5 designs shortlisted for Indian rupee symbol
By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 19 December 2009, 18:45 IST
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5 designs shortlisted for Indian rupee symbol
New Delhi: The long wait to get new symbol of the rupee is likely to end by March 2010. A committee headed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Usha Thorat has shortlisted five symbols from 4,000 entries for a public competition to select a design for the symbol, reports Rediff. The committee is expected to announce the winner in January, but all the process are likely to get over by March. "RBI has given its recommendations, but it will need the approval of the finance minister as well as the Cabinet. This may take two-three months," said Throat. The final interview of the five candidates took place a couple of days ago in New Delhi. The finalists are from very different backgrounds. While two are design professionals, one is doing his PhD in industrial design at IIT-Bombay, one is an architect trained at MIT, while one is a high school computer science teacher at Thalassery. While the five candidates will be awarded 25,000, the winner will get 2.5 lakh (Rs 250,000). The candidates, four of whom are from Mumbai , are Jitiesh Padmashali (working with advertising agency JWT), Shahrukh J Irani (Design Professional), D Udaya Kumar (IIT student), Nondita Correa-Mehrotra (MIT, and renowned architect Charles Correa's daughter) and Shibin KK (Teacher in Kerala). The contest was only for resident Indians. Unlike other major currencies of the world like the dollar, the pound, the yen and the euro, the rupee does not have a globally recognized symbol. The rupee is generally shortened to Rs and is sometimes described as INR (Indian rupee). A RBI official said that the symbol of the rupee will have an iconic meaning, which is to convey the brand value of the currency and the nation. The launch of a symbol is a step towards making it internationally acceptable for trading. The government has said the symbol should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country and should be applicable to the standard computer keyboard. India's move to come up with a new symbol for its currency came at a time, when the dollar's status as a reserve currency is being questioned following the global financial crisis which started with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

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