Bharat Taxi, a new entrant in India’s ride-hailing space, is set to officially launch on January 1, 2026, positioning itself as a fundamentally different alternative to services like Uber, Ola, and Rapido. While it offers app-based ride booking like its competitors, Bharat Taxi stands out for one key reason: it is built as a cooperative, owned and governed by drivers themselves rather than a private company or investors.

Often described as the “Amul of cabs”, Bharat Taxi follows a member-led structure where drivers collectively control operations and decision-making. There is no single corporate owner, no shareholders seeking profits, and no traditional top-down authority. Instead, thousands of drivers are expected to come together to run the platform democratically, making it India’s first large-scale experiment with cooperative ride-hailing.

Who is behind Bharat Taxi?

The initiative is led by Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited, a New Delhi-based cooperative entity. The platform has strong institutional backing, with Jayen Mehta, Managing Director of Amul, serving as chairman. Importantly, the project is also supported by the Government of India’s Ministry of Cooperation, giving it both credibility and policy-level encouragement as a people-centric alternative in the mobility sector.

How the cooperative model works

At the heart of Bharat Taxi’s promise is its “zero-commission model”. Unlike existing platforms that deduct a significant percentage from each ride, Bharat Taxi aims to let drivers retain 80–100 per cent of their daily earnings. While drivers may need to pay a platform or service fee, details around this are yet to be clarified. The expectation is that any such fee would go toward maintaining the app, improving technology, and ensuring smooth operations rather than maximising profits.

For passengers, this model could bring tangible benefits as well. The platform is expected to eliminate surge pricing and offer more stable, predictable fares—especially for regular routes such as daily home-to-office commutes.

App availability and technology

The Bharat Taxi app is already available on both Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. However, the service is currently in beta, with limited availability in select areas of Delhi and parts of Gujarat. The final version of the app may look and function differently once it is rolled out nationwide.

From a technology standpoint, Bharat Taxi uses the same backend infrastructure as the ONDC-backed Namma Yatri app, with Moving Tech Innovations as the developer. This suggests a focus on open, interoperable digital public infrastructure rather than proprietary systems.

Is this model new?

Globally, driver-owned ride-hailing cooperatives are not unprecedented. The Drivers Cooperative in New York City, launched in 2021, operates as a worker-owned alternative to Uber and Lyft and remains one of the largest cooperatives of its kind in the US. In India, however, Bharat Taxi represents a first-of-its-kind initiative, blending cooperative economics with app-based mobility at a national scale.

If successful, Bharat Taxi could reshape India’s ride-hailing ecosystem by putting drivers at the centre—and challenging how urban mobility platforms are built and governed.