- Indian rupee sign
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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,[1] 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 Rs sign.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 – U+20B9 ₹ indian rupee sign (HTML:
₹).Contents
Origin
On 5 March 2009, the Indian government announced a contest to create a sign for the Indian rupee.[2][3] During the 2010 Union Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee mentioned that the proposed sign would reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture.[4] Five signs created by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra, Hitesh Padmashali, Shibin KK, Shahrukh J Irani, and D Udaya Kumar[5][6] had been short-listed[6] 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.[7] The decision was deferred by a request of the Finance Minister,[4] and it was decided when they met again on 15 July 2010,[1] and selected the symbol created by D.Udaya Kumar son of N. Dharmalingam, a former DMK MLA.[8]
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.[9]
On 26 November 2010, the Delhi High single bench Court dismissed the writ petition, stating there was no justifiable ground for the stated allegations.[10] 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.[11]
Design
The new sign is a combination of the Devanagari 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.[12] 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.[13]
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.[1]
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.[14]
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.[15] In his budget speech on 28 February 2011 the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that the sign will be incorporated on future coin issues.[16] Coins of denomination of Rupees 1,2,5 and 10 with the new Rupee Symbol has been put into circulation.[17] [18] Bank notes in denomination of Rupees 10 with the new symbol has also been put into circulation.[19]
Unicode
On 10 August 2010, the Unicode Technical Committee accepted the proposed code position U+20B9 ₹ indian rupee sign (HTML:
₹graphic:
).[20] The character has been encoded in the Unicode 6.0, and named distinctly from the existing character U+20A8 ₨ rupee sign (HTML: ₨), which will continue to be available as the generic rupee sign.[21][22]See also
- Currency sign
- Generic rupee sign
References
- ^ a b c "Cabinet approves new rupee symbol". Times of India. 2010-07-15. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/biz/india-business/Cabinet-approves-new-rupee-symbol/articleshow/6171234.cms. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ http://finmin.nic.in/the_ministry/dept_eco_affairs/currency_coinage/Comp_Design.pdf COMPETITION FOR DESIGN
- ^ "India seeks global symbol for rupee". Hindustan Times. 2009-03-06. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=c8097698-a806-4cc2-8c67-668d594057dc&Headline=India+seeks+global+symbol+for+rupee. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ a b "Cabinet defers decision on rupee symbol". Sify Finance. 2010-06-24. http://sify.com/finance/budget-symbol-for-indian-rupee-news-budget-kc0pkgacdbj.html. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ^ "Rupee: Which of the 5 final designs do you like?". Rediff Business. 2010-06-16. http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jul/16/slide-show-1-rupee-symbol-design-what-the-other-finalists-say.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
- ^ a b "List of Five Entries which have been selected for Final". Ministry of Finance, Govt of India. http://finmin.nic.in/the_ministry/dept_eco_affairs/infrastructure_div/message_symbol_final.asp. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ "Rupee to get a symbol today!". Money Control.com. 2010-02-26. http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/rupee-to-getsymbol-today_466059.html. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ^ {{cite web |url= http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=334878&catid=36&Itemid=66 |title=Rupee symbol maker has DMK background |work=thestatesman.net |accessdate=8 June 2011}
- ^ Nair, Harish V (23 November 2010). "‘Rs' selection process challenged in High Cout". Hindustan Times. http://www.hindustantimes.com/Rs-selection-process-challenged-in-High-Cout/Article1-630123.aspx. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
- ^ "W.P.(C) No. 7915 of 2010 & CMs 20440-41/2010". Scribd. http://www.scribd.com/doc/44442322/Rupee-Symbol-Delhi-High-Court. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
- ^ "There's no national language in India: Gujarat High Court". Times of India. Jan 25, 2010. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Theres-no-national-language-in-India-Gujarat-High-Court/articleshow/5496231.cms.
- ^ "Indian Rupee Joins Elite Currency Club". Theworldreporter.com. 2010-07-17. http://www.theworldreporter.com/2010/07/indian-rupee-joins-elite-currency-club.html.
- ^ http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/events/Indian_Rupee_Symbol.pdf
- ^ http://techie-buzz.com/india-tech/ubuntu-10-10-indian-rupee-font.html
- ^ http://www.indiapost.gov.in/netscape/Stamps2010.html Indian stamp issues 2010
- ^ http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=360686&catid=40 Coins with new Rupee symbol soon
- ^ "Issue of new series of Coins". RBI. http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_ViewCurrencyPressRelease.aspx?Id=24773. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
- ^ "This numismatist lays hands on coins with Rupee symbol". Times of India. 29 August 2011. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-29/vadodara/29940658_1_coins-nandan-parikh-new-symbol. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
- ^ "Issue of 10/- Banknotes with incorporation of Rupee symbol". RBI. http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=25121. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
- ^ Michael Everson (2010-07-19). "Proposal to encode the INDIAN RUPEE SIGN in the UCS". http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3862.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
- ^ Unicode Currency Chart
- ^ U+20B9: Rupee gets Unicode identity
External links
- Udaya Kumar's design proposal for the Indian rupee sign
- Official announcement of the sign
- WebRupee, guidance for use of the sign on the web
- WebRupee ₹ Drupal Project
Currency signs (¤) Circulating 
Historic Currencies named rupee or similar Circulating Indian rupee (रुपया) (Taka in Bangladesh) · Indonesian rupiah · Maldivian rufiyaa (ދިވެހި ރުފިޔ) · Mauritian rupee (roupie) · Nepalese rupee (रूपैयाँ) · Pakistani rupee (روپي) · Seychellois rupee (roupi, roupie) · Sri Lankan rupee (ரூபாய் - රුපියල)Obsolete Afghan rupee · Bhutanese rupee · Burmese rupee · Danish Indian rupee · (British) East African rupee · French Indian rupee (roupie) · German East African rupie · Gulf rupee · Hyderabad rupee · Italian Somaliland rupia · Javan rupee · Mombasan rupee · Netherlands Indian roepiah · Portuguese Indian rúpia · Riau rupiah · Travancore rupee · West Irian rupiah · Zanzibari rupeeFictional Hylian rupeeSee also History of the rupee · Bhutanese ngultrum, pegged to the Indian rupee · Bangladeshi taka (Bengali name for rupee)Currencies of Asia Central East North South Southeast West Abkhazian apsar (unrecognized) · Afghan afghani · Armenian dram (Nagorno-Karabakh) · Azerbaijani manat · Bahraini dinar · Egyptian pound (Gaza Strip) · Euro (Cyprus) · Georgian lari · Iranian rial · Iraqi dinar · Israeli new shekel (Palestinian territories) · Jordanian dinar (West Bank) · Kuwaiti dinar · Lebanese pound · Nagorno-Karabakh dram (unrecognized) · Omani rial · Russian ruble (Abkhazia, South Ossetia) · Qatari riyal · Saudi riyal · Syrian pound · Turkish lira (Northern Cyprus) · UAE dirham · Yemeni rialCategories:- Currency signs
- Rupee
- Currencies of Asia
- Circulating currencies
- Numismatics
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