‘Aspire for bigger and better’: Piyush Goyal asks Indian startups to raise the bar, go global

NEW DELHI: Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, speaking at the second edition of the Startup Maha Kumbh on Wednesday, touched on the nature and scope of Indian startups and urged them to think of big and innovative solutions

“I only wish they’d had more Indian investors, rather than the foreigners buying off all our startups. And yes, we need more Indian investors into the game. And look at what the other side is doing, robotics, automation, machine learning, preparing ourselves for 3d manufacturing, next gen factories that are more efficient and that compete with the rest of the world”, he said.

It’s truly inspiring to hear Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal Ji in this video (received via a WhatsApp forward) at the #StartupMahakumbh2025, where he emphasizes the importance of learning from competition—particularly through the comparison between India and China. His message… pic.twitter.com/B89BhcoGCs

— Joydeep Phukan (@joyphukan) April 3, 2025

The Union Minister said Indian startups need to be willing to evolve and not be afraid of competition. “We must learn (from other countries). We must be willing to evolve, we have to be able to learn, we want to aspire to be bigger and better and bolder. And we should not shy of the competition,” he said.

Speaking of the nature of startups India is setting up, he said India needs to raise the bar and help prepare the future of the nation. “We need to invest heavily to become self-reliant, building chips, AI models which will prepare the nation for the future,” he said.

“We need to go global. We need to think big; we need to be ambitious; we need to experiment. We need to go beyond the boundaries of our own thinking. Let’s not limit ourselves with the past. Let us explore the unknown,” he suggested.

Talking about his government, Goyal said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guidance and leadership, they are not aiming small.

“Under Prime Minister Modi’s guidance and leadership, we are not aiming small. We are not looking at agreements with countries who are in a situation which is even worse than what India is. The Modi government is doing trade agreements with big nations such as Australia, the EU, the UK, the US, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar. Our ambitions are to compete with the best in the world,” he said, galvanising the startup entrepreneurs who have converged at the Startup Maha Kumbh.

On January 16, 2025, India marked nine years of Startup India, a transformative journey that began in 2016. India has about than 1.6 lakh startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). India has the third largest startup ecosystem. (ANI)