Indian Rupee gets a New

Symbol

By Amitav Ranjan
The jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its
Indian character with an international flavor. The five-
member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya
Kumar’s design from among five shortlisted symbols and
recommended it for Cabinet approval.
Kumar’s symbol (on the left) is an amalgam of the
Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the
stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to
formalize a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects
and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in
his Budget speech this year.
The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister’s approval,
said a Ministry official.
The Ministry had organized a symbol design competition
with prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it
should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the
national language script or a visual representation and
should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the
country.

When contacted, Kumar said he was unaware of his

design having been ranked first by the jury. “I hope your
news is real,” he told The Indian Express from IIT
Bombay. He joins IIT Guwahati as a faculty member in the
Department of Design