Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's remarks at Startup Mahakumbh 2025 on Thursday triggered a heated debate online. Now, Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha has shared his two cents on the matter.
Goyal, while comparing India's startup ecosystem to China's, 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 Zepto is a key player.
Without naming anyone, Palicha said that India lags in technological revolutions due to the unavailability of strong internet companies.
In a post on X, Palicha 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.
"Why doesn't India have its own large-scale foundational AI model? It's because we still haven't built great internet companies. Most technology-led innovation over the past 2 decades has originated from consumer internet companies. Who scaled cloud computing? Amazon (originally a consumer internet company). Who are the big players in AI today? Facebook, Google, Alibaba, Tencent," Palicha said on X.
It is easy to criticise consumer internet startups in India, especially when you compare them to the deep technical excellence being built in US/China. Using our example, the reality is this: there are almost 1.5 Lakh real people who are earning livelihoods on Zepto today - a…
He noted that consumer internet companies drive this innovation, driven by best data, talent, and capital for support. "We need to build great local champions on the internet that are generating hundreds of millions of dollars in FCF first if we ever want to get a piece of great technology revolutions," the CEO added.
Palicha also said that the stakeholders, including the government, need to make efforts to support the creation of these internet champions, who can drive long-term technological growth. "....Not pull down the teams that are trying hard to get there," he added.
Palicha, who is only 23 and one the youngest billionaires in India, added that Zepto was committed to creating economic value in India.
"That is essentially what I am dedicating the next few decades of my life to try to do: create dynamism in the Indian economy and our capital markets, in the same way the Americans have for decades. We have the talent and capital; we just need the execution," he said.
Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai also hit back at Piyush Goyal over the minister's startup remarks.
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?"
Minister @PiyushGoyal 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? Indian start ups got 160b $ from 2014/24, China 845b$, US 2.3Tr$. Long term investors like endowments ,… https://t.co/SdLKHMlRuf
This is not the first time Goyal has criticised e-commerce players. In 2024, the minister had targeted e-commerce giants for their predatory pricing practices.
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