The union cabinet Thursday approved the new symbol for the Indian rupee - an amalgam of the Devnagiri 'Ra' and the Roman capital 'R' without the stem.

The symbol, designed by an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) postgraduate D. Udaya Kumar, was selected from among five shortlisted symbols before the cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said after the cabinet meeting.

"It is just a symbol," she told reporters.

A public competition was held amongst resident Indian citizens inviting entries for the symbol, which reflects and captures the Indian ethos and culture.  Over 3000 entries were received, which were evaluated by a Jury headed by the Deputy Governor, RBI, which also included experts from three reputed art and design Institutes.

The government said that the symbol will standardize the expression for Indian Rupee in different languages, both within and outside the country.

"It would better distinguish the Indian currency from those countries whose currencies are also designated as Rupee or Rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia," a official press release has stated.

The new Rupee symbol will be included in the “Unicode Standard” for representation and processing of text, written in major scripts of the world to ensure that the Rupee symbol is easily displayed/printed in the electronic and print media as all the software companies provide support for this Standard.

Encoding in the Unicode Standard will also ensure encoding in the International standard ISO/IEC 10646 as both the organizations work closely with each other.

After encoding of the symbol in the Unicode Standard, NASSCOM will approach software development companies for incorporating the Rupee symbol in their operative software, as a new programme or as an update, to enable the computer users worldwide to use the symbol even if it is not embedded on the keyboards.

For incorporating the symbol in the keyboards to be manufactured in India, the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) will enjoin its membership to make requisite changes in the production processes once the symbol is notified as a keyboard standard by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The encoding of the rupee symbol in the Indian Standards is estimated to take about six months while encoding in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 will take about 18 months to two years.  It will be incorporated in software packages and keyboards in use in India.