value of us dollar in indian rupees in 1947
History of the rupee For the record, the rupee was never equal to the dollar. At the time of independence(in 1947), India’s currency was pegged to pound sterling, and the exchange rate was a shilling and six pence for a rupee — which worked out to Rs 13.33 to the pound. The dollar-pound exchange rate then was $4.03 to the pound, which in effect gave a rupee-dollar rate in 1947 of around Rs 3.30. The pound was devalued in 1949, changing its dollar parity from 4.03 to 2.80. India was then a part of the sterling area, and the rupee was devalued on the same day by the same percentage, so that the new dollar exchange rate in 1949 became Rs 4.76 — which is where it stayed till the rupee devaluation of 1966 made it Rs 7.50 to the dollar and the pound moved to Rs 21. [16]