Piyush Goyal to hold closed-door meeting with founders amid ongoing ‘innovation’ debate

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

Days after sparking a debate over the direction of India’s startup ecosystem, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is set to meet a select group of prominent startup founders behind closed doors on April 24.

The interaction, being organised by the New Delhi-based industry body, Startup Policy Forum (SPF), follows the minister’s recent comments at the Startup Mahakumbh, where he questioned whether startups building consumer apps were truly driving innovation. While he did acknowledge the impact of these startups in terms of funding, job creation and profitability, he urged founders to aim higher, citing examples from China’s push into deeptech sectors like semiconductors, AI, and robotics.

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His comments received mixed reactions across the startup community. Some founders and investors defended the role of consumer tech startups in building critical digital infrastructure and solving large-scale problems. Others echoed the minister’s view that India needs to double down on core tech, R&D and globally competitive capabilities.

Against this backdrop, Goyal’s meeting with a cross-section of startup leaders is being seen as an effort to engage more directly with the ecosystem and align on shared priorities.

Kunal Shah of Cred, Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo, Nalin Negi of BharatPe, Vikram Chopra of Cars24, Prateek Maheshwari of Physics Wallah, Amit Jain of CarDekho, Aloke Bajpai of Ixigo, Upasana Taku of Mobikwik, Sanket Shah of Invideo, Anirudh Sharma of Digantara, Ravish Naresh of Khatabook, Shantanu Deshpande of Bombay Shaving Company, among others, are expected to attend.

While the agenda of the meeting has not been officially disclosed, it is expected to touch upon topics, from incentivising innovation and expanding India’s presence in deeptech sectors, to refining policy frameworks around fintech, AI and data privacy. Ideas to chart the next chapter of startup growth will also likely feature in the discussions, along with the role of public-private collaboration in building global champions from India.

The Startup Policy Forum (SPF), which is anchoring Thursday’s discussion, has quickly emerged as a key voice for India’s new-age companies. Founded earlier this year by policy and media veteran Shweta Rajpal Kohli, the SPF represents over 50 high-growth startups, spanning sectors from fintech and AI to manufacturing and consumer tech.

The forum recently partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) startup hub (MSH) to drive greater focus and momentum around deeptech, AI, and emerging technologies across India's startup landscape. The collective body also urged the government to create a dedicated task force to streamline the complex process of shifting a company’s holding structure from foreign countries to India (reverse flip).