Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and MP, addressed the audience on the inaugural day of the Startup Mahakumbh being held at Bharat Mandapam. This year’s edition has brought together more than 3,000 startups, 1,000 investors and incubators, and 10,000 delegates from over 50 countries, along with 50,000 business visitors. Piyush Goyal, in his address, appealed to the Startup ecosystem to push the boundaries and also encouraged domestic industry to mentor and handhold young minds to turn their dreams of excellence into a reality for India.
“Indian startups need a reality check. They are too focused on food delivery apps, using unemployed youth for cheap labour. Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls? Look at the second example. I’ve been going through many of our startup success stories, and when I travel across the country, startups often present to us the work they’re doing. Fancy ice creams and cookies. I know at least three or four billionaires whose children are running successful businesses under one brand or another—selling very fancy ice creams and cookies. And I have no complaint about that. But is that the destiny of India? Healthy ice cream. Gluten-free, zero sugar, vegan—whatever it may be. Great for business. But look at what the rest of the world is doing. They are investing heavily to become self-reliant. Building chips. Developing AI models that will prepare their nations for the future,” he said.
Goyal also commented on the instant grocery delivery apps. “Instant grocery delivery—hot and trending. I have no issues with it. It may list at a valuation of a few billion dollars, and I’d be happy about that. I only wish there were more Indian investors backing these ventures, instead of foreign investors buying out all our startups. And this is not a good situation for all of you. We need more Indian investors in the game. Of course, I won’t comment on what kind of society we’re building and how our resources are increasingly directed towards hyper-fast logistics. Now look at what the other side is doing—robotics, automation, machine learning. They are preparing for 3D manufacturing, next-generation factories that are more efficient, globally competitive, and ready to capture markets. You all are the sculptors of New India. You have to make Viksit Bharat 2047 happen. We need to go beyond the boundaries of our own thinking. Let’s not limit ourselves to the past. Let’s explore the unknown. And frankly, when we look at deep tech – and I see the numbers, just about a thousand startups in the deep tech ecosystem- it’s a disturbing sign,” he said.
Startup Community Speaks Up on Piyush Goyal and His Address
Aadit Palicha, CEO, Zepto issued a statement post the address of Piyush Goyal “It is easy to criticise consumer internet startups in India, especially when you compare them to the deep technical excellence being built in US/China. Using our example, the reality is this: there are almost 1.5 Lakh real people who are earning livelihoods on Zepto today – a company that did not exist 3.5 years ago. Rs 1,000+ Crores of tax contribution to the government per year, over a billion dollars of FDI brought into the country and hundreds of crores invested in organizing India’s backend supply chains (especially for fresh fruits and vegetables). If that isn’t a miracle in Indian innovation, I honestly don’t know what is,” he said.
He further added: “Why doesn’t India have its own large-scale foundational AI model? It’s because we still haven’t built great internet companies. Most technology-led innovation over the past 2 decades has originated from consumer internet companies. Who scaled cloud computing? Amazon (originally a consumer internet company). Who are the big players in AI today? Facebook, Google, Alibaba, Tencent etc. (all started as consumer internet companies). Consumer internet companies drive this innovation because they have the best data, talent, and capital to put behind it. We need to build great local champions in internet that are generating hundreds of millions of dollars in FCF first if we ever want to get a piece of great technology revolutions. The startup ecosystem, the government, and the owners of large pools of Indian capital need to actively support the creation of these local champions, not pull down the teams that are trying hard to get there.”
Palicha also stated: “Zepto is still far away from being a great Internet company that can hold a candle to the global best. But we are executing day in and day out to get there. I can promise that any capital we generate from this business (and it honestly looks like we will) will be invested towards long-term innovation and value creation in India. That is essentially what I am dedicating the next few decades of my life to try to do: create dynamism in the Indian economy and our capital markets, in the same way the Americans have for decades. We have the talent and capital; we just need the execution”.
Along similar lines former BharatPe founder and CEO Ashneer Grover also commented on Piyush Goyal, saying: “The only people in India who need a ‘reality check’ are it’s politicians. Everyone else is living in the absolute reality of India. China also had food delivery first and then evolved to deep tech. It’s great to aspire for what they’ve done – maybe time for politicians to aspire for 10%+ economic growth rate for 20 years flat before chiding today’s job creators. Maybe time to change ‘public discourse’ from history to science. Thanks Minister sir for starting this healthy debate”.
