From Startup India To Shut Up India

Pai has pointed out that the country has a hostile Finance Minister and said “Made in China 2025 has been a partial success. Why does China dominate? They had a 10-year-plan in 2015, invested hugely, now benefiting with huge deep tech start ups. India did not invest”

The Startup Mahakumbh held in New Delhi last week has featured over 3,000 startups, 1,000+ investors and incubators, and 10,000+ delegates from 50+ countries, making it a prime opportunity for startups to pitch their businesses, build investor relationships, and secure crucial funding. Building on the success of the inaugural edition, which featured over 1,300 exhibitors and attracted more than 48,000 visitors, Startup Mahakumbh 2025 is one of India’s largest innovation and entrepreneurship events and promises an even bigger and more impactful platform for startups, investors, and industry leaders. The event witnessed a remarkable turnout, with a footfall of 1,07,823 over two days, the Union Commerce Ministry has said.

With all this hype, Piyush Goyal, the minister in-charge of the same department, has literally dampened the atmosphere first when he compared India with China (yes you heard it right) and then generalised and derided the Indian startups for their focus on Dukaandaari!

"Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls? Is that the destiny of India... This is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship,” Goyal said, calling for a reality check on part of the Indian startups. He did not stop there. "What are India's startups of today? We are focused on food delivery apps, turning unemployed youths into cheap labour so the rich can get their meals without moving out of their house," he said.

He is upset that just 1,000 startups are involved in India's deep-tech space.

But on Day 2 of the Startup Mahakumbh, Goyal tried to do some firefighting as he went round the exhibition area andsaid: “I got–the taste of innovative work that our young men and women have created through their sheer tenacity, hard work, spirit of enquiry, research and innovation–is music to one’s ears.”

“You can see the work of world-class quality, experience the technologies created on energy efficiency, powering electronics, see the defence equipment that young startups are creating, and realise how fintech is becoming a source of empowerment for the common citizen… truly an experience of a lifetime,” Goyal said making one wonder if he was the same Minister who questioned the Dukandaari of Indian startups.

But all these got washed away with those negative remarks and the fierce negative debate that they generated.

Suhel Seth, Founder & Managing Partner, Counselage India, and a familiar 9 PM debate face, lambasted the startups by saying that 80 per cent of startups in India are nothing but a racket... The first thing that startup founders do is buy themselves Lamborghinis and homes in Amrita Shergill Marg and big apartments," Seth told Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief, Republic TV.

“Have we produced a Facebook? No. Have we produced a Google? No. Have we produced anything which is innovative, which is a global brand? The answer is no," he said.

In fact, there isn’t much difference between what standup comedian Kunal Kamra, Piyush Goyal or Seth have said.

Kamra said the startups such as Ola are not even able to produce a proper e-scooter. The Indian businessmen seem to have a fetish for making India great. He also pointed out the wonders that China has done and the statements that the country enjoys one party rule.

By the way, hasn’t Rahul Gandhi had expressed similar thoughts when he said: “If and when we fight a war with China, we will be fighting against Chinese batteries, optics and robots. For the future of our children, we have to build a production line.” And then, he was trolled for invoking China.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has also once said India cannot afford to take on China which is a much larger economy than ours.

In BJP’s model of democracy, it’s fine if the Ministers say, “look at China”. But if a satirist or an opposition leader says, he is asked to shut up.

It is not all about one party rule that China enjoys – if that is what BJP suggests for India. Though run on a military dictatorship style, China provides the conducive atmosphere for businesses to flourish, unlike our hollow talk of ease-of-doing business.

Many Indian businessmen are so spineless that they dare not even whisper against the system that delays processes and harasses honest people. But some people mustered some courage and began posting on social media.

Reacting to Goyal remarks, former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai said Indian startups got $160 b from 2014/24, China 845b$, US 2.3Tr$. “…there are very many small deep tech startups in chip design, IOT, Robotics, EV charging, BMS in India, growing rapidly but where is the capital?” Pai asked.

Pai has pointed out that the country has a hostile Finance Minister and said “Made in China 2025 has been a partial success. Why does China dominate? They had a 10-year-plan in 2015, invested hugely, now benefiting with huge deep tech start ups. India did not invest”.

Zepto founder Aadit Palicha took up the cudgels on behalf of the delivery apps and said: 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.

Responding to Goyal and pro-BJP critics on not having its own large-scale foundational AI model, Palicha said “It's because we still haven't built great internet companies”. Most technology-led innovation over the past two 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.

So, the sum and substance of all these debates that we not invest much in the startup ecosystem. The issue has generated so much heat and dust, but we do not get to hear anything on the impact of Trump tariffs that came into effect on April 2.

The government was, and is, in its own cocoon trying to believe that the new tariff regime won’t impact India much. Initially, we were told that the pharma sector was excluded. This proved to be a short-lived illusion.

Goyal himself was in the US ahead of the Trump announcement but his talks did not apparently yield any favours for us. On the contrary, Trump had this taunt by referring to Modi as his friend and then saying that the Indian tariffs are too much!

Where are the discussions with the business community, economic experts, and the opposition leaders on the ways to tackle the impending recession? Can India remain aloof and seal itself from the impact when the world’s richest nation goes down?

Government officials told a foreign wire agency that India’s position is not all that bad as we can iron out a bilateral trade deal in less than six months. But will recession wait that long? As it is, the stock markets across the world have pressed the panic button.

America is already protesting, for the business community and the consumer there are alive to the disaster ahead. And we are too busy with Waqf, Aurangazeb, Namaaz, anti-opposition and the other deflective rhetoric.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)