Unicode consortium has made available the next version of Unicode standard, Unicode 6.1 for beta review. The new version would not only expand its repertoire of characters but would be of a particular interest to Indian business professionals, technology experts, developers and economic experts as it would include the Indian Rupee Symbol. It would be much easier to use the symbol after it becomes an official part of the Unicode standard. Presently people use specific fonts to include the symbol in their documents.

It is learnt that the final release of the new Unicode standard will take place sometime in Spring 2012 as work on final edition of code charts is going on. The final edition would be the 3rd edition of ISO/IEC 10646. Two rounds of balloting have been completed and one final ballot (FDIS) will be held in the end of the year.

It is believed that the character names and code points have been finalized and any significant change is less likely before the final publication of Unicode 6.1 takes place. This release may have 733 new characters including the Indian Rupee Sign, which may be of great interest to Indian technology enthusiasts and developers. Pending final release, one can review the earlier version of code charts with new additions.

Beta review for Unicode 6.1 is available here: http://www.unicode.org/versions/beta-6.1.0.html