Rupee symbol may take almost a year to login

“It may take almost a year before software manufacturers can incorporate the ‘Rs’ symbol in their software or hardware companies develop key boards with ‘Rs’ keys,” R Chandrasekhar, secretary in the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, told Deccan Herald here on Thursday.

Once the Finance Ministry notifies the new symbol, Indian standards have to be modified, and software and hardware manufacturers intimated about the new standards, he said.
There will be both hardware and software solution. For instance, the symbol for Yen is not available in keyboards available in India but it is found in word processors. The 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 or printed in the electronic and print media, with all companies providing support for it.

Encoding in the “Unicode Standard” will also ensure encoding in the international standard ISO/IEC 10646, as both organisations work closely with each other, said an official.
Asked about the delay, the officials said most of the time would be spent in completing the formalities. The symbol will also have to be included in the Indian standards (13194:1991) — Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII)— through an amendment to the existing list by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The ISCII specifies various codes for Indian languages for processing on computers along with the keyboard lay out. Once the symbol is encoded in national and international standards, NASSCOM and MAIT will approach the software and hardware companies, respectively, to bring to the users as early as possible.