India’s unicorns want government help to fight Amazon, Uber

There’s nationalism in the air again. Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal and Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal are apparently encouraging PM Narendra Modi’s government to make policies which favor homegrown companies, media reports say.

“What we need to do is what China did [15 years ago] and tell the world we need your capital, but we don’t need your companies,” The Economic Times quotes Sachin as saying, speaking at the Carnegie India Global Technology Summit.

“When a ride goes to Uber for example in India, the higher-end jobs are being created in the US and not in India. The capabilities in the ecosystem are getting created in the US and not in India, while when it comes to Ola the capabilities are being created in India,” Sachin said, Business Standard reports.

Flipkart is fighting a pitched battle with Amazon’s India unit. Ola is in it against Uber.

“When you see the capital story that’s where the Indian ecosystem is at a disadvantage. Number one is that there’s no local capital, we have to go abroad for capital and it’s much easier for non-Indian companies to raise capital because they’re profitable elsewhere,” said Ola boss Bhavish at the same event.

“You might call it capital dumping, but it’s a very unfair playing field for the Indian startups and something needs to be done about it.”

Not everyone agrees, of course.

Now Singapore firm @Flipkart & Canadian-Russian-Japanese firm @Olacabs claim they're Indian & govt should stop US firms @amazonIN & @Uber🙂 pic.twitter.com/vbHbXZgjHK

— Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy) December 8, 2016

Find this protectionist clamour amusing! When you're a photocopy of foreign models & largely have foreign capital. China isnt our role model https://t.co/E8fJXI1u6d

‘Distorted by capital’