Budget 2026 reminds Ashneer Grover of his rebuke to a Shark Tank India pitcher: ‘Bilkul time waste kiya aapne’

“As far as startups go, investment has begun to slow down. 2021 was peak. 2022 and 2023 were lower. 2024 and 2025 were even lower. Yes, there have been exists through IPOs that are being celebrated, but even the investors who are exiting the companies through IPOs, they’re not putting the money back in,” argued Ashneer.

“So, your FDIs are absolutely low, and that’s what is reflecting on the currency. Your currency is not 92 without a reason. The reason is the capital inflows have slowed down. So, the people overseas aren’t as gung-ho about the economy as we want them to be. Retail investors can take the load for a while, but not for that long,” he added.

Last year, in an interview with SCREEN, Ashneer had opened up on why economic inequities continues to be one of the primary challenges for India. “The reason for that is very simple: We’re too big a population. 140 crore is too many people for a country like India. We’ve to become developed. Once that happens, this inequality also comes down,” he said.

When SCREEN asked him if the Indian government appoints him as the Social Justice Minister, what steps he’d take, Ashneer responded, “No, I don’t think any government is reaching out to me (laughs)! Hypothetically, it’s very simple: it’s all about economics. You can’t be taking away money from people who have it and distributing among those who don’t. You have to create enough employment for everyone and let everyone work for what they earn. Hopefully, the powers that be will also do the right thing.”

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Ashneer first gained popularity when he co-founded the digital payments platform BharatPe with Shashvat Nakrani in 2018. He became a pop-culture staple after his appearance as a Shark on the inaugural edition of business reality TV show Shark Tank India in 2023. His line on “doglapan” became a meme fest. However, after his exit from the show in the following seasons, Ashneer most recently hosted another reality show, Rise and Fall, on Amazon MXPlayer last year.