Indian startups should aim for global prominence, says Piyush Goyal

Startup Mahakumbh 2.0: Minister urges startups to re-evaluate their purpose, true value

In a sharp critique on the Indian startup ecosystem, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday urged the startups to revaluate their purpose and true value, and try to rise to international prominence. He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the second edition of the three-day Startup Mahakumbh here at Bharat Mandapam.

 

"We need to go global and think big. When we look at deep tech, there are only about 1,000 startups in the ecosystem, and it is a disturbing sign. It's upon the startups to focus either on wealth creation in the short run or rising to the international scale," Goyal said.

   

He said that Indian startups are more focused on food delivery apps and hyperfast logistics.

 

Drawing a comparison between the startup ecosystem in India and China, Goyal said: "Our ambitions are to compete with the best in the world. The government has been talking with different countries to build a bridge between startups, but we cannot take grocery stores to them as our offerings."

 

He added that while resources in India are flowing towards hyperfast logistics, the other side (China) is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, machine learning (ML), and Next-gen factories.

 

Goyal also said that in Indian startups, the contribution of domestic investors should rise to have more skin in the game. More Indian investors than foreign investors should invest in homegrown startups, he added.

 

During the event, the government launched “Startup AI Challenge” with a total funding pool of ~20 crore. Under the challenge, established and emerging startups will focus on key domains, including cybersecurity, cryptography, and cyber forensics, over 14 months.