2021-2030 belongs to India, says Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Bengaluru, Oct 28: Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma Thursday said the period between 2021 and 2030 will belong to India as investors across the globe will be very keen to make huge investments in the Indian market.
“If we can say the 2000 to 2020 period belonged to Asia at large, the period between 2021 to 2030, hundred percent, will belong to India. Whether you are a private company, young startup or a potential or a listed company, this is the time that the world is going to give India money,” he told reporters in a virtual press conference ahead of the launch of Paytm IPO in November.
Therefore, Sharma appealed to the entrepreneurs to make use of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in India’s growth.
“I started my journey in 1999 to 2000, and after 20 years I can say there has never been an euphoria like this. I am talking about the internet euphoria of 1999-2000. Then there was the ecommerce euphoria of 2011-12. So, there never has been an absolute euphoria that I have seen and this is going to grow,” he said.
Replying to a query on employment headcount and work-from-home norm, Sharma said the company will not force people to come to office even post-lockdown.
The company, he added, would take the work-from-home norm as an opportunity as it makes it easy to recruit people from far off places like Jalandhar, Ludhiana or Cuttack, where it would have not been possible to recruit.
However, the company has asked the workforce to attend office, Sharma said.
Paytm CFO Madhur Deora further said there are 11,500 people recruited as of June 2021 and the company aims to increase it because the company sees a massive opportunity in growing its merchant network, particularly around devices.
The company has 800,000 devices as of March 2021, out of which it has added five lakh devices in six months, he said.
“There are many, many highly respected companies that have not added that number of devices. Five lakh, which we added in just six months,” Deora said. UNI