BENGALURU: Ride-hailing giant Uber has announced the appointment of Prabhjeet Singh as its President for India and Asia Pacific (APAC) operations. Singh was elevated to the post of Uber India President after the incumbent head Pradeep Parameswaram was promoted as the Regional General Manager for the Asia Pacific region.
Besides Singh and Parameswaram, Uber has also promoted Vidhya Duthaluru, former Director, Engineering, as the global head of engineering for the customer-care platform, the company informed in a statement.
Singh, a former McKinsey and Co. Associate Partner, joined Uber five years ago, monitoring the company's operations in several key cities across India and South Asia and also devised India-first innovations including scaling up Auto and Moto categories and building a multi-nodal platform, which have both been exported to other emerging markets.
"Prabh is a passionate and innovative leader and has been instrumental in helping build Uber from the ground up and established our category leadership in the ride-sharing market. I'm confident Prabh will exceed our expectations by leading Uber India SA on to the path of profitability, further consolidate our partnership with public transport authorities, continue our growth trajectory by expanding Auto and Moto to the next batch of cities, and build iconic teams," Parameswaram said.
The announcements come at a time when Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi reportedly said that he wants to shift a majority of the engineering jobs to India, citing budget constraints as the company is struggling to cope up with the losses owing to COVID pandemic and a loss-making business model.
Uber's business was down by 80% in the first three months of 2020, Khosrowshahi had told analysts in a previous earnings call adding that the company will fire one-fourth of its employee base globally as a cost-cutting measure. The retrenchment exercise impacted 600 employees in India alone. The ride-hailing giant reported a loss of $2.9 billion for Q1, 2020.
"I'm thrilled to have been given the responsibility of leading Uber in India and South Asia, and look forward to collaborating with exceptional teams and gifted colleagues across the Uber family to strengthen our services and product offerings. Uber is an integral part of the fabric of our cities and as they start moving again, we have prioritised the highest standards of safety, sustainability and service that our riders and drivers expect of us," Singh said.