Indian government cabinet gave approval to the new graphic symbol for the rupee on 15th July 2010. It is a well calculated move to project Indian currency as an icon of the growing importance of India in world’s economy. By giving its approval for new rupee symbol, India joined a very elite group of the USA, UK, Japan and European Union to have its own currency symbol. The new rupee symbol is a welcome addition to India’s influential role on the global stage. Considering the reputation of Indian financial markets, it was only fitting for Indian currency to have its own symbol.

India is one of the fastest growing economies along with China. The country has kept clocking over 7%-9% of growth rate every year and that’s no mean feat in a world which is still grappling with aftereffects of economic recession and re-emergence of downturn in certain parts of Europe. However, India remained an exception even during the worst two years of world economy in 2008-09. The growth rate didn’t slow down considerably and Indian remained a shining light in the gloom and doom scenario of recession. That reflects the strength of the Indian economy. Considering this, it was only recommended to have a unique Indian rupee symbol.

The symbol also helps in distinguishing the Indian rupee from the similarly-named currencies of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia and Nepal. Worldwide, renowned economists have expressed their approval and delight at this new phenomenon. The new symbol will prove crucial in enhancing India’s growing financial clout. The rupee symbol reflects ever-increasing economic linkages between India and the world.

Till now, Indian rupee was abbreviated as Rs, Re or INR. But soon we will have Indian rupee symbol in keyboards and other places. New symbol is a reflection of Indian ethos and culture. The symbol would be used across a wide range of technical applications including mobile phones, computer software, banners and web world. This will be definitely registered as a historic step in Indian economy that only reinforces the important role played by Indian economy in the global market. New Indian rupee symbol definitely gives all the Indians a reason to feel proud of our country.

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New Indian Rupee Symbol :

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It was only fitting that currency of India; rupee will soon have a distinct and identifiable symbol. The new symbol will be a perfect representative of strength of the over-trillion-dollar Indian economy. The arrival of new Indian rupee symbol has catapulted India to a very elite league. Currently, there is an exclusive club of international currencies namely – the US dollar, the British pound, the Japanese yen and the euro and now the Indian rupee.

The new rupee symbol has been designed by Mr D. Udaya Kumar who is a post graduate from IIT, Mumbai. Indian government had announced a nationwide contest for new rupee symbol. More than 3000 entries were received in this national competition. It was truly a tough challenge to select one design because of quality of several other designs. Government had formed a jury headed by the RBI Deputy Governor. The jury evaluated all the designs and selected the one designed by Mr. Kumar. The new symbol is a wonderful blend of the Devanigiri ‘Ra’ and roman ‘R’.
What new rupee symbol does is to lend a distinctive character and identity to the Indian currency. In some ways, it reflects the strength of the growing Indian economy. There are few other countries whose currencies are also designated as Rupee or Rupiah, like Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. New rupee symbol will help Indian currency in distinguishing itself from other currencies. Now, Indian currency will be internationally recognized just the way Yen, Dollar and Pound are recognized.
The further course of action aims at inclusion of the symbol in the Indian standard also known as Indian script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII). This will ensure assigning codes to the symbol for processing on computers. New Indian rupee symbol will also need to be included in the Unicode standard which basically refers to an international encoding scheme applied to uniquely identify characters. The process can take few months. As of now, there is no plan of printing or embossing of the symbol on Indian currency notes or coins.

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The Indian currency is called the Indian Rupee whereas the coins are called the paise. If we go back to the history pages, India is known to be one of the first civilizations to issue coins during 6th century BC. Throughout the course of Indian history, coins remained the prime monetary unit. Indians coins were kept evolving as different kingdoms came and went. They were wonderful representations of changing dynamics of India’s socio-political and cultural landscape. Indian coins were primarily made in gold, silver and copper.

In 18th century, the concept of currency took a drastic change with the arrival of bank establishments. Banks started to print their own paper currency in different languages. Thereafter, British reign took control of paper money and symbols on it.

The Reserve Bank of India got into act with note production in 1938 by issuing rupee notes of different denominations. The current series is called Mahatma Gandhi series which began in 1996.
The news of Rupee’s new symbol first appeared in 2008 when the Indian Government talked about possible creation of Rupee’s new symbol. The idea was definitely historical in nature and it had wider ramifications for Indian economy. After two years of intense speculation, competition, nationwide design submissions, finally, Indian cabinet gave its approval to new rupee symbol in July 2010. With approval of new Indian rupee symbol, India has finally joined the privileged club of currencies, which currently has the US dollar, British pound sterling, Euro and Japanese yen. This makes India rupee the 5th currency in the world to have a clear distinguishing identity.

The new rupee symbol is clearly an important step forward to recognize the increasing economic linkages between economies of India and the world. India has emerged as one of the most favored destinations for global investments and this indicates the underlying strength of the Indian economy. By launching its own currency symbol, India has also managed to distinguish itself from other similar currencies of different countries.

The new symbol is a blend of ‘Ra’ in Devanagri script and ‘R’ in Roman. It has two parallel lines crossing this ‘Ra’ or ‘R’ which actually denotes that the symbol “is equal to” one Indian rupee. A closer look at the symbol also indicates robustness of the Indian economy. The design is inspired from the tricolor, with two lines at the top and white space in between.

» more about rupee symbol | Importance of Indian rupee symbol | History of the Indian rupee symbol | How re-branding rupee can help brand India | Download Indian rupee images photos |