Emperor's new clothes

At the heart of Paytm's slide lies the abject failure of its Super App strategy

For more than three weeks now, the indignation and diatribe launched against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its action against Paytm Payments Bank have beggared belief. The primary arguments trotted out — all of it remarkably specious — is that the regulator doesn’t understand the fintech sector (and the need for stringent KYC norms), isn’t willing to create space for innovation in the banking sector, and it tends to favour the incumbent banks.

None of this is new. In the past, too, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the high-profile and maverick poster boy of India’s startup world, has made it a