Bengaluru CEO bans male hires from UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh in X post

A Bengaluru CEO said his company will not hire male candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The announcement on X received criticism from users who called it a broad generalisation based on state of origin.Bengaluru CEO bans male hires from UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh in X post (Photos: @kkarthikkgs/X)A Bengaluru-based CEO has announced that his company will no longer hire male candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, saying the decision came after a lengthy discussion and quarrel within the organisation.Karthik Shenoy, CEO of A1 Sports World, shared the post on X, where he wrote, “I'm sorry for this, But today we have made it very clear after lengthy discussion and quarrel.”He then announced the company’s stated hiring policy, writing, “We will not hire any male candidates in our company who come from these four states in north India,” He listed Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.Karthik also mentioned that the company already had one employee from Rajasthan and said, “We do have 1 Rajasthani already working for us. She has 100% supposed this.” Take a look at the post here: The post received criticism from several users, with some questioning whether the decision amounted to generalising about men based on their state of origin.One user said that while the sentiment behind Karthik’s post was understandable, applying the same logic broadly could mean treating every man as a potential creep.Another pointed out that people from these states already work across major technology companies and argued that the post was generalising.A third user questioned the basis for drawing such a distinction, asking which states could be considered free of crimes against women if current affairs and crime reports were used as the basis for such a hiring decision.- EndsPublished By: Yashna TalwarPublished On: Sep 23, 2026 16:52 IST