 "India takes a leaf out of China’s book: QR codes everywhere for mobile payments")
Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?
QR codes – those cryptic matrix barcodes that contain scannable information – arrived in China from Japan way back in 2010. But it really took off a couple of years later, after ecommerce giant Alibaba and social network titan Tencent adopted it to push digital payments for their businesses. Now you see them everywhere in Chinese cities – it’s in fact the most popular payment method in China.
India’s current startup hero Paytm recently announced that 1 million merchants are using its QR codes for digital payments, without the need for card-swiping machines. Paytm introduced its QR code service last year.
Today, the Indian government has asked digital payment networks RuPay, MasterCard, and Visa to have a common QR code-based tech to help merchants leapfrog the plastic money phase, local media reports.
Merchants could display a QR code at their cash register, which customers can scan using their mobile phones and pay through either RuPay, Mastercard, or Visa app. They don’t need a debit or credit card.
Merchants could display a QR code at their cash register, which customers can scan using their mobile phones and pay through either RuPay, Mastercard, or Visa app. They don’t need a debit or credit card.
This inter-operable QR code is billed India QR, for now at least.
Like Paytm, Visa and MasterCard already have their own QR code systems – mVisa and Masterpass QR service respectively. But none of them are yet inter-operable. That means the money transacted could only move within each one’s own network. India QR would change that. It’s expected to launch in January.
Also Read
Even after a month, most citizens are struggling with forced austerity as ATM machines and banks run out of cash within hours every day.
