Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu steps back from public engagements: ‘I have to ship some code’

Sridhar Vembu, the founder and chief scientist of Zoho Corporation, announced on 15 October that he would take a temporary break from external engagements to focus on his core technical work.

In a post shared on his official X account, Vembu admitted that he had “fallen behind” on a coding project he had committed to complete. “I have to ship some code I had committed to ship and I have fallen behind,” he wrote, adding that he would “take a break from external engagements after this week.”

Sridhar Vembu announces temporary break to focus on coding

The entrepreneur, known for his advocacy of deep technology development and the successful run of Arattai, said he wanted to ensure that his actions matched his words.

“I am sorry to have to impose this hard restriction but I cannot do both deep tech work (which I am preaching constantly about in my external engagements) and then only do the preaching and not practising it myself. That would contradict my dictum “do not preach what you do not practise” and I am at the risk of only preaching and not practising,” posted Vembu.

Sridhar Vembu praises MapMyIndia’s Mappls app

In other news, Sridhar Vembu commended MapMyIndia’s navigation platform, Mappls, calling it “very nice” and noting that it represents “decades of R&D, much longer than Google Maps.” Sharing his thoughts on X on 12 October, Vembu extended his congratulations to Rohan Verma and the MapMyIndia team for their achievement.

Vembu’s message was a repost of a video shared by Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & IT. On 11 October, Vaishnaw had encouraged users to try the indigenous “Swadeshi Mappls” app, praising its practical and innovative features.

In the accompanying video, the minister demonstrated the app while driving, highlighting its 3D visualisation of bridges and underpasses, and its ability to pinpoint shops and venues within multi-level buildings. Vaishnaw described Mappls as an app packed with “useful features” and urged citizens to explore it.