Vionix Biosciences CEO Vivek Wadhwa weighed in on the ongoing debate around the direction of India’s startup ecosystem, backing recent comments by Union Minister Piyush Goyal. Speaking at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025 on April 8, Wadhwa said India’s entrepreneurs are focusing too much on food delivery and gig work instead of using technology to solve real, pressing problems.
“You can build smart cities using the advanced sensors in today’s smartphones,” Wadhwa said during his keynote. “These are the same types of sensors that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and were once found only in nuclear missiles.”
Wadhwa pointed out that these sensors, now standard in Apple and Android phones, could be deployed to tackle challenges like pollution. “Use these sensors in Delhi and Punjab to monitor pollution—it’s inexpensive,” he said. “I don’t know why India hasn’t done this yet. As Goyal said, entrepreneurs here are busy building brain-dead startups instead of solving real problems.”
‘India Is Sitting on a Data Goldmine’
Wadhwa said that India has a major advantage in the global AI race due to its vast and diverse datasets.
“We are the richest country in the world when it comes to data,” he said. “This is a trillion-dollar opportunity—not just to uplift India, but the rest of the world as well.”
He added that the country’s IT firms already recognise the value of this “data goldmine” and the role it could play in developing transformative AI applications.
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