WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose, Meta India public policy chief resign

NEW DELHI: Amid the heightened insecurity and mass layoffs, two top Meta India officials -- Abhijit Bose, Head of India, WhatsApp and Rajiv Aggarwal, Director of Public Policy, Meta India -- have resigned, the company confirmed on Tuesday.

Shivnath Thukral, Director of WhatsApp Public Policy, India has been appointed as Director, Public Policy, Meta India (across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in India), replacing Aggarwal who joined Meta last year from Uber.

"I want to thank Abhijit Bose for his tremendous contributions as our first Head of WhatsApp in India. His entrepreneurial drive helped our team deliver new services that have benefited millions of people and businesses," Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp, said in a statement.

"There is so much more WhatsApp can do for India and we're excited to continue helping advance India's digital transformation," Cathcart added.

In a LinkedIn post, Bose said that it "has been a tough week for all of our team at WhatsApp as we had to say Goodbyes to many amazing teammates last week".

"It's been 4 years since I joined as WhatsApp's first Country Head in India, After a small break, I plan to rejoin the entrepreneurial world; you'll see announcements on that shortly," Bose wrote.

Earlier this month, Ajit Mohan, head of Meta in India, left the social network to join rival Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, as lead of the company's Asia-Pacific business.

Cathcart said that Aggarwal has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity.

"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 programs like GOAL to drive digital inclusion in the country," he added.

Thukral, the new Director, Public Policy for Meta in India, has been with the Public Policy team since 2017.

In his new role, Thukral will define and lead important policy development initiatives across apps -- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp -- in India, the company confirmed.

"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.

The company said these top-level resignations in India "are completely unrelated to the recent news cycles".

Meta last week sacked more than 11,000 employees, or 13 per cent of its workforce, in one of the worst tech lay-offs that hit various teams in India.