Karnataka continues with slapdash policies on taxi apps

More than a decade since Ola’s launch and then Uber’s entry into India, transport authorities across the country are still largely muddling around on how to regulate them. 

The Karnataka government on Saturday announced that it was revising fares upwards for taxis in the state, including for taxi aggregators such as Uber and Ola. The last such revision was in 2021, and before that in 2018. 

In the latest announcement, three things have happened:

1. The state transport department has moved from four classes of taxis to three, and base fares (initial 4 km) for all have mostly remained the same …