Some journeys don’t begin with ambition. They begin with survival. Ashwarya Sharma comes from Kashipur, a small industrial town in Uttarakhand. “I was an average student,” he says honestly. “Not because I didn’t want to do well, but because life sometimes doesn’t give you that space.”
There were years when even sitting for school exams depended on whether fees had been cleared. During final exams, names would be called out, students asked to leave the classroom because payments were pending. Those moments stay with you. They quietly shape you.
After Class 12, Ashwarya moved to Delhi. He enrolled in B.Com at Delhi University and simultaneously took up the Company Secretary (CS) course. That decision, he says, unknowingly laid the foundation for his legal career.
“Law found me before I found law,” he says.
Discovering law and himself
CS classes introduced him to something transformative – teachers who didn’t just teach subjects, but shaped thinking.
“That’s where my life changed,” he says. “I realised law wasn’t a job for me, it was a calling.”
He went on to clear the DU Law Faculty entrance and joined the evening batch, juggling mandatory CS training in the mornings. Long commutes, packed schedules, and classmates often twice his age became part of everyday life.
While he was in law college, some of his peers, who used to work in Big Four firms, referred him. Ashwarya joined Deloitte in 2015, almost by accident, as an indirect tax professional.
“I wanted corporate law. Indirect tax just happened.” But even on one day, something was clear. “I knew I wouldn’t do a job forever,” he mentions.
Choosing risk over comfort
Early in his career, a question stayed front and centre. Why should ambition be limited to working only for foreign firms? When you are young, you think differently. You want to build something of your own. With time, thinking became calmer, but that question never left his mind.
As he says, “Why can’t we create our own Indian brand that offers the same quality, but in a way that suits our country? India is different in its culture, geography, and mindset. We understand our people better, so why not build a service brand that keeps this in mind while delivering strong consulting work?”
From the beginning, he knew he didn’t want to stay in a job forever. That thought was clear. In 2015, he started working, and by 2017, just before GST was introduced, he decided to take a step back. In April 2017, he resigned and moved from Delhi to my hometown, Kashipur, in Uttarakhand.
Leaving a good city, a growing role, big clients, and strong learning opportunities, especially at a time when GST was opening new doors, wasn’t easy for him, but he knew what stepping out of the comfort zone would mean.
Starting from zero, again
Ashwarya began attending local industry seminars, listening more than speaking. A turning point came in Dehradun, during a pro bono case he actually lost. But someone in the courtroom was listening closely, the legal team of Patanjali Group.
They approached him with a high-stakes GST issue worth several crores. Contrary to the senior advice they had received earlier, Ashwarya confidently told them not to pay the tax. He fought the case in the High Court and won.
For years, Ashwarya did everything himself – lawyer, admin, HR, strategist. “As a startup, you wear every hat,” he smiles.
From individual practice to RB Lawcorp
As Ashwarya’s work expanded beyond Uttarakhand, travel became a major challenge. He puts, “With no airport in my hometown, every outstation case meant travelling via Delhi, turning even short assignments into multi-day journeys. This made it clear that the scale needed a better setup.
At the same time, building a strong brand required a capable team. Skilled lawyers and chartered accountants usually move to metro cities and are unwilling to relocate to smaller towns. To access the right talent, he had to move closer to where they were.
After working independently for several years, RB Lawcorp was formally established in 2022. He also made the decision to move to a metropolitan city. He started in Noida in a shared workplace. From there, the journey slowly built up. Today, the firm operates from a 5,000 sq. ft. office, but it began very small.
Challenges in the GST landscape
According to Ashwarya, “The issue is not with GST itself. The real challenge lies in understanding and implementing it properly.”
Before GST was introduced in 2017, businesses had to deal with multiple taxes. This was complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. Another major challenge was the cascading effect, or “tax on tax.” Businesses could not adjust one tax against another. So even if tax was already paid at one stage, it became a cost at the next stage.
“GST simplified this system by bringing multiple taxes under one umbrella and allowing input tax credit, meaning tax paid on purchases can be adjusted against tax on sales. This reduced duplication and made the process more transparent,” he explains.
Misconceptions about GST
“The biggest misconception around GST is that it is difficult or too complicated,” Ashwarya puts. “Many people feel they don’t understand it, so they avoid engaging with it directly. But in reality, GST is not as tough as it seems.”
GST should be handled with a proactive mindset. In today’s time, especially with technology and AI, saying “I didn’t check the portal” is no longer an excuse. It’s your business, and taking basic responsibility is essential.
Passion over profession
For Ashwarya, law is not a 9-to-5 role. He says, “If I don’t read case law one day, the day feels incomplete.” Even while travelling, he keeps up with judgments, updates, and learning. Motivation, he says, is internal.
“My advice is simple that don’t settle. Keep looking for what excites you.”
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