Capital employed

Total assets minus current liabilities. It represents the long-term funding of the business, from both lenders and owners.

A company with ₹6,200 crore of assets and ₹1,900 crore of current liabilities employs ₹4,300 crore.

Deducting current liabilities is doing real work rather than tidying. Supplier credit funds part of the asset base at no cost, and counting it as capital the company must earn a return on would penalise a business precisely for negotiating good terms.

Short-term borrowings are the awkward case. They sit among current liabilities but they are financing, not operations, so most careful definitions add them back.

Choose once. Then never change it mid-series.