Why is Paytm India's Top Startup?

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Paytm was launched in 2010 as an Indian start up. The original service of Paytm was to help users to make their bill payments and recharge mobile phones, while earning reward point. In this post we will see the reason why Paytm is considerd the top indian startup and get more details about this startup. What is Paytm? Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, in Noida with an initial investment of $2 million. Paytm's parent company One97 Communications which is also owned by Vijay Shekhar Sharma was started in 2000 and operates into multiple fields. Who owns Paytm? Paytm has been backed by Jack Maa's Alibaba and Ratan Tata of the infamous TATA Group. Although partially owned by Chinese company Alibaba, Paytm remains an Indian company with majority of stake holders being Indians (primarily Ratan Tata and Vijay Shekhar Sharma himself.  What got Paytm the required boost? Paytm added a lot of features in 2013 and moved from a mobile and DTH recharge service to an online payment pl
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Scarcity is the Mother of Invention

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Jugaad Innovators face many kinds of scarcity; this is not the problem but the cause of Innovation. Scarcity is what differentiates the Jugaad entrepreneurs from entrepreneurs. Jugaad Innovators are always looking to do more with less.

While Silicon Valley entrepreneurs typically operate in a resource-rich environment, Jugaad entrepreneurs face scarcity of every possible thing. Some of the major kinds of scarcities faced by these Jugaad entrepreneurs are listed and explained below.

1. Finance: Quite simply, the finance available in the emerging markets is limited. Banks are conservative, venture capital and angel investor networks are underdeveloped. Jugaad innovators cannot afford to invest in capital-intensive R&D equipments. This partly explains why a country like India spends only 0.8% of its GDP on R&D, compared to 3% spends by developed nations.


2. Natural Resources: Not a Jugaad specific problem but it just makes it more difficult to establish a setup in emerging countries. The natural resources and raw materials are expensive and that adds up to the running cost of the units, especially in the manufacturing sector.

3. Skilled and Qualified Manpower: Emerging markets like India, China and Brazil have huge populations but only a small percentage of them are skilled and qualified. According to a survey conducted by Manpower Group, 67% of enterprises in India and 57% of those in Brazil have difficulties finding qualified technicians, sales representatives, engineers, and IT staff.

4. Quality Infrastructure: The poor roads and limited transport options make it difficult to get goods and services to far-flung places in a timely fashion. The cost of doing so becomes a huge challenge, limiting the reach of markets in emerging economies.

5. Demanding Consumers: In addition to pervasive scarcity, Jugaad innovators also have to contend with a frugal and demanding consumer base. This consumer base has low disposable income (for example, 30 crore Indians earn less than Rs. 50 per day). The consumer is also very value conscious. This puts a lot of pressure on Jugaad Innovators to develop higher value offerings at lower price.

6. Diversity in Population: Countries like Indian where people are from various religions, different casts, having different mind sets and speaking different languages. It gets difficult for the Jugaad innovators to cater to them all in the same manner. The pervasive scarcity and the demanding nature of the consumer base make Jugaad innovators masters of frugality.

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