Zepto boi with balls of steel...
Without going into the merits of the argument (which can be discussed as well), it takes enormous courage to openly question a Cabinet minister, especially when you are yourself non-compliant (regulatory greyzone, not 100% kosher) with FDI norms of the country (also cleverly (?) bragging about the $1bn+ FDI investment).
This kid is gutsy!
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Agree completely with you @DaringTrain TBH - the union minister just made a populist statement
In a country like India where the stage of our ecosystem is still very early, discouraging ecommerce/D2C brands is not something you should do - because we're nowhere in the AI race
But I get what he's done. His argument is as sensible as a woke liberal college kid who speaks against the government. They both sound great to dimwits.
In short sighted smaller scheme of things, his statement is populist.
In larger scheme of things (with a 25 year vision) - there's merit in the concerns he's raising.
If the only role models you have are consumer/ D2C companies, no one (potential entrepreneur / VC / Corporates) will take the plunge.
You are a $2500 GDP per capita country - If you don't want to be another Indonesia/Vietnam/Brazil - You need to be 10-20x the scale.
And you can't depend on Global supply chain for mission critical industries (because China controls 60%+ of the supply).
You need to have deeper expertise and market leadership in 20+ industries (South Korea could get away from doing it in 3/4 because they are 1/20 your size).
No one is building a jet engine in India. No one is building Solar cells. No one is building semiconductor manufacturing. No one is building cyberproof intranet for mission critical communications. No one is building Starlink (equivalent) All of these are $100bn+ problem statements.
If there's a senior cabinet minister saying - Don't fucking celebrate success of a $30bn food delivery app, think about how to solve these hard(er) problems, then at least you know the government is thinking seriously about it.
Primary Education needs to be made better, entire focus only on IITs is not a good thing
It’s true that a significant chunk of Indian startups tend to focus on low-hanging fruit like delivery services, e-commerce, fintech apps, and consumer convenience platforms. This is largely because they’re easier to scale and attract VC funding quickly.
But but but and a big but India still spends less than 1% of its GDP on R&D, and most startups reflect that environment. There’s a gap between academic research and industry application. Startup’s in India often don’t have the bandwidth or risk appetite to engage in long-term research-heavy innovation.
Also, I believe the startup ecosystem is still new as compared to China’s. India’s startup culture began to mature only in the past 10–12 years.
Just because a startup delivers groceries faster doesn’t mean it lacks impact. India is a diverse and complex country. Solving logistical challenges, financial inclusion aren’t most important and aren’t just convenience plays; they are socio-economic interventions.
I wonder what govt is doing to incentivise what he say. Just like PLI schemes for electronics and semiconductors, India could benefit from dedicated funding pools or sandboxes for AI, quantum computing, or biotech. Maybe lower GST on hardware components, faster IP clearance, and reduced compliance burden.
Quite a few good points here
Or simply stupid?
As a shareholder of Zomato - Aapke muh me ghee shakkar
It's not just him, lots of entrepreneurs speaking up against his statement on Twitter. My feed is filled with pissed off founders with stories of corruption and govt malpractices.
Piyush Goyal messed with a hornets nest tbh, govt will need a good distraction to stop this bad PR spiral lmao.
Some people think that Zepto will be the next BYJU’s, that only time will tell, appreciate the views of Aadit!
The people who are predicting it will be forgotten and Aadit's Zepto (like Byju's) will be etched in history regardless of the outcome of the predictions.
But if it does capitulate(like Byju's), it will fuck up the lives of the 1.5lakh people who can't afford to have their lives screwed over. That's the sad reality.
If it was not for the likes of the so called delivery boy companies, we would have lakhs of unemployed youth in the country (because the government has done a shit job solving for employment).
It’s not even a 2 way but multiway street resulting to all this. We lack severely in terms of Quality education as well, which also translates to our lack of Investments in R&D which further results to lack of deep tech & innovation.
The rich arent bound by the law but protected by it and the poor aren’t protected by the law but bound by it.
So no Aadit doesn’t have balls of steel but rather he knows nothing will happen even if he speaks up. Also in this case I feel its good that he said what he said coz at least he is doing something unlike our politicians.
I think if you are doing business in India ... No matter what don't mess up with politicians or any political party. This is bitter fact we need to live with. For Aadit Papa can only help you in securing funding and not in political mess.
And Zepto first needs to work on food safety at their dark stores.
That's the conventional wisdom