Shark Tank India judge and Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal has stirred a sharp debate on India’s tech-first narrative, after sharing a photo of an elderly woman working as a delivery person, urging the country to reconsider its blind push toward AI and deep-tech without acknowledging ground realities.
“Saw this woman the other day, and thought maybe she should learn Python,” Mittal wrote on LinkedIn, alongside the image. “Perhaps she can fine-tune an LLM too, while delivering your groceries.”
His post wasn’t just sarcasm—it was a pointed critique of India’s tech-policy tunnel vision.
“Every time I say India needs jobs along with deep-tech, someone sends me a whitepaper on AI skilling. Basically parroting the West without understanding our own reality,” he said.
Mittal acknowledged that AI and automation are transforming global workforces—tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Google have predicted that 40–50% of work will be AI-driven in the next few years. “Yes, true!” he wrote. “But those are economies with lower populations, high formal employment, and deep reskilling budgets.”
Recalling his time in the U.S., Mittal pointed to the scale of institutional upskilling abroad. “When I worked in the US, every time a new tech or software rolled out, we were upskilled in real time—not just as individuals, but across the entire org. That’s what real skilling infrastructure looks like.”
By contrast, India, he said, is far from ready. “Most are self-employed. India is not there yet.” In this context, he argued, the gig economy has been a critical lifeline. “It enabled employment for millions. In a country holding ~20% of the world’s population, that’s no mean feat!”
Mittal warned against romanticizing deep-tech as a silver bullet. “When we start touting deep-tech as the only solution to all our problems, we endanger the livelihoods of a billion plus nation.”
He acknowledged India’s dual identity: “Yes, we have highly-skilled and super-talented folks who will undoubtedly build future big-tech from India—but we also have a large low-skilled populace that needs to be taken along.”
“India needs to address both these issues simultaneously, no?” he asked in closing. “What’s your take?”
