Zoho's Sridhar Vembu brings up a 'vitamin' argument to solve Piyush Goyal's problem with startups

Amid ongoing controversy over Piyush Goyal's remark on startups, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu came out in support of the Commerce Minister, saying that the government cannot invent a better operating system or a smarter robot.

"The government cannot invent a better operating system or a smarter robot. The government should not even fund such things - it is not usually good at picking winners and losers. The government can at best conduct competitions where companies participate and then buy the best Indian products," said Vembu in a post X.

"In that sense, I see Minister Piyush-ji Goyal's call as a challenge to our engineers and technologists and not as pointing fingers. What we need are smart engineers who roll up our sleaves and get it done. Keep in mind the vitamins and cancer cure argument - sequencing how we pay for our big tech ambition is very much part of the "engineering problem" that smart engineers must solve! We can do this," added Vembu.

Check his post here:

What did Piyush Goyal say?

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday asked the Indian startup community to shift their focus from grocery delivery and ice cream making to to high tech sector like semiconductor, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence. He also said there is a need for more Indian investors into the startup ecosystem.

"Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls... Is that the destiny of India... this is not startup, this is entrepreneurship... What other side is doing -- robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories factories," he said here at the Startup Mahakumbh.

The minister said the new startups should focus on preparing the nation for the future.

"Do we have to make ice cream or chips?" he asked.

He also underscored the evolving role of startups in driving India's economic and technological growth.

He assured that the government will handhold and support those who face challenges in their startup journey, encouraging them to persevere and try again.