Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is set to hold a closed-door meeting with top Indian startup founders on April 24, following recent remarks that sparked debate over the direction of India’s innovation landscape. The meeting, organized by the Startup Policy Forum (SPF) in New Delhi, comes after Goyal’s speech at the Startup Mahakumbh, where he questioned whether startups focused on consumer apps were genuinely driving innovation.
While Goyal acknowledged their impact in terms of funding, job creation, and profitability, he urged founders to aspire to deeper innovation, citing China’s progress in fields like semiconductors, AI, and robotics. His comment—criticizing food delivery apps for turning unemployed youth into service providers for the wealthy—drew a mixed response across the startup ecosystem.
Some entrepreneurs and investors defended consumer tech startups as vital for digital infrastructure and problem-solving at scale, while others agreed with Goyal’s call to strengthen India’s presence in core technology and research.
Seen as an effort to engage directly with the ecosystem, the upcoming meeting will include leaders like Kunal Shah (CRED), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO), Nalin Negi (BharatPe), Vikram Chopra (Cars24), Prateek Maheshwari (Physics Wallah), and others. The agenda remains undisclosed, but discussions are expected to revolve around deeptech, AI, fintech regulation, data privacy, and public-private partnerships to help Indian startups become global champions.
The Startup Policy Forum, founded by Shweta Rajpal Kohli, has quickly become a key voice for high-growth startups. Representing over 50 companies across fintech, AI, manufacturing, and consumer tech, the SPF recently partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s Startup Hub (MeitY MSH) to push forward India’s deeptech agenda. The forum has also called for a dedicated government task force to streamline the complex “reverse flip” process—bringing a company’s foreign holding structure back to India.
