How many of us would have thought that we would have to spend more than Rs 50 to buy a dollar. But that’s the new reality and no one quite knows when things would start looking different.

But by the time things change, the Indian currency itself could see some changes.

The government has already launched a competition to put the symbol ‘Rs’ in the cold storage and find a new identity for the Indian currency on the same lines as the dollar ($), the sterling point (£) or the Euro (€).

The idea is to put get people – especially foreigners — to identify the rupee with the new India instead of sharing the ‘Rs’ symbol with the likes of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Seychelles. It’s a different matter that the British would still use ‘Paki’ to describe an Indian and a Pakistani. Or for that matter the foreigners are now more bothered about their home markets than emerging markets.

But the thinking is that almost all superpowers have their unique identity for their local currencies and by that logic, the Indian rupee should be no different.

A new symbol for the Indian currency is not the only item on the agenda. The currency may also have a new feel.

The government and RBI have been on the job to make the currency less prone to counterfeiting through the use of polymer-based notes. While the issue has been on the agenda for over a year now, a final decision is yet to be taken because of the various lobbies involved in the whole exercise.

Most of the paper and ink used globally for printing of currency notes, passports and stamp paper come from Germany, France, the United States, the United Kingdom. These companies have often cited the poor record of polymer-based notes, which have been tried out in over 20 countries including Australia, New Zealand and Romania, with variants in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Mexico, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

The government had planned to experiment with a million notes of Rs 10 each based on plastic bank note technology. Based on the pilot project a decision will be taken.

Besides checking claims that the polymer notes are more durable, they are said to be less prone to counterfeiting thanks to a transparent hologram. But there are many countries which have opted for these notes and then gone back to the good old paper notes.

While few of us would bother about the substance being used, security agencies which have found a link between the paper used in our currency notes and the paper and ink used by Pakistan for printing passport are keen on devising ways to check counterfeiting.