built on interoperable standards. however, we strongly felt that the time has arrived to consider some level of harmonisation in the use of qr - codes. bharat qr code has shown that it is possible! let me once again congratulate the industry and the team in the reserve bank for making this possible in such a coordinated and timely manner. i wish all success to the industry and suggest that this opportunity should be leveraged to spread digital payments acceptance infrastructure in the country quickly. i would like to take this opportunity to discuss some contemporary thoughts on payment systems for it to go into its next orbit. the reserve bank has been taking a studied stance with reference to bringing in changes to and in the payment systems. periodically, it constituted various committees like the rangarajan committee i & ii, saraf committee, patil committee, burman working group, etc. to guide use of ict for the benefit of banking in general and particularly the payment systems further, from 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches 1998 onwards, the reserve bank has been continuously bringing out a payment system vision document for every three years, enlisting the road map for implementation. the latest one is for the period 2015 – 18. improvement in the safety, security, soundness, efficiency and effectiveness of the payment systems has been the focus all along, besides expansion in use of various payment modes and ushering in various payment products and services. reserve bank has played the crucial roles of an operator, developer, catalyst and facilitator, regulator and supervisor, as the occasion demanded. while concluding an address ( on payment system – an evolution, or a revolution ) to the students of banaras hindu university in october 2016, i had said “ india has been enjoying a very healthy evolution of payment systems over the past thirty years. in looking back, we can easily admit that it had been a revolution, without so realising. this has been the result of the measured road maps periodically adopted by the reserve bank, in the initial years as a developer, and in later years as a catalyst and facilitator. today our systems are not only comparable to any system anywhere in the world, our systems also do set standards and good practices for the world to follow. we remain vigilant for ensuring safety and soundness of the payment systems and are committed to customer safety and convenience ". in these six months, there have been heightened discussions on taking payment systems to further levels. case in point is

k c chakrabarty : india - oecd - world bank regional conference on “ financial education ” welcome address by dr k c chakrabarty, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the india - oecd - world bank regional conference on “ financial education ”, new delhi, 4 march 2013. * * * 1. dr. d. subbarao, governor, reserve bank of india ; mr. onno ruhl, country director, the world bank ; ambassador richard boucher, deputy secretary general, oecd ; delegates from the oecd, the world bank and from countries across the world ; colleagues from reserve bank of india, other regulatory bodies and agencies involved in disseminating financial education in india ; ladies and gentlemen. it is my proud privilege to welcome you all to india ’ s capital city of new delhi, a city of rich cultural and historical traditions, on the occasion of this regional conference on financial education jointly organized by rbi, oecd and the world bank. as you might be aware, this conference is a part of a series of events organized to disseminate information about the activities of the russia / oecd / world bank trust fund on financial literacy and education. two other conferences in this series were held recently in cartagena and nairobi. we at the reserve bank of india, are indeed very proud to co - host this landmark conference, as it brings together all key stakeholders who are central to india ’ s crusade for achieving universal financial literacy. we believe this conference provides an ideal platform, not only for us, but also for delegates from other jurisdictions in particular, the asia pacific region, to exchange views and learn from the experiences of peers. we are also very happy and grateful, to have the world bank and the oecd as partners for this conference ; two organizations which have made immense contribution to spreading financial literacy and leveraging the financial systems to improve the quality of lives of the marginalized groups across the world. 2. over the next three days, the participants can look forward to stimulating and enriching deliberations involving global experts having rich and varied practical experiences and learn from their experiences of implementation of financial literacy initiatives in different parts of the world. the conference sessions have been structured with focus on all the important pieces which constitute the jigsaw of financial education. for instance, keeping in view the importance of a well - articulated national level framework for financial education, an interactive panel discussion