Tech & Society

Paytm CEO Takes on UN Role to Combat Air Pollution

As Sri Lankan cricket players recently discovered, India’s air pollution issue has escalated as Paytm CEO steps in as UN Environment’s Patron for Clean Air.

A European satellite recently sent back pictures from its position in orbit tracking air pollution around the world, the images sent back to earth showed pollution drifting from Indian power plants, the worst of this pollution runs from north of Patna in Bihar to south of Raipur in Chhattisgarh. The pollution seems to mostly be caused by power plants and traffic-heavy cities.

In the aftermath of one of Delhi’s worst periods of pollution, last year, no criminal cases were brought against any individuals or industries under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981. Furthermore, the Central Information Commission does not have access to any annual data regarding the number of Pollution Under Control certificates submitted.

With such dreary news of India’s air pollution problems established, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO and founder of Paytm, has been appointed as the UN Environment’s Patron for Clean Air. Vijay will be a champion of the UN’s #BreatheLife campaign, which hopes to improve the lives of 90% of the world’s population by improving the unsafe air they currently inhale. Half of the world’s 20 most-polluted cities are in India.

There are three key areas of improvement which Sharma has identified: first is active use of electric vehicles. Second, creating awareness of the problem of pollution, and third, better measurement of India’s air quality over the next year and a half. Sharma said, “Delhi is like a mother who is saying she is in pain. This starts from Delhi and becomes a national and global concern.”

Speaking on the appointment, Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment, said,“tackling pollution requires all of us, citizens, governance, and business to come together. We need more champions in the private sector like Mr Sharma to drive innovation that will get us to a cleaner future.”

Manav Prakash, founder and CEO of Bip.Fund, a platform for cryptocurrency investment, said, “It is quite important for Indian CEOs and entrepreneurs to feel a moral duty towards the environment and towards society. Entrepreneurs especially are suited to this task, since we build products on innovation, and innovation is the solution to many problems that India faces environmentally, socially, and economically.”

Vijay sold his first company at 21 and quit the bankroll it provided to start On97, which then turned into Paytm. It was ultimately his hunt for big projects which got him noticed, so advancing the cause of global air quality might be just the mammoth task he’s looking for.

Ben Allen

Ben Allen is a traveler, a writer and a Brit. He worked in the London start-up world for a while but really prefers commenting on it than working in it. He has huge faith in the tech industry and enjoys talking and writing about the social issues inherent in it's development.

Recent Posts

Outbound & inbound: India attracts businesses from UK, China & US while expanding to Middle East

The Tech Panda takes a look at how India has been attracting foreign businesses from…

13 hours ago

UPI value & volume surpass records in March

India’s digital payments ecosystem achieved a record high in March, with UPI transactions reaching INR24.77…

14 hours ago

AI-powered digital twins, Cobots, agentic AI, physical AI & edge computing are enabling an anticipatory AI-first manufacturing ecosystem

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), ), a leader in IT services, consulting, and business…

15 hours ago

Misinformation & deepfakes help weaponize AI: Should AI be as open as the internet then?

The ability for AI to spread misinformation has been reaching hair-raising lengths, another and possibly…

3 days ago

What employees want: Not everyone feels ready to flow with AI at the workplace

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere now. It’s safe to say that organizations have either fully adopted…

6 days ago

Are business markets safe from Grok AI?

With the rise of advanced AI models such as Grok AI developed by Elon Musk's…

6 days ago