In light of Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha defending the Indian startup ecosystem and flaming Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s criticism of the same at Startup Mahakumbh 2025, BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal has slammed his response as “misplaced and illogical.”
Palicha’s counter-response to Piyush Goyal’s “Startup Reality Check” came in a LinkedIn post. As the Zepto co-founder and CEO pointed out how “easy” it was “to criticise consumer internet startups in India, especially when you compare them to the deep technical excellence being built in US/China,” Praveen Khandelwal came to the union minister for commerce and industry’s rescue. Backing his take on Indian startups, the BJP MP supported Goyal, saying that he he raised genuine concerns on the issue.
Piyush Goyal had previously questioned how Indian startups were focussed on food delivery, fantasy sports apps and betting. The union minister further drew comparisons between India and China’s innovation sector, highlighting how the latter was investing in artificial intelligence and electric vehicles while the former was stuck on monopolising cheap labour.
“Claiming to create jobs and pay taxes while burning foreign capital to dismantle India’s small neighborhood kirana stores is not innovation. This approach is not aligned with India’s long-term strategic interests,” said Khandelwal, according to NDTV.
Praveen Khandelwal, who is also the secretary general of the Confederation of All Indian Trader (CAIT), went on, “Innovation must serve the nation, not just convenience. We need startups that solve real problems and build foundational technologies to drive India’s future.”
What did Piyush Goyal say about Indian startups?
Meanwhile, Piyush Goyal said earlier this week, “Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls? Is that the destiny of India? This is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship. What the other side is doing – robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories.”
The union minister of commerce and industry acknowledged that some people critical of his take on the matter. Nevertheless, he claimed to have “no objections,” as he added, “We have to be willing to learn, evolve… aspire for bigger and better, we have to be bolder and we should not shy of competition.” The Startup Mahakumbh, where Goyal’s address took centre stage, commenced on Thursday, April 3. It has since ended.
Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha’s response
With Goyal’s remarks becoming a hot topic for debate online, Aadit Palicha firmly came out in support of Indian startups. His lengthy LinkedIn post noted, “Using our example, the reality is this: there are almost 1.5 Lakh real people who are earning livelihoods on Zepto today – a company that did not exist 3.5 years ago. ₹1,000+ Crores of tax contribution to the government per year, over a billion dollars of FDI brought into the country and hundreds of crores invested in organizing India’s backend supply chains (especially for fresh fruits and vegetables). If that isn’t a miracle in Indian innovation, I honestly don’t know what is.”
Addressing Piyush Goyal’s criticism, the Zepto CEO added, “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 etc. (all started as consumer internet companies). Consumer internet companies drive this innovation because they have the best data, talent, and capital to put behind it. We need to build great local champions in 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 startup ecosystem, the government, and the owners of large pools of Indian capital need to actively support the creation of these local champions, not pull down the teams that are trying hard to get there.”
Further providing the example of his own company, the Zepto CEO continued, “Zepto is still far away from being a great Internet company that can hold a candle to the global best. But we are executing day in and day out to get there. I can promise that any capital we generate from this business (and it honestly looks like we will) will be invested towards long-term innovation and value creation 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.”
