What ₹1 lakh could buy
Your parents’ ₹1 lakh and yours are not the same money.
This story takes one sum through 25 years and shows what it bought each year in gold, silver, a mason’s days, dollars and wheat, and what it is worth today.
THE HEIRLOOM
In 2001, ₹1 lakh bought 224.1 g of gold
Say your family had ₹1 lakh for a wedding in 2001. Gold in Mumbai averaged ₹4,462 for 10 grams that year, so the sum bought 224.1 g: a full bridal set, by weight.
That is the bullion price the Reserve Bank publishes, before a jeweller’s making charges and tax.
Turn the case and the years go by. In 2011, 41.9 g, a pair of bangles.
In 2021, one could buy a chain with a pendant for 21.1 g.
In 2026, the same ₹1 lakh buys 6.6 g
This is considering January to May 2026 so far.
Gold reached its highest month in that span, and the year’s figure will move as each new month comes in.
Prices in general rose too
By the consumer price index for industrial workers, the long series the Labour Bureau keeps, what cost ₹100 in 2001 cost ₹439 in 2026.
So ₹1 lakh of 2001 is ₹4.39 lakh of today’s money.
The index is the consumer price index for industrial workers, its 1982, 2001 and 2016 bases joined with the Labour Bureau’s factors 4.63 and 2.88.
One can’t get the same bridal set for ₹4,39,394.
The 224.1 g of 2001 cost ₹33.97 lakh at 2026’s price.
About 7.7 times the general rise in prices
Silver, a mason’s days, dollars and wheat each shrank at their own pace
Mumbai silver per kilogram; the Labour Bureau's daily wage for men, mason; the yearly average rupee–dollar rate; the support price for wheat by marketing year. The last year is a part year.
Gold ran far ahead of prices, wages ahead, the dollar behind, wheat about level
Set each price against the workers’ index.
Gold rose about 7.7 times as fast as prices in general between 2001 and 2026, silver about 8 times.
A mason’s day rose about 41% more than prices to 2025: the day’s work buys more than it did.
The dollar went the other way: ₹1 lakh buys under half of them, after prices, than it did.
Wheat at the support price stayed about level with prices to 2025.
Prices relative to the consumer price index for industrial workers, chained across its bases. A thing above one rose faster than prices in general; no cause is read into it.
Create your own bill
Pick any year and any sum, from ₹10,000 to ₹10 lakh, and see the updated bill.
What ₹1,00,000 could buy you in the year 2001
Prices as published on DBIE: gold to May 2026, the index to August 2026, the mason’s wage to April 2025, the dollar to 2026-10-29, wheat to 2025-26.
The data set
The table gives the figures for every year from 2001 to 2026, and the download has the prices behind them: the gold and silver prices, the mason’s wage, the dollar rate, the support price and the index.
| Year | Gold | Silver | A mason’s days | US dollars | Wheat at MSP | Worth in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 224.1 g | 13.48 kg | 913 | $2,119 | 161.3 q | ₹4,39,394 |
| 2002 | 195 g | 12.62 kg | 873 | $2,058 | 161.3 q | ₹4,21,229 |
| 2003 | 178 g | 12.3 kg | 849 | $2,147 | 158.7 q | ₹4,05,813 |
| 2004 | 163.5 g | 9.43 kg | 828 | $2,207 | 156.3 q | ₹3,91,079 |
| 2005 | 155.2 g | 9.03 kg | 806 | $2,268 | 153.8 q | ₹3,75,124 |
| 2006 | 112.2 g | 5.7 kg | 776 | $2,207 | 117.6 q | ₹3,53,327 |
| 2007 | 107 g | 5.32 kg | 729 | $2,418 | 100.0 q | ₹3,32,159 |
| 2008 | 81.6 g | 4.63 kg | 662 | $2,299 | 92.6 q | ₹3,06,566 |
| 2009 | 65.7 g | 4.2 kg | 586 | $2,066 | 90.9 q | ₹2,76,545 |
| 2010 | 54.7 g | 3.14 kg | 507 | $2,187 | 85.5 q | ₹2,46,889 |
| 2011 | 41.9 g | 1.8 kg | 433 | $2,143 | 77.8 q | ₹2,26,835 |
| 2012 | 33.8 g | 1.74 kg | 370 | $1,871 | 74.1 q | ₹2,07,428 |
| 2013 | 34.2 g | 2.02 kg | 313 | $1,707 | 71.4 q | ₹1,87,004 |
| 2014 | 35.5 g | 2.35 kg | 270 | $1,639 | 69.0 q | ₹1,75,901 |
| 2015 | 38 g | 2.72 kg | 251 | $1,559 | 65.6 q | ₹1,66,171 |
| 2016 | 34.1 g | 2.42 kg | 237 | $1,488 | 61.5 q | ₹1,58,304 |
| 2017 | 34.5 g | 2.5 kg | 225 | $1,536 | 57.6 q | ₹1,54,461 |
| 2018 | 32.7 g | 2.61 kg | 216 | $1,462 | 54.3 q | ₹1,47,309 |
| 2019 | 28.7 g | 2.43 kg | 208 | $1,420 | 51.9 q | ₹1,36,830 |
| 2020 | 21.2 g | 1.86 kg | 194 | $1,350 | 50.6 q | ₹1,29,620 |
| 2021 | 21.1 g | 1.51 kg | 189 | $1,353 | 49.6 q | ₹1,23,576 |
| 2022 | 19.6 g | 1.63 kg | 179 | $1,272 | 47.1 q | ₹1,16,691 |
| 2023 | 16.9 g | 1.41 kg | 169 | $1,211 | 44.0 q | ₹1,10,557 |
| 2024 | 14.1 g | 1.2 kg | 159 | $1,195 | 41.2 q | ₹1,06,512 |
| 2025 | 9.8 g | 0.83 kg | 153 | $1,147 | 38.7 q | ₹1,03,614 |
| 2026 | 6.6 g | 0.39 kg | – | $1,062 | – | ₹1,00,000 |
Gold to May 2026, the index to August 2026, the mason’s wage to April 2025, the dollar to 2026-10-29, wheat to 2025-26.
SOURCES
Reserve Bank of India, monthly average prices of gold and silver in Mumbai, April 1990 to May 2026, as published on DBIE. Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, wage rates in rural India, men, all India, by occupation, monthly to April 2025, and its consumer price index for industrial workers on the 1982, 2001 and 2016 bases to August 2026, as published on DBIE, with the linking factors as printed in the RBI Bulletin’s table of other consumer price indices. Reserve Bank of India, the rupee–dollar rate, yearly averages and daily reference rates to 2026-10-29, as published on DBIE. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, minimum support prices by crop year to 2025-26, as published on DBIE.
DOWNLOADS
Download the figures by year (CSV)
Go to the price tables
METHOD
Years. Each year’s price is the calendar-year average of the monthly series over the months DBIE carries, so 2001 means January to December 2001. 2026 is a part year: gold and silver January to May 2026, the index January to August 2026, the dollar the first 199 trading days of 2026. The mason’s last year is 2025, January to April 2025. Wheat is the support price for the marketing year beginning in that year.
The index. The consumer price index for industrial workers is carried on three bases over these years, 1982, 2001 and 2016, which do not overlap on DBIE. They are joined with the Labour Bureau’s linking factors as the RBI Bulletin prints them: 4.63 from the 1982 base to 2001, 2.88 from 2001 to 2016. “Worth today” carries a sum forward by the ratio of the chained index.
Gold and silver. The Mumbai bullion price, not a jeweller’s price: no making charges, no GST, and the import duty changes of 2024 and 2026 sit inside it. The jewellery names are a guide to the weight, by the story’s own thresholds, and are not a measure.
The mason. One occupation, men only: DBIE carries no women’s series. The Labour Bureau changed its occupation list in November 2013; the mason’s all-India wage read ₹330 in October 2013 and ₹351 in November, and the story runs the series through the change. The dollar’s direction: ₹1 lakh buying fewer dollars is the rupee buying less, stated as such.