A semiconductor startup founder has written a pointed open letter to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, hitting out at the system for blocking genuinely deep-tech efforts. “Piyush, I heard that you ranted that no one is doing semiconductors. Well I am, now you hear my rant!” the founder wrote in a post on Reddit.

“After decades of experience designing some of the most complex chips, I left Intel, and started a semiconductor company in 2018. We are profitable. We design chips for clients in US and EU. One of our client is known as ‘The father of AI’. That’s as deeptech as you can get!”

The letter comes days after Goyal, at the Startup Maha Kumbh, took a swipe at Indian startups for focusing on delivery services and gaming apps. “Do we have to make ice cream or chips? Dukaandari hi karna hai,” Goyal asked, noting that India has only 1,000 deep-tech startups, which he called a “disturbing situation.” 

But the founder argued the problem lies not with startups, but with the system they must navigate.

“We have stopped wasting our time trying to get Indian clients (Pvt sector, Govt, Defense),” he wrote. Describing interactions with MeitY, the founder said, “I either got a ‘you build it then we will decide’ or ‘we won’t buy, you go and find whether there is a market for this’! No startup is going to burn 2 years and 10-20 crores on a product which has no buyer and no market.”

The founder also shared an incident from a defense conference: “At one of the meetings organized for startups by the defense sector, a speaker from govt spoke for over an hour on how they are facing difficulty with a particular tech. At the end of his speech I met him and informed him that “we have solved some of his pain points for our clients, what would be the best way to engage with his department?”

“From your defense genius I got a long rant on how they are not dumb…and will eventually solve it on their own! If your people are not open for help why waste our time holding a 2 days conference for PPP?”

He added that bureaucratic inefficiencies continue to burden entrepreneurs. “Your department sat on my application for over 2 years and returned it…asking for ‘Additional documents’ with a note that after submitting the documents my application will again go to the back of the queue (i.e. another 2 years)!”

“Within a few hours of your rejection I got a call from a ‘facilitator’ who promised me quick and guaranteed results if I use their service for ‘preparing my documents’!” 

The founder said he pays 2X compared to global peers due to tax and import rules, and flagged regulatory hurdles for even the smallest lab components. “Due to your tax laws, I end up paying 2X the amount (compared to my competitors outside India) for importing compute resources, EDA Licenses, equipment and raw material! If I need to import a 10$ wireless device for my lab, I need to pay INR 10,000 to WPC to get approval to import it!”

He also criticised the growing compliance burden. “I need to weed through a compliance calendar with over 300 items and identify compliance that are applicable to me and follow them! Sala entrepreneur sal bhar kam karega ya tera faltu form bharega? Some of your faulty portals have eaten up tens of thousands of my company’s money and until I go and meet your babu they will not initiate a refund!”

Concluding the letter, the founder said: “Buddy instead of blaming others, focused on your job (Good governance) and got out of our way, we entrepreneurs have the capability to build world class products.”

Meanwhile, Goyal on Saturday announced a helpline desk for Indian startups in case they face any issues or want to make suggestions or address grievances to the government. “I am going to start a helpline desk under the ‘Startup India’ initiative. If any officer troubles you or if you want to make any suggestion regarding any changes in laws or flag a product or technology that may not fall under India’s legal ambit, you can reach out to that helpline,” he said.