Ola organizes blood donation drive in partnership with Life Care Blood Bank

• Inspired by driver partner Apu Shaw’s selfless act, the drive saw partnership from Ola’ driver partners and employees

• Ola driver partners and employees in Kolkata donate over 50 litres of blood

Kolkata, November 7, 2016: Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for transportation in association with Life Care Blood Bank organized a blood donation camp for its drivers partners and employees. The drive is inspired by and being undertaken to honour Ola driver partner, Apu Shaw who was felicitated by Mr Biswajit Das (Secretary, Transport- Government of West Bengal) last week for his compassionate act of donating blood to a passenger who was looking for a donor at Life Care Blood Bank for a ailing family member. Ola driver partners and employees donated more than 50 litres of blood in the drive which was organised this weekend at Ola’s Kolkata office.

Speaking on the initiative, Piyush Surana, Business Head East at Ola, said. “As a homegrown company, we believe in participating in building a city’s overall ecosystem. Initiatives like these help us take a step further in our endeavour. A few days back, Ola driver partner Apu Shaw did a commendable job when he went beyond his duty to help a passenger by donating blood; and while we are extremely proud of him, we are thrilled to see that so many of our partners and employees have come forward to make this blood donation drive a success. We hope to continue rolling out such initiatives in other parts of the country as well as we believe in the overall growth and development of our cities.”

Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhowmick, Director, Life Care Blood Bank, Kolkata Branch said, “We are very happy to associate with Ola for this noble cause. With dengue cases being on the rise in the city, there is a dire need for people to come forward and make a meaningful contribution.  We are thankful to Ola for initiating this blood donation drive and are overwhelmed to see such great participation from their employees and driver-partners. We hope that more corporates will come forward to help citizens of Kolkata.”

Ola has been conducting blood donation camps across several cities in the country, the most recent one being in Bhubaneswar. During Blood Donation Day last year, Ola partnered with The Indian Red Cross Society and offered citizens free cab rides to go and donate blood at Red Cross camps in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Background on Appu Shaw – Ola Driver partner who donated blood, to a dengue patient  

Few weeks back, Ola driver partner Apu Shaw accepted a late night booking from Vivek Saraf near R.G Kar Medical Hospital, Kolkata to be dropped near another medical facility near Hatibagan. While waiting for the next ride, Apu was surprised to find that Vivek had booked a cab to Marwari Relief society. During the drive Vivek mentioned that his 21-year-old relative, who was suffering from dengue, needed urgent blood transfusion and that he was desperately doing the rounds of hospitals and blood banks to arrange for it. Apu realised that time was of the essence and that something needed to be done!

“It was heart wrenching that a young boy who has his whole life in front of him had to suffer like this. At midnight he was struggling to arrange blood, so I immediately volunteered to be a donor,” says Apu Shaw.

Vivek was stunned by this gesture and says that words cannot express the feeling he had at that moment. With such simple, yet humane gestures, driver partners like Apu Shaw make the world a better place.

About Ola:

Founded in Jan 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola (formerly Olacabs), is India’s most popular mobile app for transportation. Ola integrates city transportation for customers and driver partners onto a mobile technology platform ensuring convenient, transparent and quick service fulfilment. Ola is committed to its mission of building mobility for a billion people. Using the Ola mobile app, users across 102 cities can book from over 450,000 vehicles across cabs, auto-rickshaws and taxis on its platform. The app is available on Windows, Android and iOS platforms. Ola recently acquired TaxiForSure, India’s second largest cab aggregator, which continues to operate as an independent brand. Please visit www.olacabs.com for more information.

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Vatsala Hali | media@olacabs.com | +91-8861629562