Story of the ?Rupee’- the Indian currency

Once upon a time there lived a Rupee, the Indian currency with a hope to be looked upon as a symbol of powerful and exponential India. Rupee’s wishes became reality on 15th July 2010 when the Indian government introduced the new Rupee symbol to the 1.15 billion Indians making them feel proud and dignified. This symbol that blends India with Bharat is created by D Uday Kumar, an IIT post-graduate from India.

The new Rupee is not just a currency anymore; it has become a symbol of a country that determines to be the next potential superpower. On the back of the growing economy, India dreams to grow big and make big despite facing socio-economic complications that pose a direct challenge to the growth of the country. India is also the world’s largest democracy where industrial development is happening at a rapid pace pushing the country to become one of the world’s most developed countries.

The new symbol developed to represent the Rupee indicates the process of evolution. The Indian economy remained resilient during the economic crisis showing the spirit of credence and solidity. Hence, it was essential to develop a symbol with an international appeal to convey this message to the rest of the world that India is a brand that is backed by strong cultural roots and stable economy.

The new Rupee will now join the currency group of privileged nations such as the US, UK, Europe and Japan distinguishing itself from the countries using the same currency like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia and Nepal. The new symbol would also be a part of the ‘Unicode Standard’ script family to make it easy for the channels of new media to utilize it when necessary.

The journey of a traditional Rupee

The historical way of writing Rs. for the Indian currency has a traditional backdrop. Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Rupaya’, which means silver, the rupee was used as a silver coin in the old India. In the nineteenth century, silver in vast quantities was discovered in the US and Europe creating a negative impact on the white metal’s value. The standard of the precious yellow metal – gold surpassed that of silver’s smashing down the relative value of the rupee that eventually gave birth to an pessimistic event called ‘the fall of the rupee’.

The British government brought the first paper currency to India during 1860s embossed with an image of the King. Nonetheless, the silver rupee coin continued to live as the unit of their currency during and after the British Raj. Since then the abbreviation Rs. came into the practice while India losing its uniqueness and standard on the global front.

The picture changed dramatically after India became an Independent country in 1947. New designs for coins and banknotes with Asoka’s Lion Capital and Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait were introduced to the natives. Moreover, the banknotes minted by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) carried the money amount written in 17 official Indian languages in the alphabetical order.

However, the value of the Rupee declined after the nation faced two major economic crises post Independence. In 1966, India was hit adversely by the inflation blues pushing down the value of the currency. Lack of balance in the payment procedures in 1991 led India to another state of vexation with the rupee declining to a major level.

Rupee: The shining star

Beginning of the 20th century brought bright opportunities for the rupee to gain back its value on the back of the robust foreign investments. In June 2008, the rupee touched a 10-year high against the US dollar attracting flows of foreign funds. Despite seeing the 2008-09 slowdown, the rupee managed to keep up its position due to RBI’s intervention in reducing volatility of the Indian share market.

The rupee has seen some issues over the convertibility aspect of it. The currency was made convertible in 1993; however, it will be considered as a fully convertible currency at the end of 2010-11. The current exchange rate between the rupee to the dollar is 46.78. The recent BIS (The Bank for International Settlements) survey report states that the average daily turnover in the dollar/rupee pair stood at $ 36 billion in mid 2010.

The current condition of the global economy indicates a possibility of a slump and poor economic recovery in the coming future. Fear of double-dip recession is growing day by day. However, the Indian economy has once again maintained its stability by showing incredible GDP growth in FY2010. This means that the country has the potential to sail through difficult times and still mark its presence on the global front.

Hence, the Indian Rupee is set to march ahead with a spark that converts an underdog into a roaring lion.