Piyush Goyal Announces Dedicated Helpline For Startups

SUMMARY

The commerce minister said that the helpline will help startups report “corrupt” government officials and register complaints of bribes

As per the minister, startups can also suggest regulatory reforms and pitch new regulatory frameworks on the helpline

Goyal also said that the government plans to allocate a substantial portion of the INR 10,000 Cr FoF for startups for the deeptech sector

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal has announced a new dedicated helpline for startups.

Addressing the Startup Mahakumbh 2025 event, Goyal said that the helpline will help startups report “corrupt” government officials and register complaints of bribes. As per the minister, startups can also offer feedback for regulatory reforms on the helpline.

“I am going to start a new desk within Startup India in my ministry, which will be a helpline for any startup anywhere in the country. If you face any problems with government officials, have a suggestion for regulatory reform, call that helpline. If somebody has developed a tool, which is not covered by current laws, that may need a rethinking of existing regulatory frameworks, reach out to us on the helpline,” the minister said.

Goyal also said that the Centre plans to allocate a substantial portion of the INR 10,000 Cr fund of funds (FoF) for startups for the deeptech sector. He said that the allocation will mobilise “patient capital” for research-oriented startups in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and robotics.

The comments came a day after Goyal kicked off a furore online after he said that Indian startups are merely building grocery delivery and ice cream companies, and not high-tech companies in areas like semiconductors, machine learning, robotics, and AI.

Highlighting that the “numbers” in the Indian deeptech sector are “disturbing”, Goyal lashed out at Indian consumer internet startups for turning unemployed youth into cheap labour.

“Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls… Is that the destiny of India?… this is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship… What the other side (China) is doing — robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories,” said Goyal.

While the comments were welcomed by a section of the startup ecosystem, others deemed the comparison unfair. While Zepto cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha said that his quick commerce startup contributes over INR 1,000 Cr in taxes annually and employs 1.5 Lakh people, Aarin Capital chairman TV Mohandas Pai said that comparisons of Indian startups with their Chinese peers are unfair.