Mangaluru: Cyclists pedal through city to save Netravati amidst bandh

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.

Mysuru, Feb 26: Twenty-nine students of the Government Primary School fell sick after consuming milk supplied at the school on Wednesday morning at Kiranguru village, in Hanagodu hobli, in the hunsur taluk in the district.

Police said the students were immediately rushed to the primary health centre in Hanagodu and provided first aid.

Tahsildar and Police personnel visited the health centre and inquired about the health of the students. "All the students are responding to the treatment," sources said.

Mangaluru, Jun 17: A private flight chartered by UAE-based NRI hotelier Praveen Shetty has brought home around 175 people from United Arab Emirates.

This is the third flight chartered by Mr Shetty, chairman of the Fortune Group of Hotels, and president of the Karnataka Non-Resident Indian Forum, to repatriate his employees and other stranded Kannadigas.

The Air Arabia flight with 168 adult passengers and six infants on board took off from Sharjah International Airport at 9:45 pm (UAE time) on June 16 and landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 2:50 am Indian Standard Time on June 17.