Indian deeptech ecosystem and its deep inadequacies

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the second startup Mahakumbh, Union Minister Piyush Goyal released the cat among the pigeons by stating, "We need to go global and think big. When we look at deep tech, there are only about 1000 startups in the ecosystem, and it's disturbing."

- SHWETA SHALINI

This point shows that Indian startups are focusing on food delivery, betting, and fantasy sports. In contrast, Chinese counterparts are working on EVs, battery technology, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence, he criticized the current direction of Indian startups. He noticed, "Wherever I go, all over the country, I know at least three or four billionaires whose children make at least one brand of fancy cookies and ice creams. I have no complaints against that, but is that the destiny of India? Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls?" He lashed out at the ecosystem. "Do we have to make ice cream or chips? Dukaandari hi karna hai (Do we just want to do shopkeeping?) "

While the concerns raised by the minister were accurate, the startup world was quick to counter and show the mirror to the government.

Tech investor and former CFO of Infosys, Mohandas Pai, reacted on X by posting statistics saying there are very many small deep tech start-ups in Chip design, IOT, Robotics, EV charging, and BMS in India, growing rapidly but without adequate capital. Indian startups got $160 billion from 2014/24 while China had $845 billion compared to the US at $2.3 trillion.

Long-term investors like endowments and insurance don't invest because RBI harasses overseas investors on remittances. Ashneer Grover of Bharat Pe said that the government should focus on delivering double-digit GDP growth for the next two decades.