Design our money

The Indian Government wants to have a new symbol for the good old "Rs". Not surprisingly a lot of countries have special symbols for their currency. I guess we just didn't want to be left out. The government has asked the country for help, so maybe even a two year old's squiggles might just turn out to represent "the historical and cultural ethos of India".

But it's not that simple. Interesting points from the government notice.

• Interested persons may send their entries, along with a bank draft of Rs.500/- (Rupees five hundred only) in favour of the Pay & Accounts Office.

• The symbol should represent the historical & cultural ethos of the country as widely accepted across the country.

• The final selected symbol shall become the intellectual property of the Government of India and the designer shall not have any right over the same.

• Five entries shall be shortlisted for final selection. The shortlisted Designers would be required to make a presentation to the Jury and would be awarded a prize of Rs.25,000/- each.

• The Designer of the finally selected design will get a prize of Rs.250, 000/- and would be required to surrender copyright of the design to the government of India.

Economic times has done its own designs and is asking its reading audience to vote for them or contribute their own. Next I think, news channels will do the same and ask their audience to vote through SMS. Maybe MTV can make a reality show, auditioning artists and designers. It will have drawing tasks, puking tasks, kicking your own balls task. There will be vote-outs, people bitching about each other, bitch-slapping each other, giving out the choiciest of Hindi gaalis. Aaj Tak may end up covering the reality show. Who knows?

Practically speaking whatever they decide the symbol to be, it's not going to be the "$". So well, I can't really type it from my keyboard with a simple keystroke. I guess I will stick to using the good old "Rs".