'Not a truth bomb, only an appeal': Piyush Goyal clarifies remarks critical of Indian startups

Union Minister Piyush Goyal at News18 Rising Bharat Summit

Clarifying on his recent criticism of India’s startup ecosystem, which created a political furore, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that his remarks were rather an appeal to the Indian talent, adding that the country's startups have made everyone proud.

"It was not a truth bomb. It was an appeal to India's talent and we have huge talent in India. We are the people who provide talent to the world... Our talent has huge potential, they have done some wonderful works in the last nine years since PM Modi launched Startup India. We have grown from 400 startups to nearly 1,70,000+ startups," said Goyal while speaking at News18 Bharat Rising Summit.

"There is always a moment in history when you look at the next level of growth, you aspire for bigger and better, and that needs a little bit of jogging of the true potential of India, and I was only trying to show the mirror to our young men and women, show them the huge potential that India has, and encourage them to dream big, to aspire big..." he added.

Goyal, during the inaugural of Startup Mahakumbh last week, asked the Indian startup community to shift their focus from grocery delivery and ice cream making to high-tech sectors like semiconductors, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence. He had questioned Indian food delivery startups for turning unemployed youth into cheap labour.

"Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls... Is that the destiny of India...this is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship... What the other side is doing -- robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories," Goyal said, showing a slide titled "India vs China. The Startup Reality Check".

The minister had pointed out that only 1,000 of India's 1.57 lakh recognized startups operate in deep-tech spaces—a situation he described as "disturbing" given India's aspirations to become a developed nation by 2047.

Startup founders including Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma countered Goyal's comments.