Indian Rupee gets new symbol

Now, Indian Rupee will have its own unique symbol like Dollars, Euros and Yen. The new symbol had been drawn by an IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Out of 3,000 designs that were competing for the symbol, Kumar’s drawing had been chosen by the Union Cabinet meeting held on July 15, 2010, chaired by Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister. He would get a prize money of Rs.2,50,000 from the Finance Ministry.

D Udaya Kumar did his PhD from IIT-Mumbai and he would join as the faculty of IIT Guwahati. IIT Guwahati Director, Gautam Barua, confirmed the news.

Kumar was supposed to join the Institute on July 15, 2010 but he will join tomorrow. He has been appointed as the Assistant Professor of the design department.

Udaya Kumar was very happy with this success. He knew that his design would be chosen because it incorporates Indian ethos. He said, "I feel really great. I don't have words to express my happiness. Really thrilled,…I can't think anything in my mind right now."

Source: Sify.com

The new symbol is an amalgam of the Devnagiri ‘Ra’ and Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters that the government will try to adopt the new symbol within six months in the country and globally within the next two years.

The symbol will be included in the ‘Unicode Standard’ and major scripts around the world. Print and electronic medias all over the world would show the symbol.