The movers and shakers of 2020

The January issue of Fortune India is usually about the Move of the Year—a corporate or policy development in the year gone by which has the potential to be a game changer and impact companies or the business environment. The past year has been one of unprecedented disruption, where the Coronavirus pandemic caused havoc across the world, causing even the mightiest economies to shudder and look for ways to get back on their feet. India, of course, was no exception.

However, as I write this, there are signs that the Indian economy is on the road to a gradual recovery. And even as the roll-out of a vaccine is imminent in India, the spectre of another wave of the infection also looms, with the discovery of new strains of the Coronavirus in some parts of the world, strains which are much more contagious. Caution, then, will continue to be the buzzword in corporate and policy circles.

But even in a chaotic year like 2020, there was enough corporate activity for us to debate on, before we finally picked not just one, but a few, moves of the year to showcase in this issue. One of them, which we write about in our cover story, is that of Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s decision to take on the might of Google and its Play Store (which will charge developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases from 2022) and challenge its dominance in India’s tech ecosystem. By quickly putting in place a mini app store in his Paytm app, Sharma is attempting to become the rallying point for Indian app developers who don’t have the wherewithal to be a part of the Google Play Store, but can offer interesting services. Sharma tells us that thousands of developers are signing up with Paytm, and if his call for self-reliance in India’s digital world means an eventual move towards Paytm becoming a “super app” with several offerings within its app, then he is happy with that outcome. Paytm, however, isn’t alone in this ambition. Walmart-owned PhonePe and, more recently, Razorpay, also have their own app store offerings, and India may well be witnessing the beginnings of a battle of the app stores. But what is unique about Paytm is that its app store has been positioned as a symbol of self-reliance, and a challenge to Google.

A Move of the Year issue can hardly be complete without a mention of what Reliance Industries, led by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, did last year. Reliance ratcheted up a staggering pace of fundraising through Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), and also launched what became India’s largest-ever rights issue. All this in a matter of just a few months, right in the middle of the pandemic. While Jio Platforms and RRVL together raised a staggering $26.3 billion from some of the world’s biggest names—including Facebook and Google—the rights issue brought in another ₹53,124 crore (or about $7 billion). In the process, Ambani achieved his target of making his company net-debt free.

There were other interesting moves as well, among them the acquisition of the grounded Jet Airways, Tata emerging as the front runner for Air India, the entry of WhatsApp Pay in the payments space and, of course, the surge in the stock markets. By all accounts, the pandemic hasn’t been able to dampen the power of Indian enterprise.

On that note, let me wish you a happy 2021. May the new year bring you good health and prosperity.