New Delhi: Established cab aggregators Ola and Uber will face a new challenger by the year-end, with eight cooperative brands registering Bharat Taxi on 6 June before its planned launch by the end of this year.
Registered as the brand Multi-State Sahakari Taxi Cooperative Ltd with an authorised capital of Rs 300 crore, the taxi service is backed by eight cooperatives including the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), which will be responsible for overseeing and promoting the ride-hailing service.
A senior NCDC official told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity that the pilot phase of this taxi service is expected to be launched by December either from Delhi or Gujarat.
According to the Ministry of Cooperation, Bharat Taxi service would be beneficial for both drivers and riders, empowering them through transparency in pricing and removing the involvement of middlemen.
The platform would be driver-owned and operated, ensuring the profit is shared among the members. Besides taxi drivers, the service will also cover auto-rickshaw operators and two-wheeler ride providers.
Currently, the project is in the planning phase as the NCDC is in the process of selecting a prospective player for design, development, implementation and operations of an online cab aggregation solution for the project.
In the coming months, the Multi-State Sahakari Taxi Cooperative Ltd would also run a marketing campaign being designed by IIM-Bangalore to promote Bharat Taxi, the senior NCDC official told ThePrint.
Nearly 200 drivers across four states including Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have already been onboarded under the initiative.
As per the NCDC official, there is no specific target with regards to onboarding drivers by year-end or next year. On the basis of learnings from the pilot phase, things will be streamlined that would define the next phase of growth for Bharat Taxi, he said.
Apart from NCDC, seven other cooperatives backing the initiative are—Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO), Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), National Cooperative Exports Limited (NCEL), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).
ThePrint reached Ola and Uber for comment via email. The report will be updated if and when their responses are received.
‘Sense of ownership’
Last month, Union Home Minister and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah launched the National Cooperative Policy 2025, built on six pillars aimed at making cooperatives transparent, accountable and autonomous.
The fifth pillar of the policy mentions the aim for cooperatives is to diversify to new and emerging sectors including green energy, tourism, mobile-based aggregators, insurance, organic farming, waste management among others.
The registration of Bharat Taxi marks the first step in that direction.
“The aim is to diversify cooperatives beyond agriculture, dairy, and credit from agriculture, dairy, credit to other emerging sectors. Soon work will start in insurance and circularity too,” an official from the Ministry of Cooperation said. “The purpose is to empower poor people living in rural and urban areas by providing them with a sense of ownership.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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