The symbol combines the Roman letter 'R' and its equivalent in Devnagari a script which is employed in Hindi and in some other North Indian languages that were derived from Sanskrit.
The symbol, which replaces the oft-used shortened form of rupee such as 'Rs' or 'INR' (Indian Rupees), will take about two years to be fully implemented considering the time needed to update various software and computer keyboards.
The rupee has thus joined the club of currencies such as UK's pound sterling, US' dollar and the Japanese Yen that are identified by a symbol.
With this, the Indian rupee will also be seen as a distinct entity from its namesakes in the neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, where either rupee or rupaiah are in vogue.
For the government, having a symbol for the domestic currency has been a matter of prestige for the fastest growing free market democracy in the world. The symbol, selected by the finance ministry from over 3,000 entries and approved by the Cabinet, is designed by D Udaya Kumar, a post-graduate from IIT, who has been newly appointed as an assistant professor in the design department of IIT-Guwahati.
The government will try to adopt it within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months, information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters here after the Cabinet meeting.
"The symbol for the Rupee would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and robustness of the Indian economy," the government said in a statement. The symbol would be incorporated in the 'unicode standard', which is a character coding system to facilitate worldwide communication of written texts in diverse languages and technical disciplines.
The government, the software industry body Nasscom and the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology would take all steps to ensure that computer keyboards allow the use of the symbol, the government said here.
No comments:
Post a Comment