Cos operating in India must abide by local regulations: Paytm Founder

Joining the debate on data localisation, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Monday said companies operating in India should abide by rules and regulations laid down by the country, and also have an obligation to protect data of citizens.

Startups in India are at an "incredible inflection point" Sharma said, adding there is no dearth of funds for startups focussed on solving real-world challenges with their innovative approach.

"I am all for protecting our citizen data. Let it be clear if you are operating in this country, you are supposed to be abiding by laws and regulations of this country. You can't say my court is in another country...," Sharma told PTI when asked about regulations proposed in the digital space.

Indian companies such as Reliance Industries have been votaries for storing and processing of data generated of Indian users within the country while foreign firms want freedom to store data outside the country as well.

The chief of the fintech player also observed that India as a market presents lucrative opportunities with its large base of users.

"I don't foresee why tech cos that have access to Indian citizen (data) won't want to abide by rules and regulation of this country," Sharma said on the sidelines of 'Startup20 Shikhar' event.

Asked about issues of corporate governance coming up in the startup space, Sharma said that it would not be correct to generalise the same as these were limited instances.

"We cannot say that these have come up in the startup space. There are always bad apples in a cart. For every one bad case, there are tens and hundreds of examples that are good," he said.

To entrepreneurs on governance, Sharma said, "You have an opportunity to create impact in the world, and if you treat it as a chance to make something for yourself individually and at the cost of the ecosystem, it should be challenged. But then again, as I said, it is only the case of few people," he said.

On funding winter, Sharma emphasised that money is "not a problem" for good startups.

Indian companies have the ability to not only apply innovation to solve local problems but also bring to the world, population-scale low-cost solutions for wider usage.

"If you are solving some real problems not just in India but international (also)... capital will be available. There is no funding winter in that sense," Sharma said.

The digital public infrastructure created by India is an example for the world to see, he said.

"The impactable thing of India that the world can learn from, is the way India tech infrastructure is available to everyone," he said, terming the country's success with digital public goods as a "global case study".

According to him, startups in India have the opportunity to build for the world and that companies have to be agile to stay relevant in the market.

"In a world where access to technology and resources have become ubiquitous and large, it is a continuous obligation on business to evolve toward what is correct," Sharma said.

Terming technology as a "productivity enhancer", Sharma said emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) should spur economic growth and create new types of jobs instead of taking away jobs.