The Union Cabinet approved the final design for the unique symbol of the Indian rupee. It has given its approval to the numerical representation for the Indian rupee, which is a mix of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R'. This symbol will be used by all individuals/entities within and outside India after its incorporation in `Unicode Standard’, ‘ISO/IEC 10646’ and ‘IS 13194’. The symbol will standardize the expression for Indian Rupee in different languages, both within and outside the country. It would better distinguish the Indian currency from those countries whose currencies are also designated as Rupee or Rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The Cabinet had shortlisted five designs for the new Rupee symbol following an all-India contest. IIT post-graduate D. Uday Kumar's entry was selected out of five shortlisted designs as the new symbol for the Indian Rupee. Kumar's entry was chosen from among 3,000 designs competing for the Indian currency's symbol. He will get an award of Rs2.5 lakhs.
"The symbol for the Rupee would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and robustness of the Indian economy as also a favored destination for global investments," said Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.
With this, the Indian Rupee will join the select club of currencies such as the US Dollar, British Pound Sterling, Euro and Japanese Yen with clear distinguishing identity. The encoding of the rupee symbol in the Indian Standards is estimated to take about six months while