Noida Based Digital Wallet Firm Paytm, claims 7 million+ users in India

Key Highlights

Paytm is available in over 11 indian languages

Paytm values over $10 billion as of 2019

Rahul Gandhi to tweet regarding the Cobra Post sting operation

The name Paytm is synonymous with quick monetary transactions via mobile phones in India. Paytm was started in 2010 by Vijay Shekar Sharma. It is an e-commerce payment system and a digital wallet company that has it’s based in Noida. Currently paytm is available in over 11 Indian languages. One can use Paytm for online usages like mobile phone recharges, paying utility bills, shopping for groceries, eating out at restaurants, etc. the company claims that over 7 million users across India use Paytm. This company is valued at over $10 billion as of 2019, making it one of the largest e-commerce platforms in India.

Paytm initially started by offering mobile recharges and a pathway to pay your bills. They also offered e-commerce services similar to Flipkart and Amazon. However, Paytm has grown leaps and bounds from these Initial days. Now they offer a plethora of services like digital wallets, booking buses, trains, and flights, paying bills at restaurants. One can book everything from movie tickets to hotel rooms using Paytm. Paytm is also used for transferring money into other’s wallets and bank accounts. In short, one can use Paytm for literally doing everything. All the necessities of a person are fulfilled by this one app.

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However recently this company has been embroiled in various controversies which have made its users skeptical about whether it is safe to use Paytm. Cobra post, in its operation-136 II, claimed that the senior vice president at Paytm received a call from the PMO’s office during a particularly violent time in Kashmir, asking for personal details of a few users. It isn’t clear if the Paytm officials complied with this request, however, Paytm spokespeople completely refuted these claims saying that there is absolutely no truth in it whatsoever.

This led to Cobrapost doing a sting operation on Paytm by sending their reporter Pushp Sharma who had posed as a person wanting to promote religious books on Paytm. He met with Sudhanshu Gupta who is a vice-president in the company. Pushp also claimed as a part of his sting operation that he is a member of an NGO named Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Prachar Samti which had ties with the RSS.

Related : Ex-Alibaba exec Bhushan Patil quits as Paytm President

Gupta can be seen confessing that Paytm had promoted the PM’s book Exam Warriors by making it more visible on their homepage. Later the cobrapost reporter meets with Ajay Shekhar Sharma who is the senior vice-president of the company and the younger brother of the founder who made his political standings clear by stating he has several close ties with RSS with their magazine “Panchjanya” carrying a lot of paytm ads. This prompted Rahul Gandhi to tweet regarding the sting operation, “patym=PayToPM “

However, the company’s troubles didn’t end there. Sonia Dhawan who was a secretary of Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar was arrested when she tried to blackmail him and extort Rs 10 crore from him.

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