Apparently the nation of India is embarking on a quest to come up with a symbol to match the status of its burgeoning economy on the world stage. An invitation has gone out to designers everywhere to come up with a symbol to represent the Rupee, just as we have our £ sign, the US have their $ sign and Europe has its € sign. The Indian government's search for the perfectly formed sign is via an open competition, which stipulates that entries "should represent the historical and cultural ethos of India."
You'd think that this could be the dream job for a type designer, but the process is riddled with difficulties, as the BBC article indicates..."Getting a symbol onto the international scene can be a complicated and lengthy process, says Mr Siebert.
There are the questions about where the new character should be placed in the character table and where it should be placed on the keyboard. (Outside the country in question, it is most likely to be rendered through special coding with keyboard short-cuts.)
Then the operating systems of millions of computers would need to be upgraded, as would dozens and dozens of font sets."
Still, I wouldn't mind a crack at the project...
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