'JEE, NEET, UPSC don’t matter’: Sridhar Vembu says real innovators lie beyond exam elite

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has stirred up a new debate on India’s talent, innovation, and the deep disconnect between elite gatekeeping and real-world capability.

In a post on X, Vembu wrote, “Once you discover what we have discovered, you will stop fighting about reservation and so on.”

Vembu’s sharp critique targets the narrow filters of India’s traditional merit systems like JEE, NEET, and UPSC. “I do not care about any of those exams. I ignore all those ‘signals’ and go with the evidence of our own eyes to discover and nurture talent,” he wrote, adding that his R&D team reflects India’s true social diversity — without any government compulsion.

The broader post dismantles what Vembu calls the “Washington Consensus” — a decades-old belief among India’s educated elite (himself included) that globalisation and Western models of development would lift India. “That era died during the pandemic. Today, we perform the last rites,” he wrote.

Instead, he outlines a bold, nationalistic innovation agenda focused on “basic deep tech” — from DC motors and batteries to fighter jets, drones, jet engines, and bioreactors.

“Every tech we do not have is deep tech,” Vembu wrote, insisting India must now treat the current global reset as a generational opportunity.

Calling for a 5–15 year catch-up sprint, Vembu pointed to China’s success in developing strategic technologies. “We have the raw human talent in abundance and we can train. This much I know,” he said. But he cautioned that short-term venture capital is the wrong vehicle for such ambitions. “Venture capital with 7–8 year exit cycles cannot do it. It promotes a short-termism at odds with what our nation needs right now.”

Instead, he argued India’s industrial houses must lead in R&D, not just in capital but in mindset. “Catch-up R&D is not expensive. It is time-intensive,” he noted.

Vembu also warned against chasing the American model of high finance, calling it a “colossal misallocation of resources.” He traced America’s financial crisis and political fallout — from Occupy Wall Street to MAGA — to its smartest minds flooding finance. “India cannot afford to be addicted to high finance. It would lead to societal ruin.”

On the climate front, he called for India to lead a new model of “energy-efficient intelligence,” saying, “Bharat Mata is mother nature.” In contrast to Silicon Valley’s U-turn from climate to AI, Vembu stressed India’s opportunity to build a tech-driven yet environmentally conscious society.

He concluded with a quiet provocation: the rural youth of Bharat are ready, raw, and waiting. “Patient capital is about nurturing this talent. Bring it on stream,” he wrote. “We have faced far worse adversity before. If we seize this moment, we’ll come to see it as a blessing.”