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New symbol for Indian Rupee Announced

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Now Indian Rupee has a new symbol and this is how it looks. This new symbol which has been shortlisted through a contest run by Finance Ministry of India. You can read about that Rupee design contest here. The basic aim of the new symbol is to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country’s economy exerts more influence in the global space, the unique sign will also help isolate the currency from the current abbreviation ‘Rs’ which is used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The winning designers concept was based on the Tricolour and “arithmetic equivalence”. While the white space between the two horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag with the Ashok Chakra, the two bold parallel lines stand for ‘equals to’, representing balance in the economy, both within and with other economies of the world. The winning designer is an IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Along with the announcement of the result, there have been a number of controversies as well. One of the RTI activist had revealed that the panel took less than 20 seconds to go through each of the design and analyze. This is what the activist revealed according to RTI Documents :

  • Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists. As candidate had submitted four designs.
  • One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
  • Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
  • No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
  • Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it .
  • Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009.
  • One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
  • All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process in any given time.
  • No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicate how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received!
  • Advertisement was only published in English language.

Keeping aside all the controversies, I am happy that there is a new symbol for Indian Rupee!

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  1. I am feeling past 1 year, Indian rupee symbol SCAM is same 2G spectrum scam. Indian media is fully under pressor but Internatitional media is allredey watching in this matter, most posibile, affter some time BIG scandal PARDAPHASH.

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  2. Indian rupee finally got a symbAt last we have a symbol for rupee.Young Uday Kumar deserves a big applaud and place in History for drawing the symbolol for itself and will now have an unique identity

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  3. Lucknow : RTI activist Mr. Rakesh Kumar Singh has submitted a public interest litigation (PIL ) writ petition in the High Court, the first of its kind last week in Allahabad High Court against cabinet based on the July 15th decision on Indian rupee new symbol design.

    As his and nine other RTI activists` RTI’s which were filed across India during the last one year, exposed the violation of guidelines and biased selection process in Rupee Symbol design competition.

    On September 16th Hon’ble Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench will hear on his writ petition in court no 1.
    Sources[+]

    Allabahad High court, Lucknow Bench, Lucknow [+]

    Fresh List Sl. No. 5, Dated 16-09-10, Court No. 1
    Details

    5.MISB -9176/2010 RAKESH KUMAR SINGH – R.S. TRIPATHI
    [P.I.L.] CIVIL
    Vs. UNION OF INDIA THRU MINIS- A.S.G.
    TRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT & AN
    District-LUCKNOW

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  4. according to me the symbol of rupee show the indian strength,with a powerful econmy. as indian is one of the seventh most powerful country in ecommy.THE INDIA SHOULD HAVE HIS OWN SYMBOL OF REPRESENTING THE RUPEE SYMBOL. This is because of every country has its own symbol to represent there rupee symbol. THEN WHY INDIA SHOULD NOT HAVE HIS SYMBOL TO REPRESENT HIS OWN SHYMOL. ”REALLY I LIKE THE SYMBOL” |||JAI HIND JAI BHARAT. PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN.

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  6. is any one taking the matter to court?? this is the urgent need of the hour. i hope rti activists do not delay this step. many thanks to them for the rti expose.

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    • Pl. wait “Parliament” (Start dated 26-07-10. ). Some Member of Parliament Loksabha and Rajysabha, question ask by Finance minstry.
      All is not well. Truth is Truth, Wrong is Wrong. SATYAMEV JAYTE.

      Reply

  7. Interview of the…
    Meet the Man Behind the Rupee Symbol D. Udaya Kumar: Certainly it’s a proud moment for me, I am really happy. It is a great great honor to be a part of Indian history……….. More

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  8. btw, how did they justify “keyboard friendliness” ? is this symbol directly type-able? I don’t think so.

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  9. Personally, I thought they could have come up with something better. Something that is easier to write…

    Though, you can not type the Rupee symbol directly, but by downloading the Rupee font, you could use the work around. I have written a small post how you could type the Rupee symbol on the computer, if it helps anyone.

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  10. Since so many people here are talking about the irregularities of the selection process, I am not sure how many will be happy to read this post. But still for people who might find this helpful. To type the Rupee symbol, find the steps in this post.

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  11. @narain: Yes I agree with you. This competition should be conducted again with proper framing of rules of contest. The symbol is not representative of India. This devanagiri script is not familiar to entire southern parts of India. The very fact that the jury members are mostly from Mumbai or Delhi shows their bias. They have completely ignored south india. This currency will only divide people if it is taken forward.

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  12. @Rakesh: I appreciate your efforts in unearthing the irregularities in the selection process. Everyone should fight against this careless attitude of the ministry in doing such an important work of selecting the rupee symbol.I think ministry should be forced to re-evaluate all the designs or conduct the exercise in a fair manner.

    Reply

  13. Indian rupee symbol . Pl care the matter…

    1st News
    VISFOT.com Hindi News

    2nd – DNA news (ENglish)

    New Delhi: Days after its selection by the finance ministry, the symbol of the rupee has got embroiled in a controversy. Two of the unsuccessful candidates have claimed that the selection process to choose the new rupee symbol is full of discrepancies and is flawed. The duo — Anil Khatri and R K Singh — have used RTI replies given by the finance ministry to assert their claim. Designs of both were short-listed, but they didn’t make it to the last five.

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  15. Indian rupee finally got a symbol for itself and will now have an unique identity. May be it is time for us to throw all those old soiled notes and get new crispier ones with the new symbol printed on them.
    Rich can get richer and show off their money symbolically. Poor can search for that symbol of success in the modern world. Google might be of help..ha ha..
    I am happy that I will be able to remember the birth of this symbol as it has come about on the day the great leader Kamaraj was born.

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  16. The symbol in no way reflects the historical or cultural ethos of India which is one of the criteria set by ministry. Showing the mix of roman and devanagri script as India’s characteristic is awful . Every country that has come under western influence over the centuries has gone through this and exhibit a mix of traditional and western character. What is Unique about India in this ? The symbol does not reflect any unique character of India. It is true about almost every country. It is not a well thought of design. In fact, tt does not say anything about India.
    As someone said, they were planning to select one entry from the rest of the four contestants shortlisted. But those 4 candidates have become controversial as they had contacts with some of the influential people in the ministry. So they have selected this entry. Who knows whether this person also has contacts with some influential people. They did not want to go through the entire exercise once again and so finalized the winner.
    In the contest rules, they have not specified conditions properly which has mislead most of the people. It is a national shame that the contest was conducted in such a lousy manner.
    It is high time people take up the issue with highest level in the government and force them to run the contest in a proper manner.

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  20. I am shocked to know that they have selected such a stupid looking symbol. There is nothing creative about it. It does not require a competition or designer’s time to think of such a symbol. They have selected this winner from 5 as the other 4 winner’s cases were more controversial. The way the competition was conduted and the RTI expose proves the incompetent way in which the jury has done the job.
    The symbol does not reflect historical and cultural ethos of India by any stretch of imagination. It does not say anything about the culture or history or recent advancements made by India. It is strange that they have selected it. It is huge dissappointment for those who were waiting to see a brilliant symbol.
    As far as the way selection was made, I hope somebody would take up the matter and file a case against the way competition was conducted and selection was done.

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  21. i do not know what is so great about this symbol when the entire process of selection is 100 per cent doubtful. rti information received by r.k.singh clearly exposes the frud played by the organisers and now the time has come to knock the doors of court for justice. there is no jealousy in this but entire process is shrouded in doubts and if the organisers have guts i am ready for open debate any time anywhere and i appeal to the media to expose this fraud.

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    • @umashankar: Sir am not sure why you asked this question, but it seems that you not happy with something. But just to answer your question, it might not make ‘Rupee grow on trees, but it will for sure leave provide a face’ to our currency. You know, every winning man has to have a face of its own. That is what the government has tried to do here. At least now I am proud of having the Rupee symbol on my computer.

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    • Dear Rakesh, thank you for all your efforts to bring out the truth from the selection process. Thanks for keeping us informed about all your findings through RTI.

      Reply

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