Common Indian Acronyms and Abbreviations are listed on this page. Can’t figure out what that email from your Indian colleague means? This page may help you. Many abbreviations are unique to India. Looking for terms specific to Indian English? Check out our Indian-English Dictionary.
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- Personal Life
- +91 – Dialing Code for making international telephone calls to India
- ABCDEFGHIJ – American Born Confused Desi Emigrated From Gujarat, House In Jersey
- AI – Air India, now owned by the Tata group
- Chi. Chiranjeevi, the title/salutation for a bridegroom
- Cr. – Crore (ten million); “This plot of land costs 4 Cr rupees”
- FC – Forward Caste
- OBC – Other Backward Classes
- OTP -one time passcode (4-6 digit multi-factor authentication used to verify payment methods, purchases, etc )
- RWA – Resident Welfare Association. Typically the organization (also known as a society) that controls the rules for a group of condominium housing.
- SC/ST – Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Harijans or Dalits)
- STD – Long-distance phone call, Subscriber Trunk Dialing. (obsolete, due to ubiquitous mobile phones
- WC – Water Closet, ie toilet
Professional Life
- HOD – The head of department; person who is leader or manager of a department
- PFA -please find attached (used in emails to describe attachments)
- PTO – please turn over (written at the bottom of a page to indicate that there is more writing on the other side)
Government
- AAI – Airport Authority of India
- AIR – All India Radio, state owned radio stations
- ASLV – Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle, developed by ISRO
- BCCI – Board of Cricket Control in India (more powerful than NFL, MLB and NBA put together, for the world of cricket)
- CBI – Central Bureau of Investigation (like American FBI)
- CBSE – Central Board of Secondary Education
- CII – Confederation of Indian Industry, a trade group
- CM – Chief Minister (like American Governor)
- CPWD – Central Public Works Department; PWD of the GOI
- DM – District Magistrate; the senior most local government official at the county(district) level
- DD – Doordarshan, state-owned television channel
- DRDO – Defence Research and Development Organisation
- DSP – Deputy Superintendent of Police, a mid ranking police officer. Also a brand of Indian whisky with the full name Director Special Premium
- DoT – Department of Telecommunications
- EAM – External Affairs Minister, or Foreign Minister
- FM – Finance Minister, sometimes refers to Foreign Minister (see EAM)
- GoI– Government of India
- GSLV – Geostationary Launch Vehicle
- HC – High Court (the highest provincial court, but lower than the federal Supreme Court)
- IAF – Indian Air Force
- IAS – Indian Administrative Service; the elite civil service cadre that runs the country
- ICD – In the context of customs, excise taxes and transportation, Inland Container Depot. It may or may not be located in a bonded area and it may or may not be located in a Special Economic Zone.
- IMD – India Meteorological Department
- IN – Two letter official abbreviation for India used by ISO, also used as suffix for India domains on worldwide web such as www.ibm.in or www.google.co.in
- IND – Three letter official abbreviation for India, used by ISO; often used on automobiles transported internationally
- IPKF – Indian Peace Keeping Force, positioned in a foreign country such as Sri Lanka
- ISI – Formerly Indian Standards Institute, renamed Bureau of Indian Standards,
- ISRO – Indian Space Research Organisation
- IRS – Indian Remote Sensing Satellite
- PSLV – Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, designed by ISRO
- INSAT – Indian National Satellite
- LoC – Line of Control (between Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Indian-controlled state of Jammu & Kashmir, formerly called the Cease-Fire Line
- LS – Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament)
- NCR – the tri-state area surrounding New Delhi; the National Capital Region
- NDA – National Democratic Alliance, a coalition of political parties led by the BJP
- NIC : National Informatics Centre
- NRI – Non-Resident Indian
- MEA – Ministry of External Affairs
- OIGS – On India Government Service
- ONGC – Oil and Natural Gas Commission
- PAN – Permanent Account Number (like US Taxpayer Identification Number)
- PIL – Public Interest Litigation (brought before a High Court, by a friend of the court)
- PSU – Public Sector Unit (a company whose stock is owned largely by the government)
- PWD – Public Works Department (state civil engineering group handling roads, bridges)
- RAW – Research & Analysis Wing (India’s foreign intelligence agency, similar to US CIA)
- RNRI : Returned Non Resident Indian, An NRI who has moved to their home country
- RS – Rajya Sabha, upper house of Indian Parliament
- SAARC – South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (intergovernmental South Asian organization – the other 6 members are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka)
- SAIL – Steel Authority of India, a public sector undertaking (PSU)
- SC – Supreme Court, the highest court in the country (higher than High Courts)
- SEBI – Securities Exchange Board of India
- ULFA – United Liberation Front of Asom – a militant organization in the state of Assam
States
- AP – Andhra Pradesh; Arunachal Pradesh
- HP – Himachal Pradesh
- MP – Madhya Pradesh
- TN – Tamil Nadu
- UP – Uttar Pradesh
- WB – West Bengal
Business
- C.A – Chartered Accountant, like a CPA in the USA
- EOU – Export Oriented Undertaking. A company established for the primary purpose of exporting its goods or services to other countries.
- MBBS – Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (physician, licensed to practice much like an MD in USA)
- m-cap – (stock) market capitalisation
- MD – Managing Director, equivalent of CEO
- M&M – Mahindra & Mahindra, a major automotive company, headquartered in Mumbai. Indian business media routinely refer to them as Mahindra or as M&M.
- PTI – Press Trust of India, a news agency
Education
- IGNOU – Indira Gandhi National Open University
- IIM – Indian Institute of Management
- IIT – Indian Institute of Technology
- PIGS – Poor Indian Graduate Student
Banking
- DA – Dearness Allowance, paid to compensate for inflation, also known as a cost of living adjustment
- EMI – Equal Monthly Installments; a level payment plan to repay capital or revolving loans
- FD– Fixed Deposit, same as a CD or Certificate of Deposit at a US bank
- KYC – Know your Customer, an Indian banking term based on regulations that define minimum information to be gathered by a financial institution before they can open an account for an individual or a company.
- NSC – National Savings Certificate
- PF – Provident Fund (vaguely similar to US Social Security, payable as a lump-sum)
- Sensex – Sensitive Index (of the Bombay Stock Exchange), like Dow Jones average
Political Parties
- AIADMK – All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a regional political party based in the southern state of Tamil Nadu; created by a split of the DMK
- AGP – Asom Gana Parishad, regional party in the state of Assam
- BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party, national political party, rightwing, pro-Hindu
- BSP – Bahujan Samaj Party, political party, promotes lower caste interests
- CPI – Communist Party of India (historically aligned to Russian party)
- CPI (M) – Communist Party of India (Marxist), historically aligned to Chinese party
- CPI (ML) – Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
- DMK – Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the original regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu; later a split in the party, created the AIADM
- LTTE – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
- MDMK – Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
- PMK – Pattali Munnetra Kazhagam – a political party in Tamil Nadu
- RSS – Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
- SP – Samajwadi Party; Samata Party
- VHP – Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a fundamentalist Hindu party, right of BJP
Indian Railways
- BG – Broad Gauge (trains or tracks (5ft. 6in. – the broadest in the world)
- EMU – Electric Multiple Unit, multiple-unit electric-powered train
- MG – Meter Gauge (trains or tracks), being phased out
- RAC – Reservation Against Cancellation
- REGRET/WL1 – No More Booking Permitted
- RLWL– Remote Location Wait List
- PQWL – Pooled Quota Wait List
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We hope that our Doing Business in India Guide will help answer some of the routine questions we get asked. Please Contact Us if you need more in-depth assistance when looking to do business with India. We’ll be glad to help.
Last updated: December 5th, 2025
