WhatsApp India head, Meta India public policy head steps down

This comes less than a week after Meta announced its largest-ever layoffs, affecting approximately 11,000 employees worldwide. Ajit Mohan, Meta's chief of operations in India, resigned earlier this month.

WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose, and Rajiv Aggarwal, Meta India's Director of Public Policy, have resigned from their positions at Meta in a new series of top-level departures from the company. Shivnath Thukral, the Director of WhatsApp Public Policy in India, has been promoted to the position of Director, Public Policy for all Meta brands in India.

This comes less than a week after Meta announced its largest-ever layoffs, affecting approximately 11,000 employees worldwide. Ajit Mohan, Meta's chief of operations in India, resigned earlier this month. Soon after, it was reported that he would be joining Snap as president of Asia-Pacific.

According to the statement, Rajiv Aggarwal has decided to step down from Meta to explore another opportunity, and the company wishes him the best in his future endeavours.

Will Cathcart, the Head of WhatsApp, praised Abhijit Bose for his 'tremendous efforts' as the first Head of WhatsApp in India.

Cathcart explained, "His entrepreneurial spirit aided our team in launching new services that benefited millions of people and businesses. There is so much more WhatsApp can achieve for India, and we are excited to continue advancing India's digital transformation."

Bose also announced his resignation on LinkedIn, saying he is "very excited" about his future opportunity. "After a short break, I intend to return to the entrepreneurial world," he said, adding that his departure had been planned for some time, "but given the events last week," they wanted to hold this back to "concentrate on aiding those harmed last week."

In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook's parent company Meta announced major layoffs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the incident and accepted "accountability for these decisions and how we got here."

Over 11,000 Meta employees were laid off in the social media giant's first significant round of layoffs. Meta is the latest tech titan to announce a layoff.