The son of schoolteacher, he founded Paytm in 2011, which gained huge traction following the government's surprise demonetisation move in 2016, when India banned the two highest value banknotes. Paytm has more than 200 million active users in India. Last year, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway invested $300m in the company. Mr Sharma, 40, at a conference organised by the All India Management Association last month, told the audience that he was fortunate because he was educated in an engineering college in New Delhi during the internet revolution. “I was lucky to see the internet revolution sitting in India at a time when it was happening in the world,” he said. “As luck would have it, the rest of my work and career ended up becoming on the internet.” PC Musthafa, a self-made millionaire, came from a poor background in the state of Kerala in south India, as the son of a daily wage labourer. He is the co-founder of what is now a $150m food products company called iD Fresh Food, based in Bangalore. Mr Musthafa says there has been a change in the culture in India, which is allowing people to focus on entrepreneurship rather than going into traditional careers. In turn, this is helping to bring about the shift in wealth creation. “Society, family weren't considering entrepreneurship as something which an educated person should do,” he says. “I think things have changed a lot these days, in the last ten years or so. Now, society, families, and even the legality and government are supportive of start-ups. Things have improved a lot but there is still miles to go.” Experts say that it is inevitable that new names will keep coming up as start-ups try to tap opportunities in India's fast-growing market, and there will be further destruction of wealth among traditional big business names if they do not manage to adapt. “Businesses that are listening to the market and providing what the consumer needs will create wealth,” says Mr Talreja. “Businesses which do not adapt and reinvent will fall off the list.”","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The National","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/pf/resources/images/logo_rectangle.png?d=279"}},"articleSection":"Economy","keywords":["Asia","food products","BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY","Kingfisher Airlines","Kerala","Binny Bansal","London","Dhirubhai Ambani","International Monetary Fund","Sachin Bansal","e-commerce venture","Jijau Social","Softbank","Vijay Mallya","knight frank","Educational Trust","Naspers","iD Fresh Food","RELIANCE INDUSTRIES","smartphone","Paytm","Rajiv Talreja","All India Management Association","Musthafa","Tata Group","Flipkart","Shishir Baijal","Oyo Rooms","south India","Bangalore","Warren Buffett","industrialist business family conglomerates","Narendra Modi government","Jio","India","Mukesh Ambani","Swiggy","Business","Cliq","Anil Ambani","e-commerce","Vijay Shekhar Sharma","Reliances Industries","mukesh ambani","Reliance Communications","Economy","Japan","leveraged technology","technology advancement","Amazon","banking","New Delhi","South Africa","internet revolution","Nilesh Sambare","Article"],"description":"India is expected to see the biggest increase globally in the number of ultra-high net worth individuals","thumbnailUrl":"https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/k6yXnB3M3kK67AEChVM8yqZfsBk=/400x267/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/thenational/X75E2BHVNDXEMQSQGZHMBSDYPI.jpg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/india-s-self-made-entrepreneurs-are-popping-up-on-rich-lists-and-upending-tradition-1.863044"}}