Ola Electric missed scheduled deadline under PLI ACC scheme

Bengaluru: Ola Electric’s troubles are still stirring, with the EV maker behind on its programme agreement with the Ministry of Heavy Industries wherein it is availing a production-linked incentive advanced chemistry cell (PLI ACC) scheme.

Ola on Monday received a letter from IFCI Limited: “Subject Non-achievement of Milestone -1 as per schedule M of the programme agreement dated July 28, 2022”,  the EV maker said on Tuesday in a disclosure to the stock exchanges.

IFCI Limited was appointed as the project management agency for the PLI ACC scheme.

“The company (Ola Electric) is actively engaged with the relevant authorities in this regard and in the process of filing an appropriate response,” stated Ola in the filing.

Ola Cell Technologies Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ola Electric Mobility Limited had entered into the programme agreement.

This comes while Ola has “restructured and automated” its operations for “better productivity”, said an Ola spokesperson in response to DH questions on Monday.

In its endeavour to do so, the company has undergone mass layoffs with a removal of around 1,000 employees.

This is Ola’s second round of mass layoffs. The company has also been in a soup with the Central Consumer Protection Authority due to mass customer complaints. Along with a 50 per cent jump in losses in the October-December quarter of the ongoing fiscal, Ola lost its position as the market leader in electric scooters to Bajaj Auto in December.

Bhavish does a Musk; mandates employees share weekly reports

Billionaire Bhavish Aggarwal has asked his employees to share weekly updates with him and their managers in a new initiative titled ‘Kya Chal Raha Hai?’ (What’s going on?).

He said “Everyone has to send this no exceptions” according to a viral screenshot of his message to employees on X which a source well-informed of the matter confirmed is true to DH.

The move is rampantly being tagged as an emulation of Elon Musk mandating US federal employees to submit similar weekly reports in his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“Please send a brief update to your manager and [e-mail] (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” wrote Aggarwal in the message.