"GLOBAL ISSUES, LEADERSHIP CHOICES":

A QR code denoting digital payment has become commonplace in India -- "You find it pasted on a tree next to a roadside barber, propped on the pile of embroidery sold by female weavers, sticking out of a mound of freshly roasted peanuts on a snack cart. A beachside performer in Mumbai places it on his donations can before beginning his robot act; a Delhi beggar flashes it through your car’s window when you plead that you have no cash" -- and this mobile payment system is proving not just to be a matter of convenience but an engine of economic growth:

"The codes connect hundreds of millions of people in an instant payment system that has revolutionized Indian commerce. Billions of mobile app transactions — a volume dwarfing anything in the West — course each month through a homegrown digital network that has made business easier and brought large numbers of Indians into the formal economy. The scan-and-pay system is one pillar of what the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has championed as 'digital public infrastructure,' with a foundation laid by the government. It has made daily life more convenient, expanded banking services like credit and savings to millions more Indians, and extended the reach of government programs and tax collection. With this network, India has shown on a previously unseen scale how rapid technological innovation can have a leapfrog effect for developing nations, spurring economic growth even as physical infrastructure lags. It is a public-private model that India wants to export as it fashions itself as an incubator of ideas that can lift up the world’s poorer nations."
www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/business/india-digital-payments-upi.html