Not only Palicha, but even Former Infosys Chief Financial Officer Mohandas Pai criticized Goyal for his remarks about the Indian startup culture and its comparison to other nations.

On a social media tweet on X, Pai wrote, "Minister Piyush Goyal shouldn't undermine our startups but reflect on what he has done as our Minister to enable deep-tech startups to flourish in India? It is so easy to accuse them. We have an adversary finance minister who terrorized startups on angel tax for decades, do not let endowments invest, insurance companies still do not invest whereas they do outside India".

Zoho Founder Sridhar Vembu came out in support, saying that the government cannot invent a better operating system or a smarter robot.

In a post on X, Vembu said, "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."

"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", Vembu added.

Anupam Mittal, Shark Tank India judge and Founder of Shaadi.com, also voiced support for Indian innovation. Sharing his recent experiences, Mittal wrote, “In the last few months, I’ve met deep-tech companies in AI, space tech, and material science that have blown me away. The innovation is there, but what’s missing is capital and a supportive ecosystem to scale”.

Finally, the debate sparked by Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s remarks has brought to light the deeper tensions within India's evolving startup narrative. This incident has sparked a wider conversation on how Indian policymakers see the growing startup ecosystem alongside the necessary elements to establish a better supportive environment for innovation and development.

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