08.02.10
Meena Kadri | Miscellaneous

Two Rupees Worth

Rupee symbol for upcoming release from the Indian Type Foundry: Kohinoor Devanagari

Now that the dust has settled on India's launch of their rupee symbol we are starting to see its application beyond the initial fanfare. Signaling a strengthening economy, India's currency joins the likes of the euro, British pound, US dollar and Japanese yen in having a unique identity. Indian Institute of Technology graduate D. Udaya Kumar, won the national competition with his entry which combined the Roman "R" with the Devanagari "Ra."

Cell phone and software developers, hardware manufacturers, typographers and others are waiting for the Unicode Consortium to release its format for the new symbol. But the folks at the Indian Type Foundry are not letting this hold them back. Celebrated Indian typographer Satya Rajpurohit is developing versions of the new symbol to accompany the foundry's range of current and upcoming typefaces using Open Type's Ligature features until Unicode delivers. "The symbol's skeleton form is sound. The challenge has been to balance the weight between the Indic and Roman versions of our fonts. Naturally any symbol will be somewhat tailored to a particular typeface and I feel that type designers will adapt the new rupee mark with the flair they devote to all characters. It's like welcoming a new member to the family."

The logo of Kaun Banega Crorepati

Elsewhere the symbol is set to star on prime time television. Seasoned Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan recently tweeted "New logo for KBC! Note the Rupee symbol incorporated in the design. My suggestion!! Yeahhh!! Feeling good" He's referring to the logo of Kaun Banega Crorepati — the Indian game show which he hosts that is based on the British Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and featured in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millonaire. The show's new logo builds upon its previous version with the addition of the fresh rupee symbol to form a wheel. The hugely popular show will go a long way in bringing the nation's latest character to life.


Posted in: Arts + Culture, India, Typography



Comments [17]

I must say, I am really proud of the new Rupee symbol. It's a smart design, and i think people will be able to recognize that it's a currency symbol instantly.
Sumit Paul
08.02.10
10:35

Sorry 2 Say But Indian Rupee Symbol Hit By Corruption http://www.saveindianrupeesmbol.org What U have to say about it NOW?
Ali
08.02.10
02:55

RTI Activist exposed : Mismanagement and violation of guidelines in “Indian Rupee Symbol” design competition.

According to RTI Documents : http://www.Saveindianrupeesymbol.org

1. Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists. As candidate had submitted four designs.
2. One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
3. Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
4. No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
5. Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it .
6. Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009.
7. One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
8. All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process in any given time.
9. No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicated, how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received ?
Rohan
08.02.10
02:59

What you’ve done is display a Rupee symbol shown as a bold roman because that’s the easiest way to make it look good. How about showing us how an R with a bar jammed through the upper counter looks as Bold Condensed Tabular Italic?
James Puckett
08.02.10
04:51

Satya's adaptation for the Kohinoor typeface is great, of course. It's clean and respectful, and like all his work, crystal clear.

But we will have to deal with is the symbol being used with latin typefaces in newspapers, for instance. Anyone working on a Times Roman version? Or a Comic Sans one, for that matter?

Nobody seems to know exactly how the symbol is going to be mainstreamed in a well-designed manner.
Avinash Rajagopal
08.02.10
04:52

I'm an Indian student and user interface designer, I would say the symbol is not even a 'paise' worth comparing to all the cloud they created.
Ben
08.02.10
05:21

Thanks Ali and Rohan for highlighting the controversy over the eligibility of the winning symbol design. As the article author I was aware of this which made me reluctant to cover the launch earlier. But now I'm interested to explore how it is being implemented typographically within Indian culture and look forward to seeing further manifestations – both from India and beyond.
Meena Kadri
08.02.10
05:31

“Nobody seems to know exactly how the symbol is going to be mainstreamed in a well-designed manner.”

That’s the case of all new symbols. Just give it a few years.
James Puckett
08.02.10
05:35

New Rupee Symbol Design Competition and It's Devastating effect on homegrown Design talent http://bit.ly/cZ704d
Bindia
08.03.10
03:02

@Binda Great to see then that home grown design talent like Satya at ITF wasted no time on being devastated. Keen to see who else steps up.
Meena Kadri
08.03.10
03:41

@Bindia This voucher entitles you to mis-spell my name too (apologies)
Meena Kadri
08.03.10
03:58

May be there is no need for comparison, but its really hard to judge the quality of Satya's version & the winning design.

In this visual the property of Roman R is prominent rather than Devanagari 'Raa'-र . While in winning design the Devanagari र looks more prominent but less balanced in geometry. And ideally, being a national representation it should highlight more on Devanagari. So may be version more towards र & visually balanced at same time would be a perfect one ?

Anyway, one great thing i am enjoying after this activity is that i can see even non-design people talking about it & saying its 'designed'.
Nitin Garg
08.03.10
04:05

Selected Final symbol by jury and Government. Not fair selection..
2- RTI (Rakesh Kr singh) expose matter not discus by cabinet. See Last Question by media. (Smt. Ambika soni. Soni said the RTI query was not discussed in the cabinet meeting)

On Youtube
On DNA NEWS
…….But like all things big, the rupee symbol comes with a dose of controversy. An RTI query has been filed over the selection process of the currency symbol for it not being a fair and transparent process. According to the RTI applicant, not everyone in the jury was present while selecting the symbol. Soni said the RTI query was not discussed in the cabinet meeting.

On MINT English News.
And Here
Meanwhile, Rakesh Kumar Singh, an employee of the Uttar Pradesh state government, alleged there were irregularities in the selection process.

Singh, who had entered the competition to design a symbol, said he had sought information on the process under the Right to Information (RTI) Act as he suspected that bureaucratic bungling had vitiated the process.

Little about.com News
http://www.littleabout.com/news/98086,top-5-rupee-symbol.html

Emagine 18 News
http://www.imagine18.com/save-indian-rupee-symbol/7699/06/

TRIk in news
http://trak.in/tags/business/2010/07/15/new-indian-rupee-symbol/
http://www.indianfinancenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/shocking-story-on-how-5-indian

Danik Bhaskar
http://www.bhaskar.com/article/DEL-new-rupee-symbol-1167150.html?PRV

DNA news
'Flaws in selection of rupee symbol'
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_flaws-in-selection-of-rupee-symbol_1411192

Visfot.com news
http://www.visfot.com/index.php/news_never_die/3702.html
bharatchronicle.com
Controversy surrounds new Indian Rupee symbol

http://www.bharatchronicle.com/controversy-surrounds-new-indian-rupee-symbol-7594

The Economic times News (One of the Finalists Cometnt)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5350545.cms

“I had written to the RBI in 2005 saying we should have a symbol for the rupee,” said Nondita Correa-Mehrotra , one of the finalists, more marvelling at the coincidence of it all than implying it may have influenced the government.

Correa-Mehtorta is a Harvard University-trained architect and works at her father’s firm—Mumbai-based Charles Correa Associates. The final list pits two leading advertising agencies against each other for the big honour—JWT and Publicis Ambience.

Video news
http://www.in.com/videos/watchvideo-cabinet-approves-symbol-for-indian-rupee-8737303.html
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/6191753.cms

However, in June, a meeting of the Union Cabinet, which was supposed to decide on the symbol, didn’t take up the issue because the finance minister said he needed more time. The search for a new symbol for the rupee had started in February 2009, when the Union Ministry of Finance kicked off a competition for the design of the symbol — although not without controversy.

Non-resident Indians protested because they were not allowed to participate. Others grumbled at the US$10 entry fee. Some objected to the identifying photograph that had to accompany all entries because it intruded on participants’ privacy. And there were complaints when the five winning entries were shortlisted by a panel of experts. The government remained silent on these matters. There was uncertainty about the number of entries received, with estimates ranging from 3,500 to 25,000.

Mostly economics Article
http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/finally-rupee-symbol-released/#comment-23187
bharatchronicle news dated 19-07-10….

New Delhi : The new symbol for rupee has attracted controversy. Two unsuccessful candidates who sent designs for the new symbol have claimed that the selection process was flawed. The duo —

http://www.bharatchronicle.com/controversy-surrounds-new-indian-rupee-symbol-7594

THE STATESMAN NEWS
Ru pee symbol maker has DMK background Chennai, 16 July: The man who designed the award winning insignia for the rupees actually hails from a family attached to the DMK, a party actually known for its pro-Tamil tilt or anti-Hindi agitation in the 60s and 70s.
Mr D Udaya kumar, presently working as assistant professor in IIT-Guwahati, and who came up with the design is the son of Mr N Dharmalingam, a former DMK MLA, who is a native of Marur in Villupuram district in North Tamil Nadu.
The family presently stays in Thondiarpet in North Chennai where Udaya Kumar grew up. Kumar had earlier passed out of Chennai’s Anna University with a top rank in architecture and has always been known for his bent on art.
The insignia he designed is a combination of Devanagiri script and Roman letter “R” combining both Rupee and rupiya as pronounced in present Hindi.

READ FULL NEWS..
http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=334878&catid=36&Itemid=66

'My son has brought glory to TN'

CHENNAI: With every other report hailing an IIT-Bombay alumnus for designing the insignia of the Indian rupee, Jayalakshmi of Tondiarpet was feeling more and more cross. "They keep saying Bombay-based boy and destroy the glory that my son has brought to Tamil Nadu," she rued. "They even misspell his name as 'Uday'. It's terrible!"

IIT-Bombay might be D Udaya Kumar's biggest calling card, but the fact that the 32-year-old design genius was born in Marur near Tiruvannamalai and raised in North Chennai is indisputable

Read full news……
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/my-son-has-brought-glory-to-tn/190141.html

Details of the replies to his some RTI application are posted on the website
http://www.saveindianrupeesymbol.org

Rajsthan Patrika News
कोटा।रूपए के प्रतीक चिह्न की चयन प्रक्रिया पर सवाल उठने के बाद �...ब प्रतीक चिह्न पर भी आपत्तियां आने ल�—ी है। कोटा के छात्र विनय राहूरे ने भी रूपए के प्रतीक चिह्न को विभा�— के मापदण्डों के �...नुसार नहीं बताते हुए विरोध दर्ज कराया है। प्रतियो�—िता में प्रविष्टि भेजने वाले विनय का कहना है कि �—लत चिह्न का चयन किया �—या है। उन्होंने इस बारे में वित्त मंत्रालय संपर्क कर वहां भी विरोध दर्ज करवाया। कोटा के नयापुरा क्षेत्र निवासी विनय दिल्ली में डिजायनर है। प्रतियो�—िता में राजस्थान से चार प्रतिभा�—ियों ने प्रविष्टियां भेजी थी, जिसमें कोटा से विनय राहूरे भी शामिल था।

यह है आपत्तियां
विनय ने बताया कि नए प्रतीक चिह्न में दो �-ामियां स्पष्ट है। वित्त मंत्रालय की ओर से जारी मापदण्डों के �...नुसार �...क्षर .........Read full news..
http://www.24dunia.com/hindi-news/shownews/0/रूपए-पर-रूठा-कोटा/5085096.html

VISFOT. COm latest news
http://www.visfot.com/index.php/newsnetwork/3721.html
परत-दर-परत उघड़ रही हैं रुपये के भ्रष्टाचार की परतें
Before selection News......

1- Hindustan Hindi- Lucknow 18 March
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/2905/18sec.jpg

2- Hindustan Hindi- Lucknow 19 March
http://img233.yfrog.com/i/19marhindustan.jpg/

1-Why Government is SILENT in this matter.

2- All indian Electronic media is Silent ?
3-Which is unlawful to the people of country.

Media for the first time in the history of India has gone into a mysterious silence over the fraud played by the organizers of symbol for rupee competition .In the past the same media specially electronic media has entered the bedrooms of the people to expose them and bring in front of the world and played the news 24 Hour and this time when the things are crystal clear before them they have gone into the shell
Anil
08.03.10
05:35

Folks, we are not comparing anything here. The symbol shown above is simply an adaptation of the original Rupee symbol to match with our new typeface family called Kohinoor. I did modify it and correct it visually in order to match it with other currency symbols that are there in the family.

But those who are saying that the selected symbol has a "र" in it, must note that it's not a "र", it's a roman "R" without the stem. And to be more specific, it's a roman "R" from The Sans by Luc(as) de Groot.

Also, that's not how we hold the chisel pen while writing Devanagari, that's how we hold the pen while writing Latin. It's just a coincidence that the Roman letter "R" has a "र" like structure in it.
Satya Rajpurohit
08.03.10
05:56

This is a very well thought out symbol according to me, as it highlights R both in hindi and english keeping sentiments and sensibilities in balance.

www.reversethought.com
Sunidhi Garg
08.05.10
07:29

I have mixed emotions about both the design and opportunity this represented for Indian design to shine on a global stage.

My thoughts on the winning symbol design and the nature of selection as a British Asian designer (concentrating on graphical interfaces, interactions and user experiences):
http://www.munjeet.com/comment/a-new-symbol-represents-the-rupee/
Munjeet Singh
08.06.10
05:28

Indian Independence Day (Aug 15) sees the launch of the first keyboard including rupee symbol: http://bit.ly/cxa81V + the first phone: http://bit.ly/bmOnnI
Meena Kadri
08.16.10
08:27


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