Watch: Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal Thinks Young Employees Should 'Wear Kurtas To Office'

Bhavish Aggarwal the co-founder of Ola Cabs and Ola Electric, is one of the most well-known entrepreneurs in India. He recently appeared on an ANI podcast with host and editor-in-chief Smita Prakash. Bhavish Aggarwal spoke on a number of issues such as data sovereignty in AI and start-up culture in India. During the two-hour-long conversation, he also touched upon how Indian professionals should start adopting kurtas for office as they are much more comfortable and look effortlessly elegant.

He said, “We can be more comfortable in our skin in a kurta, quite literally. It’s a kind of fashion sense that is uniquely Indian. In my view, the kurta is a very elegant dress. I believe all Indians, especially the younger tech professionals, should embrace wearing kurtas." Now, a snippet of Bhavish Aggarwal promoting kurta as an office wear is going viral.

Commenting on Bhavish Aggarwal’s video, an X user wrote, “Time to make Indian attire formal again. Dhotis, kurtas, veshti, lungi, Hindu turbans etc. Can Indian designers work on designing these? And can corporations work on accepting them on all weekdays and not just on traditional days instead of Western attire?"

Another person mentioned, “Sridhar Vembu, Ambi Moorthy all South Indian Tech honchos wear veshti shirts these days. He was seen wearing veshti even on his UAE and Brazil meetings. Yes, North Indians can wear kurta pyjamas."

Interestingly many people used this video as an opportunity to criticise Bhavish Aggarwal for not fixing problems with Ola’s customer service and reportedly having a bad work environment.

An X user wrote, “Hire and fire culture is adapted like western industry and preaches us on the Indian fashion sense. Why doesn’t he become customer and employee centric first?"

Another person wrote, “I’ve started to believe Bhavish Aggarwal makes more noise than work. Please just concentrate on making good electric vehicles for now and leave the lecture to the times after you succeed."

Bhavish Aggarwal also said that many tech entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Jensen Huang are known for their signature look, and perhaps Indian tech entrepreneurs can make kurta their signature look. He said, “In India, in our startup ecosystem, we often look up to the West too much. So, sometimes people try to emulate the same styles. I said, let’s try our Indian sartorial options. We used to wear kurtas, and they are so cool."