Ashneer Grover is the latest industry leader to join the debate on remarks made by commerce minister Piyush Goyal on startups focussing more on making delivery apps and ice cream companies, creating a generation of delivery executives.
Taking to X on Friday, Ashneer Grover lashed out at Indian politicians but thanked Piyush Goyal for starting the healthy debate.
“The only people in India who need a ‘reality check’ are it’s politicians. Everyone else is living in the absolute reality of India,” he said.
Referring to Piyush Goyal’s comparison of Indian startups with tech-focussed Chinese startups, Ashneer Grover said China used to have food delivery startups before it evolved into deep tech.
“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,” he said.
“Thanks Minister sir for starting this healthy debate,” Grover added.
Zepto’s Aadit Palicha lashes out at Piyush Goyal
Earlier, Zepto co-founder Aadit Palicha joined the debate to take a dig at Piyush Goyal’s remarks. He said that almost 1.5 lakh ‘real people’ earn their livelihood on Zepto,, which pays over ₹1,000 crore in taxes to the government.
“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. ₹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.
Read Aadit Palicha’s full post here:
Mohandas Pai’s take on Piyush Goyal’s startup criticism
Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai was one of the first industry leaders who criticised Piyush Goyal for his remarks on Indian startups focussing on delivery apps rather than making investments in deep tech.
He asked the minister to not belittle Indian startups and instead question what the government has done to support technologically advanced startups like he wants.
“…Who made this slide? Chinese? From Hongkong? These are bad comparisons. India has startups in all those areas too but they are small. Minister @PiyushGoyal should not belittle our startups but ask himself what has he done as our Minister to help deep tech start ups grow in India? It is easy to point fingers at them. We have a hostile @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman who harassed start ups on Angel tax for many years, do not allow endowments to invest, insurance cos still do not invest whereas they do globally, @RBI regularly harasses overseas investors on remittances and AIF’s, treat them badly, cos FE rules. China invested 845b$ from 2014/24 India only 160b$! Why is Minister @PiyushGoyal @AshwiniVaishnaw not helping solve these issues,” he asked in a post on X.
Why is Piyush Goyal facing flak?
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is facing heat from various industry leaders and citizens on the internet following his comments asking the Indian startup community to shift their focus from grocery delivery and ice cream making to high tech sectors.
“Do we have to make ice cream or chips?” he said.
“Dukaandari hi karna hai (Do we want to just sell things),” Goyal asked.
Piyush Goyal said that food delivery apps are turning unemployed Indian youth into delivery personnel for the rich.
“What are India startups of today—we are focussed on food delivery apps, turning unemployed youth into cheap labour so the rich can get their meals without moving out of their house,” he said.
