Mumbai, India: July 15, 2010 - IR Summary/Agencies-

India has finally got a symbol for the Rupee and joined a select club of countries whose currencies have a exclusive identity, it is a matter of great honor for the Indian people to have their own symbol like that of the currencies of other major countries. All new notes will thus bear the new symbol of Indian Rupee.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday has 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 which have a distinct currency symbol. It denotes the robustness of Indian economy. I will now hold up the design that was finally selected. This was sent in by Udaya Kumar," said Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni in New Delhi.

She said that the Rupee symbol was a nice blend of modernity and Indian culture. The symbol selected has been designed by an Indian Institute of Technology postgraduate D Udaya Kumar and was selected from among five short listed symbols. Kumar, who is with the Department of Design at IIT Guwahati, explained that the design is based on the Indian Tri-color.