Indian rupee sign
Encyclopedia
The Indian rupee sign is the currency sign
used for the Indian rupee
, the official currency
of India
. It is relatively new, the design only having been presented to the public by the Government of India
on 15 July 2010, following its selection through an open competition among Indian residents. Before its adoption, the most commonly used symbols for the rupee were Rs, Re or, if the text was in an Indian language, an appropriate abbreviation in that language. The new sign only relates to the Indian currency; other countries that use a rupee, such as Sri Lanka
, Pakistan
and Nepal
, still use the generic character.
The design of the sign is a combination of the Devanagari letter "र" (ra
) and the Latin
capital letter "R". The Indian rupee sign is placed at U+20B9 in the Unicode
character set – .
, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
mentioned that the proposed sign would reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture. Five signs created by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra, Hitesh Padmashali, Shibin KK, Shahrukh J Irani, and D Udaya Kumar had been short-listed from around 3331 responses received and one of them was to be finalized at the Union Council of Ministers of India meeting held on 24 June 2010. The decision was deferred by a request of the Finance Minister, and it was decided when they met again on 15 July 2010, and selected the symbol created by D.Udaya Kumar son of N. Dharmalingam, a former DMK MLA.
The selection process was challenged under the Right to Information Act
in the Delhi High Court
. The petitioner, Rakesh Kumar, who was a participant in the competition, described the process as "full of discrepancies" and "flawed", and named the Finance Ministry and the chairman of Indian Rupee Symbol Selection Committee as respondents.
On 26 November 2010, the Delhi High single bench Court dismissed the writ petition, stating there was no justifiable ground for the stated allegations. But on March 31, 2011, Chief Justice and Justice Sanjiv Khanna of Delhi High Court in their judgment court allowed RTI activist Rakesh Kumar Singh to file PIL against “Indian Rupee symbol selection process”.
According to Guideline No. 5 of the contest process, submitted symbols were required to be "in the Indian National Language Script or a visual representation". It has been argued that this violates the Constitution of India
, because that does not specify any particular Indian Language Script as the Indian National Language Script.
letter "र" (ra) and the Latin
capital letter "R
" without its vertical bar (similar to the R rotunda
). The parallel lines at the top (with white space between them) are said to make an allusion to the tricolor Indian flag
. and also depict an equality sign which symbolizes the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity.
The final selected symbol was designed by D Udaya Kumar, a five-year B.Tech student at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. The thoughts and philosophy behind the design can be seen in a presentation.
The Indian rupee sign is now used in all leading newspapers and can be seen on price tags for products, and for various articles in papers where currency is used, this new sign being adopted instead of previous sign (Rs). Various new solutions for the usage of the new symbol have been also developed, such as WebRupee
provides an API which facilitates the usage of the Rupee symbol over the web. Additionally, the Ubuntu
operating system is the first computer program to support the rupee symbol out of the box.
Major banks have also started printing cheques with the Indian rupee sign where the traditional "₨" sign was used. The Indian Postal Department has also started printing postage stamps with the Indian rupee sign, when it issued the Commonwealth Games commemorative stamps on 3 October 2010. In his budget speech on 28 February 2011 the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that the sign will be incorporated on future coin issues. Coins of denomination of Rupees 1,2,5 and 10 with the new Rupee Symbol has been put into circulation. Bank notes in denomination of Rupees 10 with the new symbol has also been put into circulation.
Currency sign
A currency sign is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currency's name, especially in reference to amounts of money. They typically employ the first letter or character of the currency, sometimes with minor changes such as ligatures or overlaid vertical or horizontal bars...
used for the Indian rupee
Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
, the official currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is relatively new, the design only having been presented to the public by the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
on 15 July 2010, following its selection through an open competition among Indian residents. Before its adoption, the most commonly used symbols for the rupee were Rs, Re or, if the text was in an Indian language, an appropriate abbreviation in that language. The new sign only relates to the Indian currency; other countries that use a rupee, such as Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan rupee
The rupee is the currency of Sri Lanka, divided into 100 cents. It is issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and is generally written Rs. The rupee (Sinhala: රුපියල , Tamil: ரூபாய்) (sign: ₨; code: LKR) is the currency of Sri Lanka, divided into 100 cents. It is issued by the Central Bank of Sri...
, Pakistan
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
and Nepal
Nepalese rupee
The rupee is the official currency of Nepal. The present rupee has the ISO 4217 code NPR and is normally abbreviated with the sign ₨. It is subdivided into 100 paisa. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Nepal Rastra Bank...
, still use the generic character.
The design of the sign is a combination of the Devanagari letter "र" (ra
Ra
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
) and the Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
capital letter "R". The Indian rupee sign is placed at U+20B9 in the Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
character set – .
Origin
On 5 March 2009, the Indian government announced a contest to create a sign for the Indian rupee. During the 2010 Union Budget2010 Union budget of India
The Union budget of India for 2010-11 was presented by Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Friday, February 26, 2010. -Highlights :* The Indian economy was facing grave uncertainty...
, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current Lok Sabha.Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India,...
mentioned that the proposed sign would reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture. Five signs created by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra, Hitesh Padmashali, Shibin KK, Shahrukh J Irani, and D Udaya Kumar had been short-listed from around 3331 responses received and one of them was to be finalized at the Union Council of Ministers of India meeting held on 24 June 2010. The decision was deferred by a request of the Finance Minister, and it was decided when they met again on 15 July 2010, and selected the symbol created by D.Udaya Kumar son of N. Dharmalingam, a former DMK MLA.
The selection process was challenged under the Right to Information Act
Right to Information Act
The Right to Information Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India "to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens." The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir has its own act...
in the Delhi High Court
Delhi High Court
The High Court of Delhi was established on 31 October 1966. The High Court of Delhi was established with four judges. They were Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. K. Kapur.-History:...
. The petitioner, Rakesh Kumar, who was a participant in the competition, described the process as "full of discrepancies" and "flawed", and named the Finance Ministry and the chairman of Indian Rupee Symbol Selection Committee as respondents.
On 26 November 2010, the Delhi High single bench Court dismissed the writ petition, stating there was no justifiable ground for the stated allegations. But on March 31, 2011, Chief Justice and Justice Sanjiv Khanna of Delhi High Court in their judgment court allowed RTI activist Rakesh Kumar Singh to file PIL against “Indian Rupee symbol selection process”.
According to Guideline No. 5 of the contest process, submitted symbols were required to be "in the Indian National Language Script or a visual representation". It has been argued that this violates the Constitution of India
Constitution of India
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens...
, because that does not specify any particular Indian Language Script as the Indian National Language Script.
Design
The new sign is a combination of the DevanagariDevanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
letter "र" (ra) and the Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
capital letter "R
R
R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R...
" without its vertical bar (similar to the R rotunda
R rotunda
The r rotunda , "rounded r," is an old letter variant found in full script-like typefaces, especially blackletters. Between the Middle Ages and today, many ways of writing alphabetical characters were lost. Besides a variety of ligatures, conjoined letters, scribal abbreviations, swash characters,...
). The parallel lines at the top (with white space between them) are said to make an allusion to the tricolor Indian flag
Flag of India
The National flag of India is a horizontal rectangular tricolour of deep saffron, white and India green; with the Ashok Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, when it became the...
. and also depict an equality sign which symbolizes the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity.
The final selected symbol was designed by D Udaya Kumar, a five-year B.Tech student at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. The thoughts and philosophy behind the design can be seen in a presentation.
Usage
Upon the symbol's adoption in July 2010, the Indian government said it would try to adopt the sign within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months.The Indian rupee sign is now used in all leading newspapers and can be seen on price tags for products, and for various articles in papers where currency is used, this new sign being adopted instead of previous sign (Rs). Various new solutions for the usage of the new symbol have been also developed, such as WebRupee
Webrupee
WebRupee is an API build to provide access of Indian rupee sign over the web. It was released on 9 August,2010 in Pune, India. Accessed over a 300,000 times, WebRupee is the most easy to use solution....
provides an API which facilitates the usage of the Rupee symbol over the web. Additionally, the Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
operating system is the first computer program to support the rupee symbol out of the box.
Major banks have also started printing cheques with the Indian rupee sign where the traditional "₨" sign was used. The Indian Postal Department has also started printing postage stamps with the Indian rupee sign, when it issued the Commonwealth Games commemorative stamps on 3 October 2010. In his budget speech on 28 February 2011 the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that the sign will be incorporated on future coin issues. Coins of denomination of Rupees 1,2,5 and 10 with the new Rupee Symbol has been put into circulation. Bank notes in denomination of Rupees 10 with the new symbol has also been put into circulation.
Unicode
On 10 August 2010, the Unicode Technical Committee accepted the proposed code position . The character has been encoded in the Unicode 6.0, and named distinctly from the existing character , which will continue to be available as the generic rupee sign.See also
- Currency signCurrency signA currency sign is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currency's name, especially in reference to amounts of money. They typically employ the first letter or character of the currency, sometimes with minor changes such as ligatures or overlaid vertical or horizontal bars...
- Generic rupee sign