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India’s New Rupee Symbol
What makes the design work is the horizontal stroke which runs parallel to the top bar, which has been interpreted as an ‘equals to’ sign
The Republic of India is unique in its extraordinary diversity of language and scripts. As many as seventeen different languages are represented on its Rupee note. How does one then reduce this diversity to a single symbol of our currency?
Of all the Indian scripts, the Devanagari is the most widely used. Besides Hindi, which is the most widely spoken language in India, variants of Devanagari are used across all the scripts in the North, including Gurmukhi, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, etc. While the scripts of southern languages do not reflect the Devanagari infuence, it is acceptable in the south because of the legacy of Sanskrit.
If the mark is to have a semantic connect across the country, Devanagari is the only sensible choice. Again, the choice of the Ra character is an obvious one as it provides the phonetic connect with Ra for Rupee (like A for Apple). No other character could have been considered (for example P for Paisa, which has more or less lost its relevance, cannot be considered as a symbol for the Rupee).
Serendipitously, the Devanagari Ra also bears a resemblance to the letter R of the Latin alphabet, as it looks like a stylised R without the vertical stroke.
What makes the design work is the horizontal stroke which runs parallel to the top bar, which has been interpreted as an ‘equals to’ sign. This is what brings the otherwise nondescript Ra into the world of currency symbols.
This small intervention creates a formal connect with the visual vocabulary of other symbols such as the dollar, euro, pound and yen, all of which have strokes added on to traditional letterforms. Its resemblance to these universally recognised currency symbols makes this one credible, guaranteeing its entry to a club where the members have to look like they belong, where it is not appropriate for them to be disruptive.
Five designs that were short-listed by the jury and sent to the Cabinet for its approval For all these reasons, the chosen mark is appropriate to represent the rupee. However the process by which it was chosen is mystifying. The final logo was not one of the five designs that were short-listed by the jury and sent to the Cabinet for its approval. So where did it come from, and how did it become a contender after the short list was published? As in most cases of selection initiated by the Government, the process is unclear.
However, in this instance, the final design is a great improvement on the designs in the short list; so perhaps, just this once, the end justifies the means.
Sujata Keshavan is MD & Executive Creative Director, Ray+Keshavan
(This story appears in the 13 August, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Comments 4
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Vijay MalikCrores of Indians using Microsoft office package & almost seven months , microsoft has not added to its packages, whereas Rupee ( hindi indian languages ) sign is avlbl in currency option - microsoft should add same thru updates ASAP.
on Feb 16, 2011 -
anil k
The five images shown in the article could not have been the final five for the obvious reason that they lack clarity and simplicity of lines/strokes and also font-worthiness a currency symbol would demand. I f the jury had really shortlisted them, then the very jury's worthiness is in question. Even the finally selected symbol is too heavy in form and far from brilliant.
on Aug 13, 2010 -
Rohan
RTI Activists had already "Exposed Violation of Guidelines in "Indian Rupee Symbol" Design Competition." Even the winner symbol violated the guidelines RTI (Right To Information) had already exposed that he is Non-eligible candidate for Indian Rupee Symbol Design Competition as he had violated the Indian Rupee Symbol Design competition guidelines . According to guidelines one candidate could send maximum two design entries but he had submitted a total of four designs. Second violation of guideline is the symbol itself, as it's not applicable to standard keyboard or Unicode enable. Violations are not stopping here, according to information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni "The new rupee symbol partially resembles the Devanagri and Roman capital without the stem coupled with two parallel lines in line with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's vision for a symbol which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture." But using roman script/English alphabet in designing the New Indian rupee symbol is also a violation of guideline according to the guideline "The symbol had to be in the Indian National Language Script". But according to National language Script English is not included in that list till this date. All the above facts clearly show that his candidacy for the Indian rupee symbol competition has violated the guidelines which can be found http://www.saveindianrupeesymbol.org/2010/06/indian-rupee-symbol-guidelines.html Why did Finance Ministry put the guidelines in the first place when they would not follow it themselves or probably they were created only to be broken? This clearly showcases the biased attitude towards rest of the 3000 contestants who had participated in the Indian Rupee Symbol Design Competition. About symbol "reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture". On the final day of presentation of top five finalists one jury member from the ministry of culture was not present. It is also known that she had been irresponsible skipped two, meetings previously in same regard. Yesterday "The Stateman " had reported the political connection of winner of Indian rupee symbol designer Rupee symbol maker has DMK background http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=334878&catid=36&Itemid=66 I don't have any bad feeling for the winner but its a political scam and Indian design talent hit by corrupt politics Media for the first time in the history of India has gone into a mysterious silence over the fraud played by the organisers of symbol for rupee competition. In the past the same media specially electronic media has entered the bedrooms of the people to expose them and bring in front of the world and played the news 24×7 and this time when the things are crystal clear before them they have gone into the shell.
on Jul 31, 2010 -
Ali Khan
Dear Editor, One thing which stuck my mind was that the winner D Udaya Kumar`s design was not among the top five design which were published in the Indian news papers and the Indian news channels had run special SMS contests for the following few days to chose the best out of top five designs. Even you guys also published the same five design here at your website.. And answer of above question is here : http://newindianrupeesymbol.blogspot.com/ Please publish my comment in nation interest
on Jul 31, 2010
