'We Behave Like A Musk Deer': Kotak AMC's Shah Urges India To Fund Deep-Tech Startups Globally At Republic Summit 2026

India must quickly turn its massive pools of idle savings, including its huge reserves of physical gold, into active investment funds, Kotak AMC Managing Director Nilesh Shah said. He also warned that the country must stop letting retail wealth drain away into zero-sum gambling if it wants to build the "risk capital" local entrepreneurs desperately need.

Speaking at the Republic Summit 2026, Shah pointed out a frustrating reality. While Indian engineers are pulling off technical "miracles," the local financial system is failing them, forcing top talent to look outside India just to survive.

To show exactly what is holding back Indian deep-tech companies, Shah pointed to the space startup Agnikul Cosmos, led by founder Srinath Ravichandran. The team successfully built the world's largest 3D-printed rocket engine and launched it into orbit without needing multi-million dollar fueling systems.

"Srinath built a rocket engine... but he doesn’t have the risk capital," Shah explained, comparing the startup to heavily funded global giants like Elon Musk's SpaceX. "Our engineers can create miracles on a tiny budget. The missing link is risk capital."

"Gold Will Remain Here"

To create this missing pool of cash inside India, Shah suggested a creative digital finance plan built around the country's love for physical gold. Noting that India has imported about 700 tons of gold every year for the past 25 years, he proposed turning this sleeping wealth into an economic engine.

Shah argued that by launching a government-backed digital currency or "gold-backed token", and linking it with high-yield foreign currency bank deposits (FCNRB), India could attract massive investments from around the world. "The gold will remain here, but its value can be tokenized to fund our entrepreneurs," Shah said. This would turn an idle asset into active funding for advanced technology.

Real Education

Shah also targeted the retail market, saying there is a big difference between basic reading literacy and real financial education. He pointed out the strange situation in states like Kerala, which has the highest literacy rate in India but still loses huge amounts of money to bad investments.

Shah noted that everyday investors lose an estimated ₹2,80,000 crore every year to risky futures and options (F&O) trading. Meanwhile, fake Ponzi schemes and digital scams steal another ₹50,000 crore annually. "People are losing money in lotteries, derivatives, and digital frauds," Shah warned, calling these avenues "zero-sum gambling." Moving this cash into the stock market instead would instantly solve the funding crisis for startups.

"Kasturi Murug" to "Sone Ki Chidiya"

Closing his speech, the Kotak AMC chief used a famous traditional story to describe India's current financial mindset. He compared the nation to the Kasturi Murug (the musk deer), which runs around the jungle looking for a beautiful smell, never realizing the scent is actually coming from its own body.

"We are like the Kasturi Murug, looking outside for foreign venture funds when the real wealth is sitting right inside our borders," Shah said. By teaching better financial habits and using new digital tools like tokenization, Shah concluded that India can finally stop relying on outside help and become an economic powerhouse: "That is the time when India will move from Kasturi Murug to Sone Ki Chidiya."

Also read: 'Limit Portfolio To 8 Schemes': Sundeep Sikka At Republic Summit 2026

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