The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday replaced the official rupee symbol of India with the Tamil symbol for rupee as it released a new logo for the State Finance Budget that will be presented on March 14.
Unlike previous years, when Tamil Nadu Budgets have always used the official rupee symbol (₹), this is the first year that the MK Stalin-led state government has replaced it with the Tamil symbol for the rupee. The new logo sports the rupee symbol in Tamil and comes with a tagline of “Ellarukkum Ellam” (Everything for everyone) Unveiling it, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin tweeted that the State’s objective is “to ensure the widespread development of Tamil Nadu to benefit all sections of society.”
3 Language debate
The decision to use the rupee symbol in the native language is indicative of the State’s strong stand against National Education Policy (NEP) and has further intensified the three-language policy debate, wherein Tamil Nadu has accused the Centre of imposing Hindi. Under the policy, government school students at the primary level are required to learn an Indian language along with English and Tamil. Tamil Nadu has historically not implemented the three-language formula, choosing English over Hindi and other regional languages.
The official rupee symbol is an amalgam of Devanagari “Ra” and the Roman Capital “R” with two parallel horizontal stripes running at the top representing the national flag and also the “equal to” sign.
Interestingly, it was adopted in 2010 when the Congress was in power at the Centre and the DMK governed the State. The government, in 2009, announced a contest to create a sign for the Indian rupee. In 2010, from around 3,331 responses received, the sign conceptualised by Udaya Kumar, a post graduate in Design from Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, was selected as the official symbol.
Kumar hails from Chennai and is reported to be the son of a former DMK MLA — a fact that is now being highlighted by the BJP and other opposition parties.
“The DMK Government’s State Budget for 2025-26 replaces the rupee symbol designed by a Tamilian, which was adopted by the whole of Bharat and incorporated into our Currency. Thiru Udhay Kumar, who designed the symbol, is the son of a former DMK MLA,” K Annamalai, State President-BJP TN, said in a post on X (Twitter). He also shared a picture of Kumar and his family with former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi noting that “What the father endorsed, the son rejects.”
