D Udaya Kumar - Designer of new Rupee Symbol
The jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The five-member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar’s design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval.
Kumar’s symbol (below) is an amalgam of the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.
The cabinet meeting, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, decided to adopt a new symbol for the Indian rupee to put it in the same bracket as other international currencies like the US dollar, the British pound and the Japanese yen. The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister’s approval, said a Ministry official.
The Ministry had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.
The new symbol is an amalgam of the Devnagiri ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem.
The Reserve Bank of India had announced the competition for a design of the rupee symbol with a cash prize of Rs 2.5 lakh.
After being shortlisted, Kumar along with the other designers made presentation of their designs in December 2009.
“Most of them were almost similar in concept and execution. I thought I had an edge, as Indian script was represented,” said Kumar.
“The Devnagari is the only script which has a line on the top. I also put another horizontal line…. so that we get a tricolour,” he said.
“I wanted the flag to be flying high and be represented in the symbol,” added Kumar, who will be joining IIT-Guwahati as an assistant professor Friday.