India must shed its cultural inertia and craft new stories of entrepreneurship to compete globally, said Big Bazaar founder Kishore Biyani on a recent podcast, drawing sharp contrasts with China’s long-term planning and tech-driven transformation.

Biyani, in a podcast hosted by Think School, said China “plans for 100 years” and has “destroyed its past” to reimagine its future, investing heavily in education, design, and deep tech. 

“They produce 85,000 designers and 250,000 engineers every year with high quality,” he noted, praising China’s deliberate pivot to a design-led, innovation-based economy.

In contrast, Biyani argued that India remains culturally tethered to its past, with traditions and mythology shaping how families educate children. “Our parents want to teach us what they believe was right, and we pass on the same stories. These stories are not about growth or entrepreneurship,” he said.

Biyani urged a narrative shift. “We need new stories—stories of entrepreneurship, growth, and development,” he said, identifying podcasts as a modern tool to drive this change.

He pointed to China’s development model—specialized cities, efficient supply chains, and deep logistics networks—as a roadmap for India. “The UP government has taken some steps to build cities for category-specific products,” he said, but emphasized that much more needs to be done to match China’s pace.

India has built highways and infrastructure, he acknowledged, but now the focus must shift to the next phase: empowering entrepreneurs. “It’s all about entrepreneurship. How new entrepreneurs will come in and develop this country,” Biyani concluded.