Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma gives up his salary for the next two months

Difficult times often bring the best out of people. As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has crippled humanity socio-economically, it has also instilled a sense of compassion among people in these testing times. People from all walks of life are coming together and contributing their bit in the fight against the deadly virus. From monetary help to donating medical equipment, prominent personalities across the world are also doing their best to ease out the pain.

Continuing the trend, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of India’s leading digital payments platform Paytm, has said he would be giving up his salary for the next two months, as businesses across the industry struggle amid the virus outbreak. The money, he said, will be used to pay employees at the company that are worst hit amid the economic breakdown.

In a tweet, Sharma said he was inspired by Marriott International president and CEO Arne Sorenson who had earlier announced he will receive no salary for the rest of 2020 and the rest of the executive team will take 50% pay cuts.

Sharma’s tweet read,”This message becomes totally somethings else after 4:30 mins. I just couldn’t hold tears in my eyes. Inspired by Arne, I will not take my salary of this month & next. I commit that money to any needs of @Paytm office-help-staff in these testing times.”

This message becomes totally somethings else after 4:30 mins. I just couldn’t hold tears in my eyes. Inspired by Arne, I will not take my salary of this month & next. I commit that money to any needs of @Paytm office-help-staff in these testing times. https://t.co/6s92dXME5G

— Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) March 20, 2020

The move follows a string of similar compassionate gestures that organizations pan-industry are adopting to help their employees in these difficult times. Many organizations, including Uber, food-delivery platform DoorDash, and tech giant Google, have pooled in money to help their employees.

Earlier, Indian air carrier IndiGo had also announced pay cuts for its senior employees, including the CEO Ronojoy Dutta, who will be taking the highest cut of 25%. The move comes amidst the aviation industry being the worst hit as most of the flights are grounded after restrictions on travel were placed.

PM Modi also announced setting up of a task force to deal with the economic breakdown as the number of cases across India pick up the pace. The team would be headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.