The Union Cabinet selected a new symbol for the Indian Rupee, designed
by a Mr. D. Udaya Kumar of IIT Bombay. It won't actually be printed on
currency notes, and of course nobody will bother to use it until it is
added to Unicode, but here it is:
The Information & Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni
told reporters
that It is just a symbol
, but it apparently allows us to
join the
exclusive club
of countries whose currencies have a distinct identity
,
and somehow represents the
robustness of the Indian economy
(R for Robustness?) while being a blend of modernity and Indian
culture
.
How dreadfully silly.
I practised drawing the symbol on my whiteboard a few times, and came to
the happy realisation that—if you squint at it just right—it looks like
a (strangely long-necked) raptor in soaring flight, as seen from below.
But maybe that's just me.