r gandhi : payment systems - next orbit speech by mr r gandhi, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the launch of the bharat qr code, mumbai, 20 february 2017. * * * good morning everybody i am very happy to be launching the bharat qr code. the qr code development for card payments in india has happened at the most appropriate time ; we are on the threshold of a digital payments ‘ moment ’ and ‘ movement ’. this is a momentous occasion for the payments industry in india with the launch of this global first of its kind, low cost, interoperable, mobile based acceptance solution. i would like to congratulate the payment networks for their enthusiastic collaboration to develop this solution. an innovative interoperable solution, the bharat qr, that is easy to scale, and provides a seamless customer experience, and above all is safe and secure, essential to accelerating india ’ s transition to a less – cash society. i am glad that india is setting yet another standard in the payment arena for others to adopt. since cards began to be used in the country in early 1980s, the industry has set up about 1. 5 million point of sale ( pos ) terminals. however, in comparison to the 800 million cards that have been issued as of now, the number of pos terminals in the country has not been really adequate. among other factors, the high capex and opex associated with traditional pos terminals, have been the major deterrents to the expansion of pos infrastructure. gradually, with increasing mobile density in the country, many developments in the payments space have taken place using this channel, including m - pos on the merchant side. now, qr code based systems leverage mobile usage on the consumer side as well. being asset - light, they become easy to deploy. so, it is but natural that the two developments should come together to offer an efficient, secure and convenient experience for card payments. what makes this development more momentous is that the card payment industry in the country has come together, of course at our direction, to make this process interoperable so that the users get the same experience of card payments – that is, interoperability. no doubt, the visibility to qr code and its consequent widespread usage came from nonpayments area first, followed by non - banks in payments area. these are mostly used by users within the same ecosystem and are not

and emerging economies were even able to recover quickly and strongly ( figure 1 ). the good performance of emerging economies is grounded on their macroeconomic policy schemes. these have evolved and improved over time, partly because lessons have been learned from numerous previous shocks, which originated in macroeconomic and financial imbalances. these schemes pursue low, stable inflation, healthy public finances, strong and well regulated financial systems and realistic exchange rates. of course policies vary from one country to another, but their basic principles are shared. in chile, a fiscal policy that saves during good times, an autonomous central bank that conducts monetary policy under an inflation targeting regime and a floating exchange rate, were key elements to successfully work its way out of the crisis. furthermore, the country has a solid, well regulated financial system that does not allow for many of the operations that dragged some economies to their bis central bankers ’ speeches troubled present - day situation. a traditional banking model dominates the banking industry, where a strong base of deposits, both personal and institutional, permits to finance mainly credits. before the crisis, a lot was said about the decoupling of emerging economies ’ growth path from that of developed countries. this idea, which gained momentum in 2007 and 2008, was seriously questioned during the disaster because, as i said, no one was spared its effects. in hindsight, however, we can say that there actually was a decoupling. it is true that in a globalized world commercial and financial intertwining does not allow the economies to isolate themselves from the global cycle, but the performance of emerging markets is living proof that mitigating the negative consequences from the external cycle can be done. in fact, it is hard to find another episode where the developed world suffered a severe recession that was not magnified in developing countries. this is especially relevant in latin america ( figure 2 ). the developed economies face a different scenario. they are having important doubts about whether their fiscal situation will be sustainable. large expansions of fiscal expenditure before the crisis and the implementation of unprecedented stimulus packages to cope with it threw their debt levels very high. today they have no further room to continue increasing public spending and, even worse, they need to make substantial adjustments that are difficult to implement in such a weak economic situation. the cases of the united states and japan are good examples. add to this what is happening in peripheral european economies, the adjustments that are needed and the financial tensions this creates. what the founders of the euro had