iWorld
aha announces changes in its leadership
Mumbai: aha, one of the fastest growing local OTT platforms, recently announced that it will invest over Rs 1000 crore over the next three years to expand into newer genres and languages as well as to finance its ambitions of becoming a complete regional entertainment platform. In line with these plans, aha has announced changes in its leadership today. Ajit Thakur, the current chief executive officer (CEO), has been elevated to the board of directors of aha and will be driving its future-facing initiatives, including aha Studio. Ravikant Sabnavis, an industry veteran, will be taking charge as the new CEO with immediate effect.
Welcoming the new CEO, aha promoter Ramu Rao Jupally said, “We are delighted to have Sabnavis on board as the new CEO. aha will surely benefit from his rich experience, which spans many industries. Sabnavis is passionate about fostering the growth of homegrown businesses in India, encouraging new ventures, and nurturing emerging talent. We are confident that Sabnavis’s unparalleled pedigree and exemplary leadership will propel aha to its next growth phase.”
Commenting on Thakur’s elevation to the board, aha promoter Allu Aravind said, ” Thakur has been with aha since the inception of the company. He has managed to build aha into a brand that has captured the hearts of the Telugu-speaking audience and extended its presence into Tamil. In recognition, we are elevating him to the board of directors. In his new role, he’ll continue to guide aha and focus on building newer initiatives, including aha Studio.”
Sabnavis has over 30 years of experience and has honed his skills across organisations in diverse industries, including Star TV, Kingfisher Airlines, Force India Formula One Team, United Breweries, Heinz India, and ConAgra Foods. Sabnavis presently holds concurrent roles as a Charter Member of TiE – Mumbai and a member of the Startups & Entrepreneurship sub-committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Western Regional Council.
aha CEO Ravikant Sabnavis said, “The aha team and I would like to create a truly experiential entertainment platform that every family member can enjoy, ranging from shows & daily series to movies, games, news, and very soon Metaverse. At aha, we are on a mission to redefine how people experience entertainment and tell the stories from Deep India to the rest of the world through diverse and unexplored genres.”
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
