India’s 100 Richest
ANINDITO MUKHERJEE/BLOOMBERGVIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA: MOBILE MONEY MAN
Newcomer Sharma, the son of a schoolteacher from a small city in
north India, is the youngest member of the top 100 at age 39. He
founded fast-rising, Alibaba-backed mobile wallet Paytm, an acronym
for “Pay Through Mobile,” in 2011. One of the biggest beneficiaries of
the government’s decision to demonetize India’s rupees and move to a
cashless economy, Paytm has notched up 250 million registered users
and more than 7 million transactions daily. A recent sale of Paytm’s
shares to Japan’s SoftBank values the company, in which Sharma owns
18%, at $7 billion. Sharma has also created Paytm Mall, an e-commerce
business and the Paytm Payments Bank.