When I wrote The New Rupee Symbol & Hammer-and-Sickle three years ago, the Indian Rupee was at about 45 to a US dollar. Since then, it has weakened substantially to close at a dollar parity of around 60 yesterday.
Therefore, I won’t blame Ajit Ninan for his new interpretation of the rupee symbol in a recent cartoon. Even if Dr. D Udaya Kumar of IIT Bombay, who designed the symbol in 2010, hadn’t quite seen it coming. Just like my hammer-and-sickle take on it.