Microeconomics and macroeconomics

Microeconomics studies individual economic agents: one consumer, one producer, the market for one good. 'Will the price of onions rise?' is a micro question.

Macroeconomics studies the economy as a whole. It asks questions like: will prices in general rise (inflation)? Is employment in the country getting better? Is total output growing?

How can one subject talk about millions of goods at once? Because outputs, prices and employment of different goods tend to move together: in a good year most industries grow, and in a bad year most shrink. So macroeconomics can often treat the economy as if it made one representative good. Sometimes it is more useful to divide the economy into sectors: agriculture, industry and services.

The decision-makers are different too. In micro, consumers and firms pursue their own interest. In macro, bodies like the State (government), the Reserve Bank of India and SEBI take decisions for public goals, such as full employment and stable prices, not for private profit.

In short: micro looks at the trees; macro looks at the forest.