Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's recent remark on the start-up ecosystem in India, calling for more investments from the Indian investors, has not been received well with some strongly criticising the minister while a few thanking him for starting a healthy debate. 

The minister critiqued start-ups in India, saying billionaire kids are creating shops for ice-creams and cookies while China is making semiconductor chips and electric vehicles batteries. 

Addressing the audience at Startup Mahakumbh 2025, he said: “Fancy ice cream and cookies. I know at least three or four billionaires whose children make one brand or the other, very fancy ice cream and cookies, and run a very successful business.” 

“Healthy ice cream, zero, gluten-free, vegan; using these terms and good packaging, they call themselves a startup. This is not a startup, it's an entrepreneurship. This is business,” the minister said. 

Questioning India's vision for the future, Goyal asked whether or not India wants to focus on tech advancement or if the people are satisfied with ice-cream brand startups.

Highlighting India's growth story, Goyal said: “We are growing in semiconductors and in-house developed artificial intelligence (AI). We are investing heavily in becoming self-reliant, building chips and AI models which will prepare the nation for the future.” 

The union minister also expressed his disappointment of Indian startups being sold to foreign companies for small valuations. His remarks received a sharp backlash from founders and investors. Let's read who said what about the start-up remark made by the minister. 

Harsh Goenka backs Goyal start-ups remarks 

Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG group, supported Goyal’s remarks, questioning young Indian billionaires for opening “ice cream and cookie” businesses, and said in order to compete with China and the US, India needs to “build with ambition”.

“When Murthy and Subrahmanyan spoke of 70-90 hour work weeks and Piyush Goyal questioned startups making vegan ice creams and chasing 10-minute deliveries, they weren’t being literal—they were being directional,” Goenka said on X (formerly Twitter).

Goenka seemingly backed these suggestions and said it is not about glorifying burnout but shifting the national mindset. “If India wants to compete with the US or China, we can’t just focus on comfort, convenience, and brands. We need to build with ambition—AI, deep tech, robotics, clean energy—sectors that move the needle. This isn’t about glorifying burnout. It’s about shifting the national mindset—from ease to effort, from quick wins to long-term value,” he said.  

Zepto CEO & Co-founder Aadit Palicha fires back

Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha responded to Goyal’s remarks through a post on X, defending the value of consumer internet startups. Highlighting Zepto’s achievements, Palicha said, “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."

Palicha claimed the company contributes over Rs 1,000 Cr of tax to the government per year, attracts over a billion dollars in FDI, and invests heavily in revamping India’s supply chains, particularly for fresh produce. “If that isn’t a miracle in Indian innovation, I honestly don’t know what is,” he asserted.

Addressing the question about India’s absence from the global AI race, Palicha said. “Why doesn’t India have its own large-scale foundational AI model? It’s because we still haven’t built great internet companies,” he wrote, referencing global giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Alibaba — all of which began as consumer-facing platforms before becoming leaders in advanced technology, including AI.

“Consumer internet companies drive this innovation because they have the best data, talent, and capital to put behind it,” Palicha said, emphasising the need for broader support from the ecosystem. “The startup ecosystem, the government, and the owners of large pools of Indian capital need to actively support the creation of these local champions, not pull down the teams that are trying hard to get there,” he said.

Politicians need a reality check: Ashneer Grover 

Former BharatPe MD and co-founder Ashneer Grover said politicians in India are the only people who need a "reality check" after Goyal criticised startups for being too focused on food delivery apps.

"The only people in India who need a reality check are its politicians. Everyone else is living in the absolute reality of India," said Grover, former Shark Tank judge, on microblogging site X. Referring to Goyal's comparison of Indian startups with tech-focussed Chinese startups, he said China used to have food delivery startups before it evolved into 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.

Ship vitamins while curing cancer: Zoho's Sridhar Vembu 

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has offered deep tech startups a survival blueprint. "Ship vitamins and painkillers to fund your business even as you work on a cancer cure is what I tell deep tech startups that face a long complex R&D challenge,” he said in a post on X.

As the debate about India's startup priorities continues, Vembu’s message stands out for its clarity—focus on near-term revenue without losing sight of long-term innovation.

He said: "The government cannot invent a better operating system or a smarter robot. The government should not even fund such things - it is not usually good at picking winners and losers. The government can at best conduct competitions where companies participate and then buy the best Indian products," Vembu said in another post on X.

"In that sense, I see Minister Piyush-ji Goyal's call as a challenge to our engineers and technologists and not as pointing fingers. What we need are smart engineers who roll up our sleeves and get it done. Keep in mind the vitamins and cancer cure argument - sequencing how we pay for our big tech ambition is very much part of the "engineering problem" that smart engineers must solve! We can do this," added Vembu.

Infosys ex-CFO Mohandas Pai slams Goyal’s remark

Infosys ex-CFO Mohandas Pai said that the minister should not ‘belittle’ Indian startups, adding that these were ‘bad comparisons’. Pai added that the comparison with China was unfair and unhelpful, raising concerns about the role of government policies in slowing down the growth of deep tech in India.

In an X post, Pai wrote, “Goyal should not belittle our start‑ups 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 Finance Minister 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.”

He added that long‑term investors, including endowments and insurance companies, remain hesitant to invest. The AIF flows have diminished due to regulatory overreach, while overseas investors are harassed by the RBI over remittances. 

Founders can do most things but not everything: Shark Tank’s Anupam Mittal 

In a response to the minister’'s remarks on Indian startups, Shark Tank India judge and founder of Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal, has come up in support of the existing business ecosystem in India.

Mittal said in an X post, "In the last few months, I have met a few deep-tech cos that have absolutely blown me away. From AI & space-tech to material science, Indian entrepreneurs are ready to take on the world." 

However, he didn't fail to point out how development in these tech-related fields and startups is lacking because of not having enough capital and exposure within the ecosystem for growth and communication. Hitting back, Mittal said, "Founders can do most things but not EVERYTHING."