The arcane subject of currency symbols became a hot topic Thursday when India announced that it will implement a unique symbol for the Indian Rupee in world financial markets. Until now, there has been no currency symbol for the Indian rupee, just the abbreviation Rs, Re, or INR. On June 24, the symbol, a hybrid of the Roman letter R and its Hindi equivalent accentuated with a double slash, can be finalized by India’s Union Cabinet. Depending on Europe’s recent experience with the Euro symbol, integrating the new rupee symbol could take a couple of years and cost numerous billions of dollars.
Rupee’s rise calls for a new currency symbol
World financial markets had no way to identify the currency of India, which is the second largest democracy in the world. The Deccan Chronicle reports that a design contest with the purpose of creating a currency symbol evoking the history and culture of India selected the new rupee symbol. Indian officials said the new rupee symbol will end the confusion in world financial markets resulting from the use of abbreviated Rs as currency symbols by neighboring countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. As India angles to become a financial superpower, a distinct identity for the rupee also makes the currency more tradeable in the west.
Will elite club of currencies welcome the rupee?
Unique currency symbols presently exist only for the U.S. dollar, European euro, British pound and Japanese yen. The BBC reports that with its new rupee symbol, the Indian government is declaring itself a member in this elite class of world economies. A panel of artists, officials and bankers picked the new rupee symbol design from as much as 36,000 entries in the contest. A design from a design teacher at the Indian Institute of Technology was declared the winner. The contest awarded him Rs 2.5 lakh in winnings, or about $ 5,350.
Euro symbol introduction cost billions
A new currency symbol is an costly and time-consuming undertaking. Suite 101 reports that testing the symbol for technical applications like the web, banners and mobile phones is rigorous and difficult. Plus, it needs to be adaptable to computer keyboards and a large investment is needed to print a new banknote design. The BBC article pointed out that to update computer systems to deal with the new euro symbol cost them upwards of $ 50 billion.
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deccanchronicle.com
bbc.co.uk
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