When Masahiro Hara created the QR Code in 1994, he would have never thought it’d be used to book railway tickets at India’s Prayagraj Junction during Mahakumbh 2025. QR Code technology has become so mainstream that you can easily spot a QR Code in each shop, even tea and book stalls, Pan shops, and grocery stores. The reason behind this? India’s UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and smartphone cameras. The UPI system required shop owners in India to put out a printed QR Code, allowing customers to pay for whatever they purchase by scanning the QR Code with their payment App, which by the way could be anything from INR1 to INR1,00,000 and more. You can say that due to UPI, nearly everybody in India knows about QR Codes and most of them use it on a daily basis.
Though RFID doesn’t have the same success just yet, it is still making inroads with retailers, supply chain and logistics businesses, and healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses. However, RFID technology is also going mainstream with RFID Wristbands, RFID key cards, and RFID IDs for students and workers in education and corporate offices. RFID-based asset tracking systems, retail inventory management solutions, jewelry tracking systems, and access control systems are quite popular with Indians.
QR Codes at Mahakumbh 2025
India’s Prayagraj City is hosting the Mahakumbh, a once-in-a 144-year event starting January 13. The event will attract crores of people from all over India and around the world. Keeping this in mind, the NCR (North Central Railway) has deployed additional railway police force (RPF) officers at the Prayagraj Junction station supporting green jackets with QR Codes printed on them. The QR Code on the jacket serves a special purpose. It is linked to the UTS app where people can book unreserved train tickets without having to stand in long queues. This effectively prevents overcrowding at station ticketing windows and offers ease of travel to people.
The UTS App by Indian Railway is available on Google Play Store and people can easily download it however, since many Indians and foreigners don’t know much about the App, this initiative offers an easy and accessible way to book train tickets.
RFID Wristbands at Mahakumbh 2025
Apart from QR Code-based passes, the Mahakumbh Management team is also deploying AI-enabled cameras and RFID wristbands for tracking the no. of people at the Mahakumbh. India’s Mahakumbh is a globally recognized event where more than 400 million people are expected to participate starting January 13, 2025. Kumbh mela is also recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of India by UNESCO.
Pilgrims will be provided wristbands which shall allow the management team to track the entry and exit times of individuals using RFID readers deployed at various locations.
Apart from the QR Code, AI surveillance camera system, and RFID wristband, a dedicated mobile application is also developed which helps pilgrims with all the necessary information about the Mahakumbh event, and with GPS technology, the management can track the pilgrims with their permission as well.
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QR Code and RFID Wristbands to Prevent Child Missing Cases at Navy Day
Talking of how RFID and QR Code technologies have become mainstream, the recently held Op-Demo by the Indian navy on Visakhapatnam Beach has police offers to tie QR Code-based wristbands on the hands of children as the event attracted lakhs of families with small kids that often go missing at such events. But the police came prepared this time around.
Shankabratha Bagchi, the Police Commissioner, of Visakhapatnam City Police, highlighted that this is the first time that they have implemented such a technology to prevent missing children cases. Nearly 2000 children attended the event with their families.
The QR Code wristbands were attached to children’s wrists while entering the venue and the details such as the name of the child, their parent’s names, contact no. etc. were encoded with the QR Code and when a child was found to be separated from his/her family, the police can simply scan the wrist band and contact the parents.
RFID wristbands also work the same but RFID technology doesn’t require a clear line of sight for scanning. So it is helpful in locating kids as well. It requires a software system to get more benefit but RFID wristbands are far more efficient. Both of these technologies, RFID and QR Code are often used together to offer better results whether it is a wristband or an RFID label.
QR Codes to Identify Trees
Another example of QR Codes going mainstream is that QR Codes are being used in parks and bird festivals to identify saplings, flowers, and trees. India organizes many such events where people gather for birdwatching, and get familiar with distinct varieties of trees and flowers. Using QR Codes on these saplings and trees, detailing their names, history, and other details is quite useful for people visiting such events.
QR Codes at RRTS Stations
The Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in Delhi NCR recently unveiled two new stations named Anand Vihar and New Ashok Nagar in Delhi. Now the RRTS covers the entire route of New Ashok Nagar to Meerut South in Meerut city, offering uninterrupted connectivity between Delhi and Meerut.
The RRTS stations accept QR code-based tickets where commuters can purchase a QR code ticket from the counter or use their Rapid Card to enter the platform and complete their journey. Recently, when our PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the extended connectivity into Delhi at Anand Vihar, he purchased a QR code-based ticket to complete his journey, highlighting India’s push for Digital India.
In another QR Code news, the Sri Ram Mandir Management team is planning to implement QR Code technology at the Shri RAM PRAN Pratishtha Dwadasi celebrations by using QR Codes on the invitation cards where many high-profile people are expected to attend the event. These QR-code invitation cards will be scanned at the premises to provide entry to people visiting there.
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