Phrasing a new coin: The new INR symbol

July 18, 2010

Finally, the Indian rupee has got an identity of its own. As India is becoming a hot destination for investors across the world, the new icon for


Indian currency is likely to create a brand around 1.2 trillion dollar economy of the nation.

Once the union cabinet gave its nod to the selection of IIT-Mumbai alumnus D Udaya Kumar’s creation of the symbol—a mix of Devanagri ‘Ra’ and Roman ‘R’—history was scripted. The rupee has now entered into the elite club of currencies such as US dollar, Euro, British Pound Sterling and Japanese Yen which have distinct identities. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee whose ministry championed the cause, was one of the first persons to react to this historic development when he said Indian currency would now have an internationally recognisable identity.

According to plans, the symbol will be included in the Unicode Standard for representation and processing of text ensuring that it could be easily displayed or printed both in electronic and print media. While praising the symbol, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia emphasised on the need to ensure its fast entry into computers and typewriters.

Once the symbol is encoded in the Unicode Standard and National Standard, Nasscom, the software industry association, is likely to approach software development companies for incorporating it in their operative software. The branding exercise will be meaningful only if computer users around the world have an access to the symbol even though it is not on their keyboards. But keyboards being used in India, which do not have the Euro or Yen symbols, will invariably have the new rupee symbol prominently.

The Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology, the hardware industry body, will take the leadership in making the requisite changes in the production processes. But that can take place only after the symbol gets notified as a keyboard standard by Bureau of Indian Standards. Yet, the symbol will gain ground domestically only if it’s printed on currency notes, but that may take a while as it needs to follow a certain procedural mechanism. By the time, professional agencies could be engaged to brand the symbol nationally and internationally.

When Euro came into being in January 2002 as a common currency in most European nations, it was a Herculean task for the EU to brand the new


currency and its symbol, as common citizens were emotionally attached to their old respective currencies. But Euro finally won the battle.

The European Central Bank office, located in German city of Frankfurt, now houses a giant Euro sculpture symbolising prestige of the new currency. Critics may argue that it has turned out to be a symbol of greed and not prestige in the backdrop of the recent Eurozone crisis, but the giant sculpture has succeeded in capturing the strength of a brand that has become a challenge even to the US dollar.

So, why can’t the RBI headquarters in Mumbai’s Mint Road build a similar sculpture of the new symbol of Indian rupee? The Indian Central bank too should house a shop where tourists can buy the ‘Rupee’ coffee mugs and rupee gift-sets in the same way as it is done in European Central Bank.

But mere branding of a symbol will achieve nothing if India fails to march ahead in its financial reform agenda including full convertibility. The brand rupee will gain currency once money kiosks on the streets of London, New York and Tokyo prominently display the rupee symbol along with global biggies.