Exploring the Life and Career of Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chief executive officer of financial technology company Paytm.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chief executive officer of financial technology company Paytm. With his strong belief in emerging technologies, he has built Paytm into India’s largest mobile-first financial services within a short period of time.
| Particulars | Responses |
| Full name | Vijay Shekhar Singh Sharma |
| Date of Birth | 7 June 1978 (age 43) |
| Place of Birth | Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Alma Mater | Delhi College of Engineering |
| Educational qualifications | B.tech in Electronics & Communications |
| Profession | Entrepreneur (Founder of Paytm) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Spouse | Mridula Sharma (m. 2015) |
| Net worth | US 2.3 billion dollars (2021) |
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Personal life
Vijay was born on 7 June 1978 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh to Sulom Prakash Sharma who is a school teacher and Asha Sharma who is a homemaker. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and communications from Delhi College of Engineering. He studied in a Hindi medium school in Harduaganj, a small town near Aligarh. He is married to Mridula Parashar Sharma and has one child with her. His inspiration is Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder and Masayoshi Son of Softbank.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Professional life
When Vijay was studying in college in 1997, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for 1 million US dollars. He started One97 communications in 2000 which offered mobile content including news, cricket, scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results. He started Paytm while India’s telecom infrastructure was improving in 2010. His investors were not confident about the idea of mobile-first consumer service that would cater to the masses. He put 2 million dollars at stake to launch Paytm.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Other ventures
Vijay has been named as the UN Environment’s ‘Patron for Clean Air’, where he helps to drive environmental action and awareness, and advocate for the goals of United Nations Environment’s global Breathe Life Campaign.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Awards and Recognitions
- He received an Honorary doctorate from Amity University, Gurgaon, in 2016.
- He was honored with the Yash Bharati, the highest state civilian award of the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2016.
- He was named the youngest billionaire in India, with a net worth of 1.3 million US dollars. He was ranked 1567 in the list of Forbes’s ‘The World’s Billionaires’ list.
- He was in the list of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2017.
- He became the Dataquest IT Man of the year in 2017.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Controversy
In January 2017, Vijay made headlines when a video from his company’s annual event went viral. In the video, Vijay, perhaps in an intoxicated state, can be seen making derogatory remarks against rival companies.
Although Paytm generated huge revenues post the government’s decision of demonetization, the company also faced the wrath of politicians and common people for its ‘opportunistic’ marketing strategies. In one of its advertisements, Paytm had allegedly used PM Narendra Modi’s photo to promote its wallet services, without prior permission from the authorities concerned.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Famous words
”If you don’t give yourself a chance, who will ? If you don’t take a chance, who will ? And I think you should take a chance on yourself.”
“I think I’ve been lucky that in my life I had to take risks without even thinking of downfalls because I did not start with a lot of things that I could have lost.”
“What we’ve changed in this country is that now you don’t need to actually carry a wallet, or a card, or a currency.”
