Sharjah ruler promises to release 149 Indian prisoners

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.

Bengaluru, Mar 28: Karnataka has reported 10 new positive cases of COVID-19 between 5 pm yesterday and 8 am today, taking the tally to 74 in the state.

"Ten new COVID-19 cases have been reported between 5 pm yesterday and 8 am today, taking the total number to 74 in Karnataka, which includes three deaths and five cured/discharged persons," said the State Health Department on Saturday.

The total number of active COVID-19 cases in the country has climbed to 873, including 78 cured, discharged and migrated cases and 19 deaths, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

Mangaluru, Apr 6: Three more COVID-19 positive cases in the Dakshina Kannada district have been recovered and discharged on Monday.

All three are Kasargod residents and were being treated in the city’s Wenlock hospital.

A 22-year-old man Bhatkal was discharged on Monday after recovering fully from the infection.

A total of 12 cases have been found COVID-19 positive in Mangaluru till now, said B Rupesh, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate's Office, Dakshina Kannada, on Monday.

"So far, 4 positive cases have recovered in Mangaluru, of which 3 COVID-19 positive patients have recovered and have been discharged today," said Rupesh.

He further said, "A total of 12 positive cases have been reported in the city till now."

As per the latest update by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of confirmed cases in the country is 4281. 151 cases are from Karnataka.