Symbol of Indian Rupee

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 symbolize the equal to sign. With this India will join an elite group of countries (like the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen) which have a distinct currency symbol. 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. 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.