New Delhi: If India’s starry-eyed entrepreneurs were expecting a pat on their backs from India’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, at the Start-up Mahakumbh in New Delhi, then it was not to be. Rather, the plain-speaking Goyal literally upbraided India’s entrepreneurs for launching frivolous start-ups that, as he said, deliver food to the country’s indolent rich, but have produced no deep-tech innovation.

Expectedly, some entrepreneurs took umbrage to Goyal pooh-poohing the fruit of their labour and suggested that the government ought to be grateful for all the Unicorns—food deliverers or otherwise—minted over the years. They have a point. The recent entrepreneurial energy has not just spawned many start-ups, but more fundamentally led to a transformation in the mindset of young Indians. Instead of chasing employment like their previous generation did, these youngsters are willing to go out on a limb to create employment and economic wealth.

Yet, the fact remains that our entrepreneurs haven’t created any technology that is truly pioneering. Why is that? Creating bleeding-edge technologies is an arduous task. It takes time and lots of money, with absolutely no guarantee of success. Until recently, India was a labour-rich but capital-scarce economy. Few companies, or even the government, had the money or the risk appetite to invest in innovation. Therefore, industrialists and entrepreneurs saw more merit in incremental or process innovation rather than product innovation. Even........

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