Bharat Taxi
Prelims:
Polity & Governance, Indian Economy
Mains:
GS Paper II-Government policies and interventions
for development, GS Paper III – Indian Economy
Current relevance:
The launch of Bharat
Taxi in Maharashtra, after Delhi and Gujarat, marks an effort
to extend India's cooperative movement beyond agriculture into the urban
transportation sector.
Highlights:
1. Bharat
Taxi is a cooperative-based ride-hailing platform
that seeks to provide an alternative to conventional aggregator models. Unlike
private platforms where drivers work independently while paying commissions to
the platform, Bharat Taxi is owned collectively through a cooperative
structure.
2. Under
this model:
i.
Sarathis (drivers)
are members of the cooperative.
ii.
They become shareholders and participate in
the institution's profits.
iii.
The platform follows a fixed service fee
instead of charging high commissions.
iv.
There is no surge pricing and no hidden
charges for passengers.
v.
The objective is to create a driver-centric
transportation ecosystem rather than an intermediary-centric one.
3.
Shift in Cooperation revolution:
i.
India's cooperative movement has traditionally
focused on agriculture, dairy, credit societies and sugar cooperatives. But now
it has expanded the cooperative model into new sectors.
ii.
Bharat Taxi represents the application of
cooperative principles to urban mobility, demonstrating that cooperation
can also be used in service industries.