Launching of Bharat Taxi

The Ministry of Cooperation is committed to empowering cooperatives as instruments of employment generation, social security and grassroots economic participation. Bharat Taxi is envisaged as a transformative intervention in the mobility sector by placing drivers—referred to as Sarathis —at the centre of ownership, governance, and value creation, thereby offering a sustainable and dignified alternative to aggregator-driven models. “ Bharat Taxi” is India’s first cooperative-led ride-hailing platform. This is a major milestone in the Government of India’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the cooperative sector and promote inclusive, citizen-centric mobility solutions, in line with the vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’ . Registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, Bharat Taxi was established on 6 June 2025 by 8 national level institutions working in field of cooperatives and officially launched on 5 th February, 2026. Bharat Taxi is a transition from the conventional “driver-partner” model to a “Sarathi-owner” model wherein drivers can become owner of the cooperative society, have representation in Board of Management and participate in profit sharing. The Bharat Taxi platform operates on zero-commission model, with direct distribution of profits to drivers, offering a homegrown and indigenous alternative to investment-driven aggregator platforms. Bharat Taxi has transparent fare structure, a user-friendly mobile ride-booking interface, real-time vehicle tracking, and support for multilingual interfaces, along with 24/7 customer support to enable sarathis to participate in cooperative ownership while ensuring sustainable growth of the platform. Bharat Taxi has launched women-focused ‘Sarthi Didi’ feature to encourage women’s employment as drivers and enhance safety for women passengers by facilitating women to hire women-driven taxi options besides incorporating safety features like SOS, live location tracking and dedicated 24*7 customer support. As of now the Bharat Taxi service is functional in Delhi NCR – Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Somnath & Dwarka of Gujarat. Bharat Taxi targets to expand its service in a phased manner across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities offering services upto tehsil levels across the country over the next three years. As on 1 st March, 2026, Bharat Taxi has 21.34 lakh registered users and 2.31 lakh registered Sarathis Bharat Taxi is exploring several passenger engagement features for driver welfare including the possibility of a voluntary tipping option for Sarathis within the application. This information was given by Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Shri Amit Shah in a written reply in Lok Sabha.