IIT Graduate Gives Indian Rupee Its Symbol

IIT graduate gives Indian Rupee its symbol

Press Trust of India, Updated: July 16, 2010 00:05 IST

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New Delhi: The Indian rupee will soon have a unique symbol -- a blend of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R' -- joining elite currencies like the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen in having a distinct identity.

The new symbol, designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, was approved by the cabinet today -- reflecting that the Indian currency, backed by an over-trillion dollar economy, was finally making its presence felt on the international scene. (How do you like the symbol?)

"It's a big statement on the Indian currency... The symbol would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and global face of the Indian economy," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

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 softwares for worldwide use.

Soni said that the symbol, which reflects the Indian ethos and culture, would help distinguish the currency from the rupee or rupiah of other countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Besides this, state governments would be asked to proactively promote the use of the new symbol, she added.

Kumar's entry was chosen from 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs. 2.5 lakh.

"It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters -- capital 'R' and Devanagri 'Ra' which represents rupaiah, to appeal to international and Indian audiences... My design is based on the tricolour, with two lines at the top and white space in between," a visibly-happy Kumar said.

The jury, which had sent the five short-listed entries for the cabinet's approval, was headed by a Reserve Bank Deputy Governor.

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Story first published: July 15, 2010 01:01 IST Tags: IIT graduate Udaya Kumar, Indian Rupee symbol, Indian Rupee symbol creator Udaya Kumar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Udaya Kumar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The topic of this article may not meet the general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (August 2010) Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam 10 October 1978 (age 32) Born Chennai, India Residence India Nationality Indian IDC, IIT Bombay (PhD) IDC, IIT Bombay (MDes) Alma mater Anna University (SAP, Chennai) (B.Arch.) Occupation Assistant professor, IIT Guwahati The designer of the Indian rupee sign Known for (2010)

The rupee symbol

Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam, (Tamil: உதய குமார் தருமலிங்கம் utaya kumār tarumaliṅkam, born 10 October 1978 in Chennai), is the designer of the Indian rupee sign.[1] He is an assistant professor at IIT Guwahati.[2] His design was selected from among five short listed symbols.[3] Udaya Kumar explained that the design is based on the Indian tricolour. Contents [hide]

• 1 Personal life • 2 Academics • 3 Research

• 4 References [edit] Personal life

Kumar is a son of N. Dharmalingam, a former DMK MLA.[4] [edit] Academics

Kumar pursued his doctoral studies at IDC, IIT Bombay (2010). Udaya received his master’s degree, MDes in Visual Communication from IDC, IIT Bombay (2003) and bachelor’s degree in architecture, B.Arch from the School of Architecture and Planning (SAP) at Anna University, Chennai (2001). [edit] Research

His areas of interest include graphic design, typography, type design and design research with special focus on Tamil typography. He has completed his PhD on Tamil typography at IDC, IIT Bombay.[5]

He has also designed a Tamil font named "Parashakti" as a mini project at Industrial Design Centre, IDC, under the guidance of Prof. G. V. Sreekumar. During his MDes project, he wrote and designed a book on Tamil typography, which is the first attempt at bringing a topic like typography to a Tamil audience. In this book, Kumar also created new Tamil terminology for many typographic terms where English words were used. .[6] Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni approved the new Indian currency rupee symbol design which was conceptualized by an IIT post-graduate student Mr. D Udaya Kumar on Thursday 15 July 2010. gets prize money of Rs 2,50,000. Minister Ambika Soni also said that the “new Indian currency rupee symbol in use but she said it would take approximately six months in India and on the subject of two years to make it recognized all other countries government worldwide”. [edit] References

1. ^ Rupee gets a new symbol 2. ^ Department of Design, IIT Guwahati 3. ^ "Final Selection for the Symbol for Indian Rupee - List of Five Entries: Ministry of Finance, Government of India". Finmin.nic.in. http://finmin.nic.in/the_ministry/dept_eco_affairs/infrastructure_div/message_symbol_final.asp. Retrieved 2010-07-30. 4. ^ "Rupee symbol maker has DMK background". thestatesman.net. http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=334878&catid=36&Itemid=66. Retrieved 8 June 2011. 5. ^ "Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay(IIT Bombay), India". Idc.iitb.ac.in. http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in. Retrieved 2010-07-30. 6. ^ "D. Udaya Kumar". IIT Mumbai. http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/students/phd/udayakumar/index.html.

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• Privacy policy • About Wikipedia • Disclaimers The jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The five-member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar’s design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval. Kumar’s symbol (on the left) is an amalgam of the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year. The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister’s approval, said a Ministry official. The Ministry had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.

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______UDAYA KUMAR CREATES HISTORY

By designing the winning rupee symbol, D. Udaya Kumar has, in one stroke, immortalised his own name for posterity. Overnight, he has become the poster-boy of the press and everything that could possibly be written about him has already been covered in the mainstream newspapers and TV channels. So instead of adding to his existing girth of accolades, let us just add our own heartiest congratulations. Rupee Symbol by We are all proud of his achievement and thank him for doing Udaya Kumar IIT Bombay and IDC proud. D Udaya Kumar: The man who design the rupee symbol Surabhi & Dibyajyoti Chatterjee, ET Bureau Jul 16, 2010, 04.26am IST Tags:

• Symbol| • Rupee

Dharmalingam Udaya Kumar was booked to fly to Guwahati on Thursday morning. On Friday he was to start his new job as assistant professor in the department of design at the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati. He was leaving the IIT Mumbai campus where he spent five years earning a PhD in industrial design—the first doctorate to be awarded in the discipline in India.

The calls started pouring in early Thursday morning. He had won a nationwide contest run by the government to design a symbol for the Indian rupee. A symbol he designed, incorporating elements of Devanagari and Roman scripts, had been chosen to represent India's growing economy and its currency. It would be incorporated in Unicode, computer keyboards will have a dedicated key for the symbol and it will come to be seen and recognised around the world. A designer gets to create a currency symbol just once in a nation's life.

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For a man used to painstaking and solitary pursuit of meaning in symbols, typefaces and ancient Tamil manuscripts, the attention must have been unsettling. He didn't take his flight. In the evening, cars came to haul him off to television studios. He would go to Guwahati the next day.

Born in Chennai on 10 October, 1978, Kumar's family hails from Thanjavur. The magnificent temples there must have had something to do with his decision to study architecture, which he pursued at Anna University in Chennai. Subsequently, he did his masters in architecture from IIT, Mumbai. When the industrial design centre in the campus started offering a PhD, Udaya Kumar enrolled, and started work on the evolution of the Tamil script,which dates back to 2nd century AD.

"I want to continue work on Tamil typography. I find our symbols have a very heavy western influence. I will do more work on Indian scripts," he told ET. For the design, he took inspiration from the symbols of such currencies as Korea's won, UK's pound sterling, euro, lira, peso and others. "Thus it has a harmonious identity as far as international currency symbols are concerned and at the same time it has the Indian uniqueness," he said about his winning design. Among the international currencies, he likes the Yen symbol as it best reflects the country. The 31-year-old bachelor worked as a senior designer for two years with speciality magazine publisher Infomedia.