on march 5, 2009, the government of india announced a contest to create a symbol for the rupee. during the 2010 union budget of india, finance minister pranab mukherjee mentioned that the proposed symbol would reflect and capture the indian ethos and culture. five symbols were shortlisted, and the cabinet selected the definitive symbol created by d. udaya kumar on july 15, 2010. the symbol is derived from a combination of the devanagari letter ‘र’ and english letter ‘r’. the parallel lines at the top (with white space between them) make an allusion to the tricolor and also depict an equality sign which symbolizes the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity. the indian government has plans to adopt the symbol within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months. before the adoption of the symbol, the most commonly used symbols for the rupee were rs, re or if the text was in an indian language, then an appropriate abbreviation in that language.