[Image]At last after much delay the India Government had approved a design, design by IITian which will represent Indian Currency in the world distinguishably as many of the currencies in the sub continent as called as rupees. Its a blend of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R' .

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the design, which includes both the Devnagiri 'Ra' and the Roman capital 'R' and has two parallel lines running at the top. The parallel lines symbolise the equal to sign.

"With this India will join an elite group of countries which have a distinct currency symbol. It denotes the robustness of Indian economy. I will now hold up the design that was finally selected. This was sent in by Udaya Kumar," said Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni in New Delhi.

[Image]She said that the Rupee symbol was a nice blend of modernity and Indian culture.3

The symbol selected has been designed by an Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay postgraduate D Udaya Kumar and was selected from among five short listed symbols. Kumar, who will join the Department of Design at IIT Guwahati on Friday, explained that the design is based on the Indian Tricolour.

"My design is based on the Tricolour with two lines at the top and white space in between. I wanted the symbol for the Rupee to represent the Indian flag. It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters: a capital 'R', and Devnagari 'Ra', which represent rupiya, to appeal to international and Indian audiences. After working on the design for few months, I shortlisted eight to 10 designs and then refined them further till I got this one," said Kumar.

His entry was chosen from 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakh. All new notes will now bear the symbol.

Though the symbol will not be printed or embossed on currency notes or coins, it would be included in the 'Unicode Standard' and major scripts of the world to ensure that it is easily displayed and printed in the electronic and print media.

Among currencies with distinctive identities, only the pound sterling has its symbol printed on the notes.

Unicode is an international standard that allows text data to be interchanged globally without conflict. After incorporation in the global and Indian codes, the symbol would be used by all individuals and entities within and outside the country.

The symbol will be adopted in a span of six months in the country, and within 18 to 24 months globally, Soni said, adding that it will feature on computer keyboards and software for worldwide use.

- PTI Inputs

INTERVIEW BY CNN IBN(Exclusive)CNN-IBN: Now that the symbol that you drew has been selected as the symbol that represents Indian Rupee, it must be a proud moment for you?

D Udaya Kumar: Certainly. I am really excited and thrilled. I can't find words to express my happiness.

CNN-IBN: Can you please explain to what it (the symbol) actually means?

D Udaya Kumar: I have given a lot of thought to this design. It is basically based on the letter 'ra' in Devnagri script. In that, I have just added a strikethrough line to represent Indian flag. And since I have incorporated the Devnagri script, it represents the Indianness of it because the top-line is quite unique and is not found in any other script. I have also tried to incorporate the Roman script 'R' within it for it to have an international appeal.

CNN-IBN: It is not the first time that you have designed something like this. Your PhD also contained a lot of designs. What are your future plans? Where are you headed to now?

D Udaya Kumar: I always wanted to be a teacher. Now that I have been selected as an assistant professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, it is a great opportunity for me.

CNN-IBN: Few days back, we saw how a 22-year-old (Dr Tathagat Tulsi) became the youngest professor to join IIT-Bombay. You too are from the IIT. Is it the institution that pushes you to do these things?

D Udaya Kumar: Certainly. The environment here definitely gives us an advantage. It inspires one a lot when one sees his friends working hard and doing a great job. One is inspired to follow them, do a lot of work and achieve something. So, IIT-Bombay has immensely helped me, inspired me a lot and supported me with all my designs.

CNN-IBN: How significant is this new symbol for Indian rupee as well as Indian economy, from your perspective?

D Udaya Kumar: I think it is very much important that the Indian currency has a symbol because everywhere we see Dollar signs, Euro signs and Pound signs. Now that we also have a symbol, it would be seen all over the world.

CNN-IBN: You were one of the five persons whose symbols were shortlisted. You also got an opportunity to interact with them. How was that experience?

D Udaya Kumar: When five of us finalists were called to Delhi to make presentations, I got to share my design as well as see their designs. All the designs were really great and had their own uniqueness in them. It also made me look at my design with a different perspective. And though there were some commonalities between our designs; each one of our designs were excellent.