Amid a growing debate around India\u2019s startup ecosystem and the government’s recent push for deep tech innovation, Vinay Borhade, an entrepreneur in the country\u2019s AI startup space, has offered a candid reality check. In a LinkedIn post reacting to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal\u2019s recent comments critiquing Indian startups for lacking ambition, Borhade called out the structural and cultural challenges that are slowing down serious innovation in AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeep tech like AI and IoT demands time and effort for real innovation. Yet, fundraising favors flashy ideas over substance\u2014leaving serious research underfunded,\u201d Borhade wrote, echoing a broader sentiment among entrepreneurs who feel underserved by the current investment climate.<\/p>\n
He highlighted a persistent mismatch between investor expectations and the nature of AI development. \u201cInvestors often don\u2019t get AI. They\u2019re fixated on quick returns, not the long-term potential of good research,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Borhade\u2019s post paints a picture of an ecosystem that isn\u2019t fully aligned with the demands of building frontier technologies. Despite AI\u2019s transformative potential, he said, “Even interested clients are so cost-conscious that freelance web devs out-earn AI engineers.”<\/p>\n
The ground reality, according to Borhade, is that most Indian MSMEs are still operating with minimal digital infrastructure. \u201cMSMEs still run on manual processes with zero digital footprint. Basic data science or dashboards? A tough sell,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
The issue, he argued, is cultural as much as it is economic. \u201cThe ‘jugaadu’ mindset reigns\u2014clients take pride in saying, \u2018I know my business better than you\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t need your AI to decide how to run my business.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Borhade also took a subtle jibe at the government\u2019s emphasis on policies and compliance, stating that these become a \u201cdead end not worth the rant\u201d when the market itself resists AI adoption.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIndian AI startups have potential,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThe question is: will the ecosystem catch up?\u201d<\/p>\n
His post adds another layer to the ongoing discourse triggered by Minister Goyal\u2019s remarks, which called for Indian startups to go beyond \u201clifestyle\u201d businesses and invest in transformative, high-impact innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a growing debate around India\u2019s startup ecosystem and the government’s recent push for deep tech innovation, Vinay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[323,3498,51,3495,3490,3494,3134,3496,730,1302,3491,3493,3136,3322,3497,16,15,3492],"class_list":{"0":"post-6222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-adoption","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-cultural-challenges","12":"tag-deep-tech","13":"tag-digital-infrastructure","14":"tag-entrepreneurship","15":"tag-government-policies","16":"tag-india","17":"tag-innovation","18":"tag-investment-climate","19":"tag-msmes","20":"tag-piyush-goyal","21":"tag-startups","22":"tag-transformative-potential","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-vinay-borhade"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114309656951819015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}