Paytm shareholders near unanimous in voting to approve Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s reappointment and pay

Shareholders of One97 Communications, which operates the fintech platform Paytm, voted almost unanimously for founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s reappointment as managing director and CEO for another five years, at the company’s annual general meeting last week. Nandan Nilekani’s VC firm Fundamentum has raised $227 million for its second fund. And some Tesla drivers tested the ‘self-driving’ feature on their own children. Notes: Shareholders of One97 Communications, which operates the fintech platform Paytm, voted almost unanimously for founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s reappointment as managing director and CEO for another five years, at the company’s annual general meeting last week. In a filing with the stock exchanges in Mumbai, Paytm reported that 99.67 percent of the shareholders voted in favour of the resolution. The matter of his pay faced only a little bit more resistance, but 94.48 percent of the shareholders still voted in favour. In the run-up to the AGM, which was held on Aug. 19, some proxy advisory firms opposed Sharma’s reappointment and his pay. Institutional Investor Advisory Services India, one such firm, estimated Sharma’s compensation at Rs. 796 crores for the current fiscal year, including stock options, according to a report in the Economic Times. Sharma has promised to get the loss-making company to break even by the end of the current fiscal year, but many remain sceptical. Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal have raised $227 million for the second fund at their VC firm Fundamentum Partnership, TechCrunch reported on Aug. 19. The fund plans to use the money to invest in four to five startups each year. Fundamentum, which typically backs startups in the Series B stage and beyond, will look to lead or co-lead $25 million to $40 million rounds, Aggarwal told TechCrunch in an interview. Nilekani is the co-founder of IT services giant Infosys and one of the central figures behind several of India’s digital initiatives, including Aadhaar, UPI and ONDC. Aggarwal founded the BPO services provider Daksh which was acquired by IBM. The duo launched Fundamentum in 2019 to back consumer and software-focused startups, according to TechCrunch. YouTube has removed two videos from its platform which showed Tesla drivers conducting amateur vehicle safety tests using their own children in place of mannequins on the road or the driveway, CNBC reported on Aug. 19. The tests were to determine if a slow-moving Tesla equipped with the company’s latest driver assistance systems would automatically avoid colliding with pedestrians — in this case, children — walking or standing still on the road, according to CNBC. CNBC points out that none of the driver assistance systems offered by Tesla today makes the car fully autonomous and that Tesla makes this clear as well in its manual. Tesla is being investigated in the US for multiple accidents, including some which involved fatalities, where the driver-assistance systems were said to be in use. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds