[4] Kumar is the son of N. Dharmalingam, a former DMK member of the legislative assembly of the state of Tamil Nadu.

Subsequently he received his master's degree, an MDes in Visual Communication, from the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) of IIT Bombay in 2003.

[7][failed verification][better source needed] Kumar also provided guidance for the designing of the official mascot for the 49th Inter IIT Sports Meet.

The letters are derived from the word Rupiah in Hindi and Rupees in English, so the symbol is meaningful to both Indians and international users.

The two horizontal lines form an "equals" sign, which also evokes the tri-color Indian flag.