The Official Symbol of Indian Rupee

It’s official now, the symbol of Indian Rupee has finally been decided by the 5 member jury panel of Indian cabinet. There were 5 proposed designs and the following symbol was chosen as the official symbol of Indian Rupee:

The following designs were shortlisted for the final design:

The jury choosed the design of IIT post graduate Udaya Kumar and recommended it for Cabinet approval. You can clearly see a mix of the “R” letter of English and “Ra” of Devanagari.

We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture, said Pranab Mukherjee, Finance minister of India.

Earlier, the government had organized a symbol design competition of prize money 2.5 lakhs with the condition that the symbol should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script and should represent the cultural aspects of the country.

Once approved, the new symbol will be used globally like the Dollar ($) and Pound (£). The unique design will also help in isolating Indian currency from the currency of neighboring countries e.g Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri lanka, all of them currently use the abbreviation “Rupee” in their currencies.

Acording to Udaya Kumar, the man who designed the Indian Rupee – the Design is based on Tricolous and arithmetic equivalence. The white space between the horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag while the two parallel lines stands for “equality”.

Source – Indian Express, image credit – Techie -buzz