Several videos recently surfaced on social media showing an Ola electric scooter catching fire in Pune. The incident happened on Saturday when an Ola S1 Pro caught fire near the parking lot of D.Y Patil College in Pimpri Chinchwad. The videos showed smoke coming out of the burning as the fire brigade team used a water hose to control the blaze.

Ola electric scooter reportedly caught fire near the parking lot of D.Y Patil College in Pimpri Chinchwad today at around 8:30am. The fire brigade swiftly responded and extinguished the flames. #Pune
pic.twitter.com/kujRzVmfB9

— Pune City Life (@PuneCityLife) October 28, 2023

Reacting to the videos, Ola has now claimed that the incident occurred due to an aftermarket part used in the scooter. The company has confirmed that the scooter’s battery remains intact and functional. Fortunately, the customer involved in the incident is safe and unharmed.

”We have received a report of an incident with one of our scooters in Pune yesterday. The customer is safe and unharmed. Our investigation has revealed that aftermarket parts used in the scooter led to a short circuit which resulted in the incident,” the company said in  statement on X. 

”Our findings have further confirmed that the battery of the vehicle is intact and functional. At Ola, safety is the highest priority and we follow stringent vehicle safety and quality standards. We urge our customers to only use genuine spare parts and accessories for all service requirements and contact us online or through the nearest Ola Experience Centre for support,” the statement added. 

Here’s the post:

Important update pic.twitter.com/K7pw71Xoxo

— Ola Electric (@OlaElectric) October 29, 2023

Ola also urged their customers to only use genuine spare parts and accessories for all services.

Recently, there have been widespread incidents of electric two-wheelers catching fire in various parts of the country forcing manufacturers to recall their vehicles. A few months back, a parked Ola Electric S1 Pro caught fire in Thiruvananthapuram.

 n March 2022, another Ola S1 Pro scooter caught fire in the Dhanori area of Pune. After the incident, Ola Electric recalled 1,441 units of its electric two-wheelers.

The fire incidents had prompted the government to form a panel to examine and had warned companies of penalties if they were found to be negligent.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre and the state governments to take steps to fill the vacancies in the Central Information Commission and state information commissions (SICs), observing otherwise the 2005 law on right to information will become a “dead letter”.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also asked the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to collect information from all states on several aspects including the sanctioned strength of SICs, vacancies and the total number of pending cases there.

“The Right to Information Act of 2005 will become a dead letter,” the CJI said after taking note of the submission that SICs in states like Jharkhand, Tripura and Telangana have become defunct.

It has granted states and the Centre three weeks to furnish the information, and posted the plea filed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj for hearing after that.

Ms Bhardwaj alleged the Supreme Court’s 2019 judgement on issues including timely filling up of vacancies in the CIC and SICs have not been followed by the Centre and states. 

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji took to X, formerly Twitter and urged people to break the barriers surrounding mental health. Mr Premji also said that it’s okay to not feel okay at times.

Rishad Premji on X wrote, “We should relentlessly break barriers so that we talk about mental health with the same comfort we talk about our physical health. It’s ok to not be ok at times.”

See the post here:

We should relentlessly break barriers so that we talk about mental health with the same comfort we talk about our physical health. It’s ok to not be ok at times. pic.twitter.com/7zNpPU91U2

— Rishad Premji (@RishadPremji) October 30, 2023

Mr Premji’s post has amassed over 5,000 views on X and an array of comments. 

A user wrote, “Makes sense.”

Another user commented, “Very true Sir.”

Well, this is not the first time he has spoken about the importance of mental health. Earlier, Mr Premji wrote, “Mental health and depression is a disease like any other disease. It is incredibly important that we be there for our friends, family and colleagues especially in these difficult, isolating times.”

Mental health and depression is a disease like any other disease. It is incredibly important that we be there for our friends, family and colleagues especially in these difficult, isolating times. pic.twitter.com/ir78cMOwgo

— Rishad Premji (@RishadPremji) October 26, 2020

Mr Premji made headlines after he took a voluntary cut in his salary for the fiscal year 2023. He has made $951,353 in total annual compensation this year, which is almost 50% ($8,67,669) less than his previous year’s earnings. In 2022, Mr. Premji’s compensation as Executive Chairman of the Board was $1,819,022.

Rishad joined Wipro in 2007 and worked in several roles before becoming Executive Chairman in 2019. He started as a general manager in Wipro’s Banking and Financial Services business, went on to head Investor Relations, and then led Wipro’s Strategy and M&A.