Anant Kumar Hegde calls his critics ‘barking dogs’, faces protest from Dalits

Bengaluru, May 20: Ride-sharing company Ola Cabs said on Wednesday it will lay off 1,400 of its employees due to business uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic while the revenue has come down by 95 per cent in the past two months.

"The COVID crisis continues to unfold all around us causing unprecedented economic and social destruction. It has also become evident that the coronavirus will not be eliminated any time soon," wrote co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal to all Ola employees.

"In these circumstances, today I write to all of you with the toughest decision I have ever taken -- the need to downsize our organisation and let go of 1,400 of our valued employees," he said.

Aggarwal said the fallout of virus has been very tough for the cab aggregating industry in particular. "The company's revenue has come down by 95 per cent over the past two months," he said.

Initially, he said, the company hoped it would be a short-lived crisis and that its impact would be temporary. "But unfortunately, it is not been a short crisis. And the prognosis ahead for our business is very unclear and uncertain. It is going to take a long time for people to go out and about like before."
With more companies preferring to have a large number of employees work from home, air travel limited to essential trips and vacations being put off for better times, the impact of this crisis is definitely going to be long-drawn, said Aggarwal.

"The world is not going to revert to the pre-COVID era anytime soon. Social distancing, anxiety and an abundance of caution will be the operating principles for everyone," he told employees.

Aggarwal said the crisis necessitates the need to conserve cash aggressively so that Ola is able to invest in opportunities in the future, adding the downsizing exercise has been a very tough and sad decision for the management team to make.

"While we restructure our organisation to the new realities of our business, we are also going to recommit ourselves to strengthening our operational excellence and leverage a lot more technology to improve efficiencies and reduce cost across all parts of our business," he said.

Mangaluru/Udupi, Jul 26: Karnataka’s twin coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have recorded 369 new coronavirus positive cases and 10 more deaths related to the covid-19 in past 24 hours. 

Dakshina Kannada

With 199 new covid-19 cases, DK’s covid toll mounted to 4,811. The district also recorded eight new covid-related deaths. The death toll mounted to 123. 

Among the 199 new cases are 31 primary contacts, 73 with influenza-like illness (ILI), and 10 with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI). As many as 83 cases are under investigation. Two of the patients have international travel history.

Eight deaths:

A 71-year-old man from Mangaluru, who was admitted to a private hospital on July 19, passed away on July 23. He was diagnosed with ARDS/multiorgan dysfunction, chronic renal disease, diabetes, and hypertension. His throat swabs tested positive for covid-19. 

A 70-year-old man from Mangaluru, who was admitted to a private hospital on July 20, passed away on July 24. He had developed sepsis, chronic kidney disease, lower respiratory tract infection, and other ailments. 

A 55-year-old man from Puttur was admitted to a private hospital on July 23, and passed away a day later. He was diagnosed with septic shock with acute kidney injury with severe metaboic acidosis. 

A 56-year-old man from Mangaluru who was admitted to a private hospital on July 20 passed away on July 24. He was suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and ischemic heart disease.

A 72-year-old man from Mangaluru who was admitted to a private hospital on July 18 passed away on July 24. He was suffering from refractory hypoxemia/refractory ARDS, septic shock, secondary bacterial infection, renal failure, acute coronary event, and other ailments. 

A 45-year-old woman from Mangaluru who was admitted to a private hospital on July 24 passed away the same day. She had been diagnosed with metastatic carcinoma of right lung and pneumonia. 

A 55-year-old man from Mangaluru who was admitted to a private hospital on July 21 and passed away on July 24. As per the district bulletin, he was suffering from refractory hypoxemia/refractory ARDS, septic shock, secondary bacterial infection, renal failure, acute coronary event, and other ailments.

A 70-year-old man from Mangaluru suffering from severe pneumonia with ARDS, multiorgan dysfunction, sepsis, chronic kidney disease and hypothyroidism was admitted to a private hospital on July 24 and passed away the same day.

Though the above patients contracted coronavirus, the exact cause of their deaths is being investigated by a team of experts and their report is awaited.

Udupi

The district recorded 170 new covid-19 cases and the total confirmed cases mounted to 3,388. Among the new cases, 86 are in Udupi, 31 in Kundapur, and 52 in Karkala. They include 106 male and 63 women. As many as 2,133 patients have been discharged so far, and 1,241 cases are currently active. 

The district also recorded two covid-19 related deaths – a woman and a man. One is a 63-year-old resident of Byndoor and the other is from Udupi's Indiranagar area. Both had been admitted to the ICU of a private hospital. 

Byndoor resident passed away on the night of Saturday July 26, the Udupi resident died on Sunday. The last rites of both the deceased were conducted as per protocol.

Udupi, Apr 5: Excise Department has formed a special patrol teams to check the illegal sale of liquor in the district during the lockdown period.

All liquor stores are closed till April 14 in view of the lockdown to contain Covid-19 spread. However, reports of liquor being sold illegally have come to the notice of the Excise Department.

In a stern warning, the department has stated that officials will verify the closing and opening stock at the liqour stores and if any discrepancy is found the violators will be penalised. The department has received over 20-30 calls regarding the illegal sales.