Speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh 2025 on Thursday (3rd April), Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goel lambasted the Indian startup ecosystem. Calling out the Indian startups for the lack of technological innovations, the Minister drew a comparison of the Indian startups with the Chinese startups. He said that while the Indian startups are limited to food, delivery, and basic consumer products with fancy labels, the Chinese startups are working on semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He displayed a comparative chart of Indian and Chinese startups during the event to drive home the point that while Indian startups are behind the Chinese startups which are leading the global startup landscape by venturing into future technologies.
While the Union Commerce Minister appreciated all the progress that India has made so far, he also warned the young entrepreneurs against thinking small. “We are very proud of what India is now. But are we the best in the world as yet? Not yet. Should we aspire to be or are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls?” said Goyal. Without mincing words, Goyal said that making fancy ice cream and cookies cannot be called startups.
“Fancy ice cream and cookies…I know at least three or four billionaires whose children make one brand or the other of the very fancy ice cream and cookies, and run a very successful business. I have no complaint against that. But is that the destiny of India? We call ourselves startups by selling these kinds of products with good packaging and labels like healthy ice cream, gluten-free, and vegan products. This is not a startup. This is entrepreneurship. This is business,” he said.
“Look at what the other side is doing- robotics, machine learning, preparing themselves for 3D manufacturing, next generation factories that are more efficient, and they compete with the rest of the world and capture markets. We won’t be there to witness India in 2047. We are the sculptors of India, but you have to make Viksit Bharat 2047 happen. And that is eminently possible,” he added.
India needs to choose between making ice cream and semiconductor chips
The Union Minister said that the investors need to think out of the box and encourage startups focused on technologies like AI, semiconductors, and so on. He said that the country did witness growth in the field of semiconductors and AI but there is a long way to go. “We are developing our own Artificial Intelligence (AI). We are investing heavily to become self-reliant, building chips, AI models. We should prepare the nation for the future. What will India be manufacturing, ice cream or chips (semiconductors)? ” he said. “Instant grocery delivery, latest, hot on the block, I have no problems you can list that a few billion dollars, I am very happy. I only wish they had more Indian investors rather than foreigners buying off all our startups,” he added.
#StartupMahakumbh2025 | Piyush Goyal’s bold message to 'Shark Tanks' | Food delivery vs deep tech
— Business Today (@business_today) April 3, 2025
Watch: https://t.co/3rBOEGbTc4 | #StartupMahakumbh2025 #PiyushGoyal #SharkTank #DeepTech #MakeInIndia #DigitalIndia pic.twitter.com/jKCdm2Z4bv
Taking a dig at the investors in the popular TV show ‘Shark Tank’ in which aspiring entrepreneurs present their business ideas before a panel of investors to seek investment, Goyal urged them to change their perspective. “We will all have to show some courage for that. I am saying this to all the investors as well. Aman Gupta, please change your perspective on the Shark Tank,” said Goyal.
Goyal said he did not plan to say all this in his speech. He showed a paper and said that he had received some talking points for his speech. “I had not planned this, by the way. Sitting there, I opened my talking points (he displayed a paper). I read it and I said to myself that the people here have arrived organically, and if I speak a word from this, then I’ll be addressing an empty hall in the third edition of the Startup Mahakumbh.”
Indian entrepreneurs and investors need to think global: Goyal
Goyal challenged the Indian entrepreneurs to expand their vision in order to compete with the global startups. “We’ll need to go global, we’ll need to think big. We’ll need to be ambitious. We’ll need to experiment. We’ll 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 look at the numbers; probably a thousand companies or a thousand startups in the Deep Tech ecosystem. These are disturbing signs. Wealth creation in the short term may happen with some of these conveniences. But are we going to be limited to grocery stores only, or do we want to create an identity for India at the global level?
We need more deep-tech startups in India #StartupMahakumbh pic.twitter.com/jZuO3B6Sql
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) April 3, 2025
He urged the young entrepreneurs to take advantage of the startup-friendly ecosystem provided by the Modi government for the growth and promotion of the Indian startup ecosystem. He said India is making agreements with countries like the UK, Australia, Bahrain, and even the European Union. “Our ambitions are to compete with the best in the world. With everyone of them, we talk of the startup bridge. But I can’t take them to grocery stores and say this is what India is offering for startups, ” he said.
“Today, under Prime Minister Modi’s guidance and leadership, we are not aiming small. We are not looking at agreements with countries which are in a situation which is even worse than what India is in”, he added.
I appeal to Unicorns in India… pic.twitter.com/rKQDenorbi
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) April 3, 2025
He appealed to the Unicorns to contribute towards creating “pools of domestic capital” to support startups. He said that Indian as well as global investors should show some generosity while giving clawback to Indian startups, so that young entrepreneurs can retain “respectable ownership” over their hard work. The Minister also proposed certain measures for assisting startups that have not been successful to help them start again.
