Mumbai: He knew his design would be chosen as it incorporated Indian ethos, says a jubilant D. Udaya Kumar, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) assistant professor who is the man behind the symbol of the Indian rupee approved by the union cabinet on Thursday.

The cabinet meeting, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, decided to adopt a new symbol for the Indian rupee to put it in the same bracket as other international currencies like the US dollar, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

A postgraduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kumar has been besieged with media calls and interviews ever since it was learnt that his design had been picked.

"I feel really great. I don't have words to express my happiness. Really thrilled," he told a television channel grinning. "I can't think anything in my mind right now."

The new symbol is an amalgam of the Devnagiri 'Ra' and the Roman capital 'R' without the stem.

The Reserve Bank of India had announced the competition for a design of the rupee symbol with a cash prize of Rs.2.5 lakh.

After being shortlisted, Kumar along with the other designers made presentation of their designs in December 2009.

"Most of them were almost similar in concept and execution. I thought I had an edge, as Indian script was represented," said Kumar.

"The Devnagari is the only script which has a line on the top. I also put another horizontal line.... so that we get a tricolour," he said.

"I wanted the flag to be flying high and be represented in the symbol," added Kumar, who will be joining IIT-Guwahati as an assistant professor Friday. 

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