Class 12 English Unit 6 Money and Economy

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The Covid-19 pandemic has immensely boosted the “Scan and Pay” service through the QR code across urban Nepal. People being deeply concerned with their physical hygiene are heavily supporting the contactless digital payment system. Evolving digital payment service providers like Fonepay, IMEPay, Khalti, and SmartQR also continually encourage QR code payment by aggressively offering their users cashback rewards for utilizing Scan and Pay services.

QR code payment systems can play a highly impactful role in changing Nepal’s vast informal sectors into a regulated, formal economy. However, to make it far more accessible, Nepal needs to tackle serious challenges in infrastructural and behavioural traits. The lack of interoperability between different wallets is a major issue for a stable digital payment service. Rapid, unregulated growth in several PSOs and PSPs may result in a severe imbalance in the ecosystem of the digital economy. To entirely avoid this hurdle, implementing a national unified payment switch is strictly necessary.

Mass awareness campaigns and attractive promotional events can also influence this digital transition for rural vendors. Infrastructural development, like expanding high-speed internet connections and ensuring wider smartphone accessibility, must be heavily considered by the government. Payment service providers, banks, and local traders should work seamlessly together to bring interoperability to their digital payment services to ensure everyone can pay everyone seamlessly.

It’s practically hard but certainly not impossible to broadly apply a complete Digital payment system across Nepal. Nepal definitely needs to proactively tackle challenges in many infrastructural and behavioural traits before reaching the full, seamless potential of an e-payment economy. While the number of active internet users is impressively growing, it is still not robust or reliable enough in rural sectors to process an established digital economy.

Despite these hurdles, QR code payment systems can play a highly impactful role in formalizing Nepal’s economy. The government giving high legislative priority to digital payment systems, and the central bank actively promoting this system, serves as an excellent head start for QR code adoption. To make it a nationwide success, mass awareness campaigns targeting unbanked populations must influence this digital transition.

Infrastructural development, such as reliable cellular data and wider user accessibility, must be heavily subsidized. Payment service providers, payment service operators, and financial institutes must collaborate to bring vital interoperability to their digital platforms. The ultimate national goal should be offering a single, one-stop solution for consumers to easily access all sorts of e-payment services, making cashless methods a tangible reality in Nepal.

It was a cold, freezing day; it had been snowing all day in New York. Mr. Tim cooked and I went outside to play in the snow. We had not seen much snow since we went skiing in Sweden last year. Mrs. Smith was right because she had said that we’d see snow. The next day we had a really wonderful time there, didn’t we?

(Here is a journalistic news article, written by Samiksha:)

Digital Payment Systems in Nepal: A Cashless Revolution

Kathmandu: Digital payment is rapidly gaining unprecedented momentum due to the initial push for social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. The swift evolution of domestic digital payment platforms and increasing consumers’ preference towards e-payment heavily secures a bright, cashless future for online transactions in Nepal.

What is Digital Payment?
Digital Payment is definitely growing in immense popularity and is becoming a mainstream trend these days across all demographics. The reason is incredibly simple – pure convenience. In the modern era when most businesses are shifting online, why not transactions!

Major Use of Digital Payment System in Nepal
Today, you can easily find printed QR codes in various goods and service sectors like large departmental stores, tiny local shops, and many banks and financial institutes (BFIs). You can instantly make payments in supermarkets via a QR code scanner using your digital wallet. Local street vendors and vegetable shops are also increasingly using QR codes for quick, exact payment without needing change.

According to an official report released by the Nepal Rastra Bank, the sheer number of digital transactions from mid-December 2020 to mid-January 2021 was an impressive 372,176. Similarly, the transactional amount transferred was a staggering Rs 1.245 billion. The very next month, the number of successful transactions increased to 535,790 and the monetary amount to Rs 1.712 billion, suggesting a clear, exponential rise in the daily use of digital payment platforms across the nation.

Future and Challenges
Switching completely to any e-payment services like QR codes will be a long-running, gradual process. PSOs like eSewa and Khalti have been cleverly offering QR payment services without charging any additional fees during consumer transactions to heavily encourage such platforms. This connected generation has widespread access to different digital media that can raise awareness of digital payment significance, so the raw numbers of users are expected to grow rapidly in the future. However, rural infrastructure is still not enough to process an established, nationwide digital economy. The stark lack of wallet interoperability is another major pressing issue for a stable digital payment service.

Conclusion
QR code payment can be a vital, transforming factor in uplifting Nepal’s emerging digital economy. The government giving much more priority to digital payment systems and the central bank actively pushing to promote this interoperable system can be a massive head start for QR code payment. The ultimate national goal should be offering a seamless, one-stop solution for consumers to securely access all sorts of e-payment services.

(Assuming the standard textbook bold patterns:)