Not many people might have heard of Anand Shah. The man, by all accounts, is known for his “not so flamboyant” demeanour. The two men are founders of a very special set of entities. Aggarwal co-founded ride-hailing service Ola Cabs, which then spun out Ola Electric Mobility—its electric vehicle manufacturing arm—into a separate company. Shah, also an Ola Electric co-founder, was the one who began the Ola Mobility Institute (OMI), a think tank. In many ways, OMI is very much like its founder—quiet and unobtrusive. But it has been slowly but steadily working its way into India’s policy circles. Since its inception in 2018, it has published around 30 reports. The most prominent of these was the State EV Readiness Index, prepared in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. More importantly, over the years, OMI’s pet projects have overlapped with Ola Electric’s business interests many times. And its policy stances have shifted in tandem. Like its jump from shared mobility to battery swapping in 2019, or how it has dialled down its advocacy for battery swapping after Ola Electric shifted focus to fast-charger networks. Those in policy circles say OMI’s research offerings are viewed with scepticism and have received little acceptance in India’s crowded policy ideas market. Ola knows, though. And now it’s trying to branch out. OMI’s slow creep into policy circles is important for several reasons. For one, it carries the distinction of being the only one of its kind in India's energy and mobility space, fully funded as it is by Ola Electric. It’s practically virgin ground—policy advocacy and lobbying are practically unheard of for startups. And two, these institutions come with certain benefits. They tend to operate at a faster pace, they have ready data sets, they’re ahead of the curve, all giving them an edge over competition. A deeply analytical story, examines how Ola—and OMI—got to where they are today and why competition needs to keep an eye out
