Piyush Goyal criticised startups for chasing valuations over innovation. His comments underline India’s need to go beyond service-led growth
India has over 117 unicorns—but most are in ecommerce or fintech. Real innovation remains limited to a few deeptech outliers
India has 4,000 deeptech startups, and funding is rising. But China and the US are far ahead in risk-taking and deeptech investments
India spends less than 1% of GDP on R&D. Weak academia-industry ties and limited VC interest in tech deepen the challenge
Stronger R&D funding, deeptech innovation funds, and tax incentives are critical. Startups need support to build—not just scale
Innovation must be strategic. If India wants to lead in AI, biotech or semiconductors, it must invest deeply and consistently in science