Union Minister Piyush Goyal expressed concern about the lack of deep-tech startups in India, pointing out that there are only 1,000 of them.
Goyal criticized India’s startup focus on gig economy jobs and food delivery, contrasting it with China’s deep-tech innovations.
“Are We Going To Be Happy Being Delivery Boys and Girls?”
He questioned whether India was content to create low-paying delivery jobs while China created cutting-edge technologies, “Should we aspire to be, or are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls?”
At Startup Mahakumbh 2025, Goyal highlighted a slide that compared the startup ecosystems in China and India, emphasizing the latter’s over-reliance on service-based enterprises.
According to him, a lot of Indian startups use unemployed youth as cheap labor for food delivery, which benefits only the wealthy.
He said, “What are India startups of today—we are focussed on food delivery apps, turning unemployed youth into cheap labour so the rich can get their meals without moving out of their house,” he said.
“Against that, what do Chinese startups do—work on developing electric mobility, battery technology, and with that they are today dominating the electric mobility ecosystem.”
Chinese Startups Invest in Battery and Electric Mobility Technologies
On the other hand, he noted that Chinese startups invest in battery and electric mobility technologies, which helps them control the global market.
Goyal emphasized that scale by itself was insufficient for global leadership, even though he acknowledged that India has the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world.
In order to compete globally, he advised Indian business owners to put more of an emphasis on technological innovation and abandon short-term business plans.
Goyal pushed startups to choose between pursuing large-scale innovation to have an international impact and small-scale commerce.
Govt Wants 10 Lakh Govt-Registered Startups In Next 10 Years
In February, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal expressed optimism on Tuesday that the number of government-registered startups in India will rise to 10 lakh over the next ten years, driven by initiatives supporting entrepreneurial growth. Currently, India has 1.57 lakh registered startups, a significant increase from just 450 in 2016, following the launch of the Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016.
The initiative provides eligible startups with various tax and non-tax benefits, underlined by schemes like the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), Startup India Seed Fund, and the Credit Guarantee Scheme, offering financial support across different stages of their business cycle.
