Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma Sides With Piyush Goyal On India Vs China Debate

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's remarks at Startup Mahakumbh 2025 on Thursday triggered a heated debate online. After Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha, Ashneer Grover, and former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma too shared his thoughts on the issue.

Commenting on the India versus China dialogue Goyal sparked, Sharma said that developed ecosystems like China are able to play longer haul.

"China was much ahead in terms of electric vehicles," Sharma said during an event at the Startup Mahakumbh. "India is new, we are playing what's in front of us."

He said that in India, current opportunities being tapped to generate enough funds to support long-term growth stories.

Goyal, while comparing India's startup ecosystem to China's, had questioned, "Should we aspire to be, or are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls?"

His remarks were aimed at India turning into a hotspot for the consumer startup sector, in which Swiggy, Zomato and Zepto are key players.

Earlier in the day, Zepto's Aadit Palicha posted on X, saying India lags in technological revolutions due to the unavailability of strong internet companies.

Palicha also highlighted that consumer startups have significantly impacted the Indian economy by creating thousands of jobs through taxes and building enhanced supply chain networks. He argued that India lacks large-scale foundational AI models because it hasn't yet built strong internet companies.

Mohandas Pai also hit back at Piyush Goyal, when he tweeted, "Minister Piyush Goyal there are very many small deep tech start-ups in Chip design, IOT, Robotics, EV charging, BMS in India, growing rapidly but where is the capital?"