It’s time the rupee had a symbol too

That's why the finance ministry is inviting entries. The winner will walk away with Rs 2.5 lakh

It's time the rupee had a symbol too

That's why the finance ministry is inviting entries. The winner will walk away with Rs 2.5 lakh

The ministry of finance wants you to get your creative juices flowing and design a symbol for the rupee. So far, we've been using INR or Rs to denote the Indian currency.

A notification on the finance ministry website says: "Major currencies of the world eg, US dollar, pound sterling, yen and the euro have an identification symbol. The government of India also proposes to have a symbol for the Indian rupee to be selected through public competition."

The symbol should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country and should also be applicable to the standard keyboard.

Open to all

The competition is open to all resident Indians. Five designs will be shortlisted and the designers will win Rs 25,000 each. The designer of the winning symbol will win Rs 2.5 lakh.

Many people think it's a good idea to represent the rupee with a symbol and see it as the coming of age of a superpower.

Denilal, senior designer at Toonkidz feels that a rupee symbol will showcase India as a growing superpower.u00a0

"India is growing to be a financial power. So it must be shown.

It should be imprinted even in computer keyboards like the dollar. Even in softwares, we see American dominance in the form of the dollar sign. We need some Indian symbol on the keyboard. I have designed logos. I am sure I can design a symbol and will try doing it for the rupee," he said.

Rajesh Bhatt, a techie who gave up his job to start Foundation for Life, an organisation which trains zero-education rural youth into BPO employees too supports the idea. "I would say, we do need a symbol. It would help us to make transactions and conversions. It would also make it easier to put automatic values which can be converted depending on conversion rates."

Ambrita Fernandes, a HR consultant with Ujjivan, a mirco-finance company is excited about the competition. "I love designing logos and symbols. I used to do that in college. This sounds very interesting. I will get to work to find a suitable symbol for the currency," she said.

How to go about it
>>Last date for entries is 1 pm on 15 April 2009
>>A person or a team can send a maximum of two entries
>>Entries should be accompanied by a bank draft of Rs 500 in favour of Pay and Accounts Officer, Department of Economic Affairs, North Block, New Delhi 110001.
>>The envelope should be labelled "Entry for symbol for the Indian Rupee."
>>For details, log on to www.finmin.nic.in