KOLKATA - The Indian government has adopted a symbol for the rupee, putting the
currency in a select club whose members have their own unique identities.
The symbol, an "R" with the vertical stroke absent and two horizontals added,
was chosen after almost 18 months of scrutiny of 3,000 proposals from
designers. Graphic designers say it is a perfect blend of the Roman letter "R"
and the Sanskrit letter "Ra". Sanskrit is India's ancient language, from which
most of the country's languages have been derived.
The symbol will eventually replace the abbreviations at present in use, such as
"Rs", or "INR". It could take 24 months at the least
for the country to shift completely to the new symbol and for it to
be incorporated as a standard by the International Organization for
Standardization and computing's Unicode Standard.
The existing list of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will also be amended
to incorporate the new symbol in the Indian Standards through the Indian Script
Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) for processing on computers and
including it on computer keyboards.
According to NASSCOM, an industry body for Indian software companies, after the
symbol is appropriately encoded, software development companies will be urged
to incorporate it in their operative software to enable computer users
worldwide to use the symbol even if it is not embedded on keyboards.
India's Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT) has
declared that following the recognition by the Unicode Standard, it will direct
its members to make the changes in their production processes right away.
Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said the symbol "not only
catapults the rupee into the club of just four countries with distinct
identities of their currencies - the US dollar, the euro, British pound and the
yen - it also distinguishes the Indian currency from those also designated as
rupee or rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
"It's also a big statement on the Indian currency since it will reflect the
strength and robustness of the Indian economy," Soni said.
The Indian economy has been transformed since 1991 when, following an crisis
caused by large and growing fiscal imbalances, the country had to pledge its
gold to the International Monetary Fund to avoid defaulting on its debt.
With an average economic growth of 7% over the past two decades, the economy is
the fastest growing in the world after China. Its foreign exchange reserves
have climbed to US$280 billion from $3.96 billion in March 1990.
The economic recovery came after an eight-year slide in the value of the rupee
from around 17.50 to the US dollar to more than 40 to the greenback. That has
helped to make the country's exports more competitive as the economy has opened
up to the outside world.
"It is a fact is that there is greater confidence in the Indian rupee today
than at any time in recent history," says Sanjaya Baru, a noted economist and a
financial journalist. Reflecting this, the rupee has for the past decade moved
within a limited band around the mid- to high 40s against the US dollar.
Experts say that that the new symbol rightly portrays India's transformation
from an underdeveloped country to a fast-developing nation, paving the way to
be considered a developed one in the future.
The Indian rupee, reportedly the first currency to carry that name, was first
minted during the reign of Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan (Pashtun) conqueror who
ruled India from 1486 to 1545. It started as 178-gram gold coins before being
made of cheaper metals, and eventually paper.
But besides giving it a new face, what does the new symbol mean for the
country?
For one, it increases the brand value of India - the currency of a nation is
its ambassador - says brand strategist Harish Bijoor. The new symbol will
depict the nation's strength and stability, both politically and economically,
he said.
According to Viren Razdan, who has worked on the rupee's re-branding, the
symbol reflects the country's ambition to emerge as an economic superpower. "It
conveys the message that we are firmly set on the path to economic prosperity.
The symbol is strong and stable and has a character of its own. Imagine the
impact it will have on foreign investors once usage gains ground," he said in
his comment to a local newspaper.
Yet even as the new symbol gives a global face to India's currency, say
dissenters, it has to be backed by prudent fiscal measures and other steps such
as eradication of both poverty and corruption. Making it work as a powerful
global identity will not be easy.
Indrajit Basu is a correspondent for Asia Times Online based in Kolkata.
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