WSJ on QR codes: “QR stands for Quick Response, and these codes were invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara at the Japanese automotive company Denso Wave. Their original purpose was to track inventory in factories, but broader uses became possible with the advent and ubiquity of smartphones..The extra dimension allows for a huge increase in capacity: Where 1-dimensional bar codes typically encode around 20 digits of information, a QR code can hold 4,000 or more depending on the version used. A small increase in the width of the grid yields a much larger increase in the number of small squares available, because of how the math of squaring works.”
Raghuram Rajan: “People are looking for an alternative to China, we always were the alternative until we started collapsing in growth. If we can revive the potential for that growth but also emphasise our private sector credentials and the constraints on the government—unbridled government is problematic for investment and so if we can say the government is constrained, is going to respect the rule of law, we have a much better chance to keep the capital we’ve attracted in fact attract more.”
Naushad Forbes: “A statesman is a political leader who does the right thing even if it isn’t immediately popular. When countries face crises, they need their leaders to act in the national interest that only later proves to be right. An international crisis of the magnitude of our global health pandemic requires that leaders act in the wider interest of humanity. It is high time we did.”
