Indian rupee gets own currency symbolThe Indian rupee is to have its own currency symbol as India prepares to join the world's top economic powers.
Dean Nelson, in New Delhi
Published: 5:41PM BST 15 Jul 2010
Gurpreet Singh shows his artwork depicting the new graphic symbol of Indian Rupee Photo: EPA Until now the rupee has been denoted by the abbreviation 'Rs' or INRs to distinguish it from neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka which also have rupees.
Instead, it will soon have the Hindi character closest to 'R' with a horizontal line crossing the middle like the euro.
The dollar is still almighty - for nowThe design was chosen in a competition won by a teacher at one of the country's Indian Institutes of Technology. Uday Kumar's design was chosen from a shortlist of five and he was awarded around £3,500 in prize money.
India's decision to adopt a symbol reflects its rising confidence as its economy grows at more than nine per cent. India is expected to overtake China as the world's fastest growing economy in the next twenty years and the rupee is expected to be ranked alongside the euro, dollar, pound and yen before then.
The new design will now be incorporated into India's IT systems and feature on computer keyboards.
Introducing it into commercial use is expected to be expensive – the advent of the euro in 1999 is believed to have cost companies more than $50 billion.
Ambika Soni, India's information minister, said the new design will "distinguish the rupee from other currencies."
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