Shivnath Thukral is Meta India's new director of public policy

Meta India, as per Manish Chopra, has appointed Shivnath Thukral as its new director of public policy. Chopra is director, partnerships, Meta India.

This appointment follows the exits of Abhijit Bose, WhatsApp India head, and Meta’s head of public policy Rajiv Aggarwal barely days after Meta sacking 11,000 employees and a couple of weeks since its India chief Ajit Mohan moved to Snap.

"Shivnath has been an integral part of our Public Policy team since 2017. In his new role, Shivnath will define and lead important policy development initiatives across our apps - Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - in India. 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 Chopra in a statement.

Bose wrote on LinkedIn announcing his departure: "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. Amidst all of this, I just shared some news with our WhatsApp and India teams.  It has been planned for a while."

“After four amazing years at WhatsApp, I have taken the call to move on from Meta… After a small break, I plan to rejoin the entrepreneurial world.”

“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. There is so much more WhatsApp can do for India and we’re excited to continue helping advance India’s digital transformation," said Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp in a statement.

Bose joined WhatsApp India in 2019. Aggarwal, on the other hand, joined Meta in September 2021 from Uber where he was its head of public policy for India South Asia.

“Rajiv 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 has also been leading proactive engagement with critical policy and regulatory stakeholders. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him very best for the future," said Chopra.