Whatsapp India head Abhijit Bose and Meta India public policy director Rajiv Aggarwal step down a week after Meta's biggest layoff. Whatsapp India Director of public policy, Shivnath Thukral has now been appointed Director, Public Policy for all Meta brands in India.
Rajiv Agarwal decided to step down to pursue another opportunity, said the company. “Over the last year, he has played an important role in leading our policy-led initiatives in areas such as user-safety, privacy, and scaling up programmes like GOAL to drive digital inclusion in the country. He has also been leading proactive engagement with critical policy and regulatory stakeholders,” the company added.
Abhijit Bose took to LinkedIn as he said, After four amazing years at WhatsApp, "I have taken the call to move on from Meta. This decision has not been an easy one for me. WhatsApp is one of the most special products in the world, and being a small part of it has been a unique experience and privilege of a lifetime for me." Bose had joined WhatsApp as the first country head of the company in India in February 2019.
Abhijit Bose took to LinkedIn to talk about his move. | LinkedIn - Abhijit Bose
LinkedIn post by Abhijit Bose | LinkedIn - Abhijit Bose
Shivnath Thukral is now Director of Public Policy for Meta in Inda. "We are also announcing the appointment of Shivnath Thukral as our Director, Public Policy for Meta in India. Shivnath has been an integral part of our Public Policy team since 2017. In his new role, Shivnath will define and lead important policy development initiatives across our apps - Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - in India. We remain committed to our users in India and will continue to contribute meaningfully to the regulatory process that will enable everyone to harness the full potential of India’s digital economy", said Manish Chopra, Director, Partnerships, India - Meta.
This follows closely after the departure of Meta India's Vice President and Managing Director, Ajit Mohan, who joined Snap as president, Asia-Pacific.
Last week, Meta let go of around 11,000 employees across the globe as the company contends with faltering revenue and broader tech industry woes. The job cuts came just a week after widespread layoffs at Twitter under its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk. There have been numerous job cuts at other tech companies that hired rapidly during the pandemic. Even Amazon has said it will fire around 10,000 employees this week.
