“Dismayed”: Shashi Tharoor On Kerala Startups Days After Remark Sparked Row

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday backtracked on his stance relating to industrial progress in Kerala, stating that the state wants extra MSME start-ups — not simply on paper.

Sharing a information report from an English day by day on ‘X’, Mr Tharoor expressed disappointment over the state’s start-up ecosystem, saying it was not as promising as reported.

“Dismayed to see that the Kerala start-up entrepreneurship story shouldn’t be what’s been reported,” he posted.

The information report he shared claimed that over 42,000 MSMEs had shut down in Kerala over the previous 9 years, ensuing within the lack of employment for not less than 1,03,764 staff.

“The one silver lining is that not less than the GoK’s claims level to the fitting intentions. We want extra MSME start-ups— and never simply on paper. Kerala should head this fashion!” his submit added.

Nonetheless, State Industries Minister P Rajeeve dismissed the information report as “baseless.” “I supplied an in depth reply within the Meeting on February 10. Not too long ago, Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal acknowledged in Parliament that 1,700 MSMEs shut down in Kerala over the previous 4 years,” he stated.

Mr Rajeeve additional identified that whereas 30 per cent of MSMEs within the nation shut down inside their first yr, the determine in Kerala was solely 15 per cent.

He alleged that the report was revealed with ulterior motives, because it didn’t cite the supply of its figures.

Mr Tharoor’s latest remarks on Kerala’s industrial progress sparked controversy throughout the Congress state unit.

The Congress Working Committee member ruffled feathers within the get together after writing an article in an English day by day praising the commercial coverage of the Pinarayi Vijayan authorities in Kerala.

Notably, the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s submit got here simply two days after the Congress management held a brainstorming session with Kerala leaders on the get together headquarters in New Delhi to strategise for subsequent yr’s Meeting polls. 

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)