Creator of rupee symbol refuses to be drawn into controversy over new logo in Tamil Nadu

IIT Guwahati Professor D. Udaya Kumar discusses Tamil Nadu's new rupee logo, designed by him, amid controversy.

Hours after the Tamil Nadu Government released a new rupee logo for the state budget, IIT Guwahati Professor D. Udaya Kumar, who had designed the Indian rupee symbol, on Thursday (March 13, 2025) refused to be drawn into the controversy over language and said it is a mere coincidence that his father was a DMK MLA.

The DMK Government in Tamil Nadu has replaced the Devanagari rupee symbol with a Tamil letter in its logo for the budget 2025-26, which will be tabled in the Assembly on Friday (March 14, 2025). While the move drew the ire of the BJP, the ruling party wondered if any rule barred such a depiction.

“I don’t have any reaction. It’s the Government which suddenly felt that there was a need for a change, and they wanted to implement their own script. This is up to the state Government. So, I don’t have anything to say about that. It’s entirely up to the Government,” Mr. Kumar told PTI.

Mr. Kumar’s father N. Dharmalingam was an MLA from the Rishivandiyam constituency in 1971 from the DMK party, which is in power in Tamil Nadu presently.

“My father was an MLA even before I was born. Now, he is old and living in our village, leading his life peacefully. It just happened to be a coincidence, probably I could have been somebody else as well,” the professor said.

“It’s just that he happened to be a DMK MLA and the DMK Government changed the design. I do not see anything else beyond it as a pure coincidence which has happened,” he said.

The logo for the state budget, released by the Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday (March 13, 2025), carried ‘ru’, the first letter of the Tamil word ‘Rubaai’ which denotes the Indian currency in the vernacular language.