An inauspicious symbol is behind the fall of the Indian rupee and a slump in the economy, claims a vaastu shastra expert in Guwahati.
According to vaastu consultant Rajkumar Jhanjhari, 50, the lower horizontal line of the symbol has 'slit the throat' of the Indian rupee leading to its slide.
Dharmalingam Udaya Kumar, assistant professor in the design department of IIT-Guwahati, had designed the rupee symbol in 2010. They symbol was incorporated in currency notes of 10, 100, 500 and 1000 from January and in notes of 20 and 50 from April this year.
The symbol is a combination of the Devanagari "?" (ra) and the Latin R without its vertical bar. The designer's concept note had explained that two parallel lines at the top represent the Tricolour and depict an equality sign symbolising the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity.
"The rupee has depreciated 23% against the dollar in the last one year. When I wrote to the Prime Minister on December 12 last year, a dollar fetched Rs. 48-49 compared to Rs. 56 today,"Jhanjhari told HT.
Copies of the letter were also couriered to the finance minister and the Reserve Bank of India arguing how tweaking the symbol would boost the economy.
{{/usCountry}}Copies of the letter were also couriered to the finance minister and the Reserve Bank of India arguing how tweaking the symbol would boost the economy.
{{/usCountry}}"India managed to withstand a severe global slump in 2009, before the symbol came up. One must ask why our growth rate is taking a beating now before rubbishing pleas for changing the symbol,"said Jhanjhari.
He added that he has suggested changes besides exploring new vaastu-compliant designs.
Frankly, I don't know what to say. My design has already been implemented. If at all, the government has to take a call on this,"Udaya Kumar said.