Who designed the Indian rupee symbol ₹, adopted by the Government of India in 2010?

D. Udaya Kumar designed the Indian rupee symbol ₹, which the Government of India adopted in 2010.

Kumar’s design was selected through a public competition organized by the Indian government. The symbol combines elements of the Devanagari letter र, representing the first sound of rupaya, with the Roman capital letter R. Its parallel horizontal lines also evoke the Indian tricolour and the national flag.

The Union Cabinet approved the design in July 2010. The symbol was intended to give the rupee a distinctive visual identity in the same way that familiar signs identify currencies such as the dollar, pound, and euro.

The rupee itself is much older than the symbol. The word derives from rūpya, a Sanskrit term associated with wrought or stamped silver, and the modern Indian currency uses the code INR. The symbol is therefore a recent graphic identity for an ancient monetary name.