‘Kya Chal Raha Hai?’: Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal pulls an Elon Musk, asks staff for weekly updates in ‘3-5 bullet points’

Remember DOGE chief Elon Musk landing in a soup and facing resistance from Republicans, when he sent out a mail asking US Federal workers to list out their achievements in a weekly report, else face terminations? Well there is an Indian version of that now, sans the termination threat! ‘Kya Chal Raha Hain’, is an initiative started for employees of Ola, wherein they will be required to send weekly reports to CEO Bhavish Aggarwal.

According to a CNBC report, an internal email was sent out to Ola employees last week mandating the weekly report under an initiative, titled ‘Kya Chai Raha Hai?’ — a colloquial Hindi phrase meaning ‘What’s going on?’

Ola employees are now required to send a brief weekly email listing 3-5 bullet points of their completed tasks.

Kya Chal Raha Hain for Ola Employees

According to the CNBC report, the first weekly report from Ola employees was to be submitted by the end of the day following the announcement, with future reports due every Sunday. The report would be mailed to Bhavish Aggarwal and the reporting manager of the individual employee.

What did the email from Bhavish Aggarwal say?

“We’re starting ‘Kya Chai Raha Hai?’ — a simple way to share your weekly updates directly with me and your managers, starting today. Please send a brief update to your manager and Kyachalrahahai@olagroup.in (email will be active in an hour or so) with 3-5 bullet points about what you got done last week. Keep it simple and to the point. Use the email subject: ‘Weekly updates’. The deadline for this is today end of day. Going forward, we will expect the email before Sunday end of day. Everyone has to send this, no exceptions,” CNBC quoted Bhavish Aggarwal’s message to Ola employees.

Ola Layoffs

Ola Electric Mobility Ltd is laying off more than 1,000 employees and contract workers in an effort to cut losses, according to Bloomberg report of 3 March.

The departments to be affected by the layoffs are charging infrastructure, customer relations, procurement, and fulfillment, among others.

Following the layoff reports, shares of Ola Electric on Monday crashed 5.36 per cent to hit a fresh 52-week low of ₹53.71 apiece on the BSE. This is 66% down from its peak of ₹157.53 apiece touched after listing.

Elon Musk To Federal Workers: Say What You ‘Got Done’ Or Resign

In February, Elon Musk had issued a new ultimatum for Federal employees: report what progress you’ve made or resign.

“Consistent with President Donald Trump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Elon Musk had written on X.

“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” the Tesla Chief added.

There has been significant opposition against Elon Musk and DOGE’s efforts to cut government jobs and spending, with numerous civil servants resigning in protest, filing lawsuits and discussing ways to fight back in secret group chats on Signal and Instagram, the New York Times has reported.

Notably, this instruction fund resistance from within government when Kash Patel asked his employees to ignore the DOGE chief’s mail. The US DoJ also issued a similar directive.

Netizens react to Bhavish Aggarwal’s Directive

Ola co-founder Bhavish Agarwal’s ‘Kya Chal Raha Hain’ initiative, which seemed to emulate Musk’s handling of federal employees, led to mockery and jibes on social media.

“From the first product itself, they’ve been just copying,” wrote one X user. “Understandable. The likes of Bhavish have made their entire careers out of copying the trends in west. They’re not innovators,” another said.

“The unoriginality and frequent plagiarism is so cringe worthy. It’s a hallmark of Indian society. Been noticing it for decades,” an X user said.