Piyush Goyal's 'dukaandari' jibe faces strong protest from startups

Startup founders and leaders have stepped up to defend India’s startup ecosystem after Union Minister Piyush Goyal questioned its direction and focus. Though India’s startup ecosystem is the third largest in the world after the United States and China, 

Piyush Goyal criticised the current direction of Indian startups. He pointed out that while many Indian startups are focusing on food delivery, betting, and fantasy sports, Chinese startups are working on electric vehicles, battery technology, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence.

“Do we have to make ice cream or chips? Dukaandari hi karna hai (Do we just want to do shopkeeping)?” Goyal asked during his speech. He questioned whether the country was content with creating gig jobs instead of aiming for deeper innovation and long-term progress in key technologies.

These comments have led to strong responses from well-known names in the startup and tech world. Mohandas Pai, former CFO of Infosys and a prominent investor said the comparison with China was unfair and unhelpful. "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?” Pai wrote on X. He further blamed India’s financial system and regulations for creating hurdles.

“We have a hostile @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman who harassed start-ups on Angel tax for many years, does not allow endowments to invest, and insurance companies still do not invest whereas they do globally. @RBI regularly harasses overseas investors on remittances and AIFs, and treat them badly, cos FE rules. China invested 845 billion dollars from 2014 to 2024. India only has160 billion dollars! Why is Minister @PiyushGoyal @AshwiniVaishnaw not helping solve these issues?”

Former BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover also slammed Goyal for criticising India's startup ecosystem. "The only people in India who need a ‘reality check’ are its politicians. Everyone else is living in the absolute reality of India," Grover said. "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 a 10% plus economic growth rate for 20 years flat before chiding today’s job creators. Maybe time to change ‘public discourse’ from history to science!" he added.

Zepto founder Aadit Palicha also responded and defended India’s consumer internet startups and highlighted the impact of Zepto, which began only 3.5 years ago. Zepto became a unicorn in 2023 and is one of the industry pioneers in quick e-commerce. It started the 10-minute delivery service via its online app, which has been adopted by its competitors.

“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. The reality is this: there are almost 1.5 lakh real people who are earning livelihoods on Zepto today,” Palicha said. He also pointed out that Zepto pays over Rs 1,000 crore in taxes to the government each year, has brought in over a billion dollars of foreign direct investment, and has invested hundreds of crores into India’s 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 added.

As per the Startup India website, India is home to nearly 20,000 startups, of which around 4,750 are technology-led. The country currently has 110 unicorns. However, the pace of new unicorn creation has slowed down. The last Indian startup to reach unicorn status was MoneyView in September 2024. In total, only five startups became unicorns in 2024.