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Zero is one of the most important concept in maths.I explain it as follows(with help of some references)

1. Zero is used as a place holder:For example in number 400 ,the zero imeediately to 4 tells us that the "tens' coloum is empty and the zero on the right tells that unit' colum is alos empy.the only colum with any value is the'hunderds; colum. We would have written 400 as only 4 ,which is not the number we meant,if there would not be anything to indicate that two right-hand colums were empty.Similarly we would not be able to distinguish 19081 from 1981 if zero wont be there.so it is important for our place value system.

2.Zero as a symbol: As zero represents nothing,it enables us to write in symbols that nothing is left.

3.It helps in solving quadratic equations: In the late 1500s, a Scottish baron by the name of John Napier found a way of solving quadratic equations of the form:
x2 + 2x = 24 (Equation 1)
The aim, of course, is to work out the value of x. Napier realized that he could rewrite such an equation as follows:
x2 + 2x 24 = 0 (Equation 2)
The left-hand side of the equation, in turn, could be rewritten to give:
(x 4)(x + 6) = 0 (Equation 3)
For the product of two values to equal zero, as in Equation 3, one of them must be zero. So either (x 4) equals zero (thus, x = 4), or (x + 6) equals zero (thus, x = 6). This way of solving quadratic equations is now commonplace in schools but its discovery helped give mathematics the power to solve real-world problems such as those encountered in engineering.

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