Indian RUPEE gets an international status symbol, joins Elite currency club — designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, is a blend of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R' in having a distinct identity — reflecting that the Indian currency is backed by an over-trillion $ economy, symbolizing OUR inching steadily but surely towards being First World countries!
India is to have a new symbol for its currency, the rupee, after the government approved the winning entry in a national competition. The year long contest was announced in 2009. The winning entry was one of five shortlisted in the public competition announced in March 2009 submitted by D Udaya Kumar, a newly-appointed teacher of design at the Indian Institute of Technology. Designers were given a brief to come up with a symbol that captures the ethos and culture of India. A panel of artists, officials and bankers picked the new design.
The symbol is a cross between the Roman letter R and its Hindi equivalent, and was designed by a teacher at the Indian Institute of Technology. It is made up of half the letter R with a horizontal line on top and in between to make it also look like its equivalent in the Devanagari script, which used in a number of Indian languages including Hindi and Sanskrit.
It will soon be introduced on computer keyboards and banknotes in India and is expected to take a year or two to be fully implemented. Until now the rupee has generally been represented by the letters Rs or sometimes INR (Indian rupee) but they were mere abbreviations rather than a symbol according to Indian Government.
The new symbol will be the "identity of the Indian currency". The Indian government hopes it will soon be as recognizable as the dollar, the pound or the euro.
Choosing a new currency symbol can be an expensive exercise according to experts. It cost Europe's biggest companies more than $50bn to update their computer systems to deal with the changeover.
The Indian Government is too optimistic and by accepting a currency symbol in tune with the first world countries, India has made its ambition clear about becoming a global economic power.
Courtesy: BBC SouthAsia
The symbol is a cross between the Roman letter R and its Hindi equivalent, and was designed by a teacher at the Indian Institute of Technology. It is made up of half the letter R with a horizontal line on top and in between to make it also look like its equivalent in the Devanagari script, which used in a number of Indian languages including Hindi and Sanskrit.
It will soon be introduced on computer keyboards and banknotes in India and is expected to take a year or two to be fully implemented. Until now the rupee has generally been represented by the letters Rs or sometimes INR (Indian rupee) but they were mere abbreviations rather than a symbol according to Indian Government.
The new symbol will be the "identity of the Indian currency". The Indian government hopes it will soon be as recognizable as the dollar, the pound or the euro.
Choosing a new currency symbol can be an expensive exercise according to experts. It cost Europe's biggest companies more than $50bn to update their computer systems to deal with the changeover.
The Indian Government is too optimistic and by accepting a currency symbol in tune with the first world countries, India has made its ambition clear about becoming a global economic power.
Courtesy: BBC SouthAsia