA is a salary component paid by employers to cover an employee's rented accommodation costs, and is partially or fully exempt from tax under Section 10(13A) — but only under the old tax regime. The exempt amount is the lowest of three specific components, not the full HRA received.
Old vs New Tax Regime
India has two parallel income tax structures: the old regime, with higher slab rates but access to deductions like 80C, HRA, and home loan interest; and the new regime (the default since FY 2023-24), with lower slab rates and a higher tax-free threshold but almost no deductions.
Section 80C
Section 80C of the Income Tax Act allows a deduction of up to ₹1.5 lakh per year from taxable income for specified investments and expenses — including PPF, EPF, ELSS, life insurance premiums, NSC, and children's tuition fees. It is available only under the old tax regime.
Section 87A Rebate
The Section 87A rebate reduces your income tax liability to zero (up to a cap) if your taxable income falls below a specified threshold. For FY 2026-27, the threshold is ₹5,00,000 (rebate up to ₹12,500) under the old regime and ₹12,00,000 (rebate up to ₹60,000) under the new regime.
Standard Deduction
The standard deduction is a flat amount subtracted from a salaried employee's or pensioner's gross salary before computing taxable income, with no bills or proof required. For FY 2026-27, it is ₹75,000 under the new tax regime and ₹50,000 under the old tax regime.
TDS — Tax Deducted at Source
TDS is income tax deducted upfront by the payer — a bank, employer, or company — before the money reaches you, and deposited directly with the government on your behalf. It is an advance collection of tax, not an extra tax.
Loans
EMI — Equated Monthly Installment
An EMI is the fixed monthly payment you make to a lender to repay a loan — home, car, or personal — over an agreed tenure. Each instalment covers a mix of principal and interest, with the interest component shrinking and the principal component growing over time.
Home Loan
A home loan is a secured loan from a bank or housing finance company used to purchase, construct, or renovate a residential property, with the property itself pledged as collateral until the loan is repaid.
Savings
Compound Interest
Compound interest is interest calculated on both the original principal and the interest already accumulated in previous periods — meaning your money earns "interest on interest." This is what makes long-term investments grow much faster than simple interest.
EPF — Employees' Provident Fund
EPF is a mandatory retirement savings scheme for salaried employees in India, where both the employee and employer contribute a percentage of basic salary every month. The corpus earns interest set annually by EPFO and is largely tax-free on withdrawal after 5 years of continuous service.
Fixed Deposit — FD
A Fixed Deposit is a lump-sum investment held with a bank or post office for a fixed tenure at a pre-agreed interest rate, which does not change even if market rates move during the term. It is one of the lowest-risk investment options in India.
Gratuity
Gratuity is a lump-sum payment made by an employer to an employee as a token of appreciation for continuous service of 5 years or more, payable at retirement, resignation, or termination. It is governed by the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, and is tax-free up to ₹20 lakh.
National Savings Certificate — NSC
NSC is a fixed-income government savings certificate with a 5-year tenure, offering Section 80C tax deduction on the principal and reinvested interest. Interest is compounded annually but paid out only at maturity, along with the principal.
NPS — National Pension System
NPS is a voluntary, market-linked retirement savings scheme regulated by PFRDA, where contributions are invested across equity, corporate bonds, and government securities based on your chosen allocation. At retirement, part of the corpus must be used to buy an annuity for a monthly pension.
PPF — Public Provident Fund
PPF is a government-backed, 15-year savings scheme open to all Indian residents, offering tax-free interest and full EEE tax status. It is one of the few investments where the deposit, the interest, and the maturity amount are all completely tax-exempt.
Senior Citizens Savings Scheme — SCSS
SCSS is a government savings scheme for individuals aged 60 and above (55+ for retired defence personnel, 50+ for VRS/superannuation retirees), offering quarterly interest payouts over a 5-year tenure, extendable once by 3 years.
Simple Interest
Simple interest is calculated only on the original principal amount for the entire duration of the loan or deposit — it never earns "interest on interest." It grows linearly rather than exponentially.
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana — SSY
SSY is a government savings scheme exclusively for a girl child, opened by a parent or guardian before she turns 10. Deposits run for 15 years and the account matures 21 years after opening, with fully tax-free (EEE) interest and maturity value.
Markets
Demat Account
A Demat (dematerialised) account holds shares, bonds, and other securities in electronic form, replacing physical share certificates. It is mandatory for trading and investing in listed Indian stocks and most mutual funds.
IPO GMP — Grey Market Premium
GMP is the unofficial premium at which an IPO's shares trade in the "grey market" — an informal, unregulated market — before the shares are officially listed on a stock exchange. It is often used as an informal gauge of likely listing-day demand.
Nifty 50
Nifty 50 is the benchmark stock index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), tracking 50 of the largest companies across the major sectors of the Indian economy. Alongside Sensex, it is one of the two primary gauges of Indian equity market performance.
Repo Rate
The repo rate is the interest rate at which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lends short-term funds to commercial banks against government securities. It is the RBI's primary tool for controlling inflation and money supply in the economy.
Sensex
Sensex is the benchmark stock market index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), tracking the performance of 30 of the largest and most actively traded Indian companies across key sectors. It is one of the two most-watched indicators of the Indian stock market's overall health.