Paytm CEO Sharma battles regulatory crisis

A RAGS-TO-RICHES tale, Vijay Shekhar Sharma is no stranger to controversy.

Now, the country's startup king faces arguably his biggest crisis in a race to save his revolutionary digital payments firm that had once counted Warren Buffett as a backer. Sharma has put up a brave face even as nervous investors plundered $2 billion off Paytm's valuation after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered his banking arm to stop most of its operations from March 1 for "persistent noncompliances" and "supervisory concerns". The ruling threatens significant business disruptions as the bank is the backbone of his ubiquitous Paytm payments app used by millions daily in a nation where cash was once king. The test for Sharma, whose early days of life were one of hardship and challenges, is to keep the operations running and restore investor confidence. His latest troubles have attracted plenty of media publicity, not least because of his rapid rise to become one of India's elite businessmen - at one point moving into the country's top-100 richest club. The executive has also found many allies in the country's startup world as he often talks up their concerns, including publicly criticising Google, saying its practices hurt smaller companies.