New · a time machine for prices
The Inflation Alligator
It never sleeps. Every year it quietly bites off a slice of what your money can buy. Dial an old telephone and watch milk, petrol, gold and the dollar travel from the 1980s to today.
☎️ Start the time machine ▾or print the bill of your birth year
* At 6% a year, the long-run pace of Indian consumer prices. Figures on this page are for education only.
The time machine
Dial a price. Watch it travel through time.
Tap anything on the old telephone. The TV plays its price from the 1980s to today — and the TV itself changes with every decade.
Your birth-year bill
What did life cost the year you were born?
Type a year — your birth year, your wedding year, the year you got your first job — and we will print the bill of that year next to today's prices.
Where we have no record for that exact year, the bill shows the nearest year on record, and says so.
The great race since 1991
Who outran the alligator?
Put ₹100 in each of these in 1991, the year India opened up its economy. The green line is the alligator — what you needed just to keep up with prices. Anything above it beat inflation; anything below lost buying power.
₹100 in 1991 grown with each asset's price. Gold and silver: yearly average prices in India (Aditya Birla Capital). Sensex: year-end close, without dividends (with dividends it would be higher). Alligator: consumer prices (officialdata.org, World Bank CPI). Past performance is not a guide to the future and this is not investment advice.
Feed the alligator
How much will it eat from your money?
What is the inflation alligator?
Inflation is the steady rise in prices. When prices rise 6% in a year, ₹100 buys only what ₹94.34 bought a year earlier. It does not feel like much — until you look back. A litre of Mother Dairy toned milk cost ₹3.50 in Delhi in 1985; in 2025 it cost ₹57. Petrol cost ₹4.41 a litre on 1 January 1980; in October 2026 it costs ₹102.12 in Delhi. That is the alligator at work: patient, silent, and always hungry.
How India measures it
The main yardstick is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks the prices of a typical household basket — food, fuel, clothing, housing, health, education and more. The Reserve Bank of India aims to keep CPI inflation at 4%, within a band of 2% to 6%. Wholesale prices are tracked separately by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
The rule of 72 for prices
Divide 72 by the inflation rate to find how many years it takes for prices to double. At 6% a year, prices double in about 12 years; at 8%, in 9 years. A family that spends ₹50,000 a month today will need about ₹1 lakh a month for the same life roughly 12 years from now.
Why idle money loses
Money that earns less than inflation shrinks in real terms, even if the number in your passbook grows. A savings account paying 3% when prices rise 6% loses roughly 3% of its buying power every year. Tax makes it worse: interest is taxed, but the rise in prices is not deducted.
How families keep ahead of it
- Know your number. Plan goals in future rupees, not today's. Our calculators grow every goal by inflation.
- Keep only what you need idle. An emergency fund of three to six months of expenses is wise; much more than that is a meal for the alligator.
- Match money to time. Money needed soon belongs in safe, stable places. Money for goals many years away needs growth assets that have historically beaten inflation over long periods — with ups and downs along the way.
- Review every year. Raise savings with your income, and check that the plan still beats rising costs.
About the numbers
Milk: Mother Dairy toned milk in Delhi, from Lok Sabha answers (1989 and 1995) and news reports of each price change (Business Standard, Restaurant India, The Cattle Site, Outlook Business, The Tribune, Deccan Herald). Petrol and diesel: Delhi retail prices from a Lok Sabha answer (1980, 1985), Reuters data compiled by freefincal (1989–2002), the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (2003–2017) and dated news reports (2020–2026). LPG: Delhi domestic cylinder from a Lok Sabha answer (2000), The Tribune (2002), Angel One and news reports (2016–2026); before 2014 the counter price was subsidised. Gold and silver: yearly prices in India compiled by Aditya Birla Capital. Copper: world price (IMF, via FRED) converted at RBI's yearly average rupee–dollar rate. Dollar: RBI calendar-year average exchange rates. Sensex: year-end closing values. ₹100 basket: India consumer price index via officialdata.org (2026 figure provisional). "Today" prices for gold, silver, copper, the dollar and the Sensex come from live market data when available; gold and silver are converted with a 6% import duty and exclude GST and making charges.
Historical prices are indicative and may differ by city, brand and date. They are shown for education only and are not investment advice. Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks; read all scheme-related documents carefully.
Beat the alligator with a plan
Prices will keep rising. What matters is whether your savings rise faster. A short review can show whether your goals — children's education, a home, retirement — are on track in future rupees.
Dr. Deepak N. Paithankar · AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor, ARN-188221.