Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola, announced this week that they were exiting Google Maps and would in-turn integrate their very own Ola Maps. This decision comes on the close heels of the company moving all its workloads from Azura to Krutrim Cloud. “After Azure exit last month, we’ve now fully exited google maps. We used to spend ₹100 cr a year but we’ve made that 0 this month by moving completely to our in house Ola maps! Check your Ola app and update if needed. Also, Ola maps API available on Krutrim cloud! Many more features coming soon – street view, NERFs, indoor images, 3D maps, drone maps etc!” Said Aggarwal on his social media platforms.
Recently, Bhavish Aggarwal had lashed out against Microsoft for deleting his post twice, and then said that there was a need to challenge the dominance of western Big Tech monopolies in governing aspects of daily life. Aggarwal has also strongly been advocating that India should be in charge of its data, and global technology giants should not be allowed to utilise it.
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“I wouldn’t have waded into this debate but clearly Linkedin has presumed Indians need to have pronouns in our life, and that we can’t criticise it. They will bully us into agreeing with them or cancel us out. And if they can do this to me, I’m sure the average user stands no chance. As a founder and CEO, this western DEI system has a major impact on my business if it grows an entitlement mindset in our professional lives and I will fight it,” said Bhavish Aggarwal.
He has also been vocal about foreign companies not choosing India as their manufacturing centres. Recently, when Tesla decided to back out from making an investment into India, Aggarwal said: “If true, this is Tesla’s loss, not India’s. While the Indian EV and Lithium ecosystem is early, we’re gaining momentum quickly. It’ll be too late for Tesla when they look at India seriously again in a few years,” he said. He also hinted on the post that Ola was working on becoming the Tesla of India.
