New Delhi

Enterprise cloud software major Zoho's Founder Sridhar Vembu on Friday voiced strong support for a shift towards deep tech innovation in India, urging engineers and startups to ‘roll up their sleeves’ and focus on building real technological capabilities.

In a series of posts on social media platform X, Vembu weighed in on the ongoing debate sparked by recent remarks made by Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, about the direction of Indian startups.

Vembu described the minister’s comments as a challenge to India’s engineers and technologists to build better solutions.

“In that sense, I see Minister Piyush 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 sleeves and get it done,” Vembu wrote.

Vembu stressed that while the government has a role to play in supporting innovation, it should not try to directly build or fund advanced technologies like robots or operating systems.

“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,” he wrote.

Instead, Vembu suggested that the government could play a more effective role by organising competitions where Indian companies can participate, and the best products are selected and supported through public procurement.

“The government can at best conduct competitions where companies participate and then buy the best Indian products,” he added.

Vembu also shared advice for deep tech startups facing long R&D cycles. In a separate post, he said, “Ship vitamins and painkillers to fund your business even as you work on a cancer cure,” implying that startups can sell simpler, revenue-generating products in the short term while working toward bigger technological breakthroughs.

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His comments come after Goyal, while addressing the Startup Mahakumbh event on April 3, raised concerns that many Indian startups are focusing too heavily on fast deliveries and consumer convenience, rather than on impactful, deep tech innovation.

He urged startups to reflect on their true value and aim to create globally competitive technologies.