Designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 July 2010, following its selection through an “open” competition among Indian residents. Before its adoption, the most commonly used symbols for the rupee were Rs, Re or, if the text was in an Indian language, an appropriate abbreviation in that language. The new sign relates solely to the Indian rupee; other countries that use a rupee, such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal, still use the generic U+20A8 ₨ rupee sign character.

The design resembles both the Devanagari letter "र" (ra) and the Latin capital letter "R", with a double horizontal line at the top.

The new sign is a combination of the Devanagari letter "र" (ra) and the Latin capital letter "R" without its vertical bar (similar to the R rotunda). The parallel lines at the top (with white space between them) are said to make an allusion to the tricolor Indian flag. and also depict an equality sign that symbolizes the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity.

The final selected symbol was designed by D Udaya Kumar, a B.Arch and student of visual communication at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. The thoughts and philosophy behind the design are explained in this presentation.