Internet divided on Ola CEO’s “dollar sign should be replaced with rupee” tweet

In a post on X, Aggarwal shared an image of a keyboard with the dollar sign highlighted, asking why people in the financial sector still use "INR" instead of the rupee symbol.

Hyderabad: Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal recently sparked a debate by questioning the presence of the US dollar sign on keyboards of laptops and computers sold in India. In a post on X, Aggarwal shared an image of a keyboard with the dollar sign highlighted, asking why people in the financial sector still use “INR” instead of the rupee symbol.

“Why do people, especially in the financial world, still use INR instead of a rupee sign, he asked. Adding, “Maybe this has something to do with it! Wonder why the US dollar sign is not replaced with the rupee sign in products sold in India.”

---

Aggarwal’s post quickly went viral, leading to mixed reactions online. Several social media users mocked his suggestion, pointing out the the practical importance of the dollar sign.

Maybe this has something to do with it! Wonder why the $ is not replaced with ₹ in products sold in India pic.twitter.com/LteKrcfd9b

— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) August 24, 2024

“Patriotism and Jingoism have very small gaps. You are crossing that. Don’t know whether you doing it intentionally or unintentionally,” a user commented. “The ‘US dollar sign’ is also an important character in programming languages, such as perl,” another added.

“Only a person who works on MS Excel knows the answer. The US dollar sign is used to freeze Row or columns in Excel formulas and a rupee sign can’t do that. That’s why the US dollar sign is used universally for that purpose. However, you can anytime use a rupee sign on your computer,” explained a user.

Some users suggested that Aggarwal should consider using regional language symbols on Ola scooters before worrying about keyboards.

$ is not just a currency symbol. It is embedded in many programming language syntaxes such as:
– We write variables under this ${} in javascript.
– Variables are also written like this $1, $2 in bash syntax.

If you want some change then start with yourself and replace the name…

— Shivam Bhadani (@shivambhadani_) August 24, 2024

Patriotism & Jingoism has very small gap… You are crossing that.

Don’t know whether u doing it intentionally or unintentionally…?

— Veena Jain (@DrJain21) August 24, 2024

Imo the focus here shouldn’t be “replaced”, but “supplemented”.

This is what a UK sold laptop looks like. Has both $ and £. Even has €.

Let’s try to be global more than nationalist. Mentalities should be positive sum, not zero sum. pic.twitter.com/wqOJEG4FtP

— Ash Arora (@asharoraa) August 24, 2024