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IOS Sports & Entertainment onboards Indian rally racers Pragathi Gowda and Yuva Kumar
Mumbai: IOS Sports and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., a sports management organisation, has announced the onboarding of two of India’s promising future rally racing talents Pragathi Gowda and Yuva Kumar.
Bengaluru-based rally driver Gowda will be representing the Asia-Pacific region in the 2023 FIA Rally Star training season after her impressive win in the Asia- Pacific finals of the FIA Rally Star program held at the Madras International Circuit in Chennai late last year. Gowda, who made her debut in Rally Racing in 2020 at the Indian National Rally Championships held at Itanagar, finished in the top 10 in her first national championship and in the process caught the eyes of the motorsport community within the country.
Now in just a little over 24 months since her debut and two credible finishes that also include a continental win, Gowda is definitely a strong contender to one of the few prominent and emerging rally drivers from India in the global rally circuit. Gowda who has been racing since a very young age and credits her motivation to her late brother Prajwal who was the reason for her to start racing.
Gowda commented, “My racing career is short, but my ambitions are big. I am glad that in this short span, I have been able to achieve some good results and that gives me the confidence that there’s more in store for me. At this stage of my career, it was important for me to start building a professional team around me and the first need beyond the technical bit was having a commercial partner. I am glad to be joining hands with IOS Sports & Entertainment, who undoubtedly are one of the most professional and seasoned sports marketing entities in the country.”
IOS Sports & Entertainment also announced the signing of yet another promising rally rider, Yuva Kumar, into their fold. Kumar, who recently won the Desert Storm 2022 in the moto category (upto 250cc) hails from Andhra Pradesh but has been raised in Bengaluru, Karnataka. With nearly two decades of rallying experience on two wheels, Kumar currently competes for the Hero Motorsports Team Rally.
Kumar said, “Motorsports is an expensive sport and after a while to step up, we all need commercial partners to help us take us to the next levels in our careers. Last year was a good year in my career and to now take the leap it was important for me to have experts with me. I am glad that I found that in team IOS and I am looking forward to my association with them.”
IOS Sports and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. COO Rahul Trehan said, “As an organisation, we have strived to bring to the fore talented youngsters to the national eye. Both Gowda and Kumar are truly motivated athletes with a tremendous ahead of them. It was their quality and sincerity that has made us put our trust in them. Motorsports is one of the most followed sports across the world, and through these athletes, we can bring some attraction towards motorsports in India.”
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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.
