Ride-hailing, Driver Power, and the Contest for Surplus in the market of shared mobility in Indian cities
The February 2026 launch of Bharat Taxi marks an unusual development in India's ride-hailing market . Unlike Uber , Ola , or Rapido —owned by private entities—Bharat Taxi is a driver-owned cooperative with visible government backing. If the government's stated ambitions materialize, this represents more than simply adding competition. It signals whose power shapes how urban mobility platforms organize themselves and distribute surplus. This article examines what Bharat Taxi's emergence tells us about driver bargaining power in India's ride-hailing market—how it never disappeared, how it reasserted itself, and where it might lead. Link Drivers Were Never Fully Atomized Standard accounts of platform capitalism emphasize how apps atomize workers—turning them into isolated contractors subject to algorithmic control. In India's ride-hailing sector, this story is incomplete. Auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers have always multi-homed across multiple apps, retained t...