Goyal backs global growth push for Indian startups; Gajwani flags AI gap

BENGALURU: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal called on Indian start-ups to look beyond the domestic market and expand overseas, offering govt funding to showcase them at international exhibitions and conferences. He said a sustained three-to-five-year push could help startups tap new markets and attract investors. Goyal also argued that tighter H-1B visa access could benefit India by retaining talent and bringing more work to the country’s global capability centres.“We are willing to fund whatever it takes to take our startups to the rest of the world,” Goyal said at the ET Startup Awards 2026 in Bengaluru on Friday. “Let’s get out of the cozy comfort of the large Indian opportunity or Indian market. Let us think of going global,” he added.Times Internet chairman Satyan Gajwani flagged India’s lag in artificial intelligence, saying the country needs deeper research, greater computing power and patient capital to close the gap with the US and China.“As the US and China race ahead in artificial intelligence, India’s progress has been slower than it should be,” Gajwani said. He also added that India is witnessing a maturing startup ecosystem, with founders increasingly focused on deep, proprietary technology. Citing the launch of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, he said the achievement signalled the growing capabilities of Indian startups in deep tech. “Indian startups are now building semiconductor chips, AI robotics, clean energy technologies and new materials while investors are shaping funds willing to wait longer for these companies to mature,” Gajwani said.He attributed this shift to entrepreneurial ambition, founders turning investors and govt support. “This maturing of the Indian startup ecosystem, this energy and this audacity, founders paying it forward as investors, the structural backing by the state — they’ve all come together thanks to a lot of advocacy and championing by many of our leaders,” he said. India has grown from a few hundred recognised startups to more than 2.5 lakh, creating close to 25 lakh jobs, Gajwani added.Moderating a panel on India’s deep tech ambitions, Accel India founding partner Prashanth Prakash said building such companies required infrastructure and regulatory changes beyond those needed for conventional software businesses. “To build deep tech we need all these enabling elements that were not required for just a software company,” he said.Agrani Labs cofounder and CEO Dheemanth Nagaraj, whose company is developing AI GPUs for data centres, said Indian products had to compete globally on quality. “There is no space for building a substandard product at a lower cost,” he said. Govt could help create a market by becoming a first customer, he added.Spacetech firm Pixxel cofounder and CTO Kshitij Khandelwal said reforms had eased satellite licensing, but setting up manufacturing facilities remained challenging. “The issues that we have faced mostly are local in nature,” he said.BrainSight AI cofounder and CEO Laina Emmanuel said mapping brain function requires complex science and significant computing power. “It’s hard science, it’s hard tech, it’s hard market building for us,” she said.At a panel on the journey to listing, Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey recalled retired investors at the company’s first annual general meeting, telling him they were investing savings accumulated over their lifetimes. “Now you are responsible for their money, and you have to behave differently,” he said.Groww CEO Lalit Keshre said the listing strengthened the connection between the company and its users, many of whom also became shareholders. The company continued to pursue its long-term goals through regular reviews. “The philosophy is that you think long term, but you execute short term.”You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.