The Union cabinet today gave the rupee a new symbol — only the fifth currency in the world to acquire a distinctive identity.
The symbol — created by D. Udaya Kumar, who teaches at IIT Mumbai’s Industrial Design Centre and is about to join Guwahati IIT — blends the Roman letter R without its stem with the Devnagari script’s Ra.
Kumar’s symbol won after a contest that had whittled the final shortlist to five symbols from the 3,000 that made the cut. The contest carried a prize of Rs 2.5 lakh.
Like the British pound, the yen and the Euro, the eventual winner has two horizontal lines that slash across the central figure — a stylistic device that currency designers believe connotes stability, a characteristic that the Indian currency sorely lacks.
The government will soon direct Nasscom, the national association of software companies, to approach IT firms to embed the symbol in their operating software as a new programme or as an update. This will enable computer users worldwide to use the symbol even if it is not embedded on the keyboards.
Key Words:
Rupee Symbol, Indian Currency,
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