Flipkart's PhonePe ties up with Ola, bets on micro-apps for growth

Flipkart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has tied up with homegrown cab aggregator Ola, where users can book a cab or an auto using a micro-app built on its payments platform.

The company has gone live with three such micro-apps, including that of redBus and Metro services, and plans to go live with 5 to 10 more in the ongoing quarter.

“Ola’s scale and reach, topped with our AutoPay feature will enable greater convenience and control to our users while making payments seamless,” said Rahul Chari, co-founder and chief technology officer, PhonePe.

Greater Noida rape: Woman forced to drink, raped by Ola driver's friend

Greater Noida rape - A 25-year-old woman was allegedly raped by the friend of the Ola cab driver in Greater Noida on Thursday night.

The woman had booked an Ola cab from Sector 126 to Surajpur and a passenger was already in the car. The driver told the woman that he has to drop the man first to his destination, which the victim, ignorant of their brutal plans, agreed, ANI reported.

“The driver Ashok had reached for the pick-up. The woman got inside the cab and Ashok drove away to Greater Noida,” Shailendra Pratap Singh, Station Officer Jarcha police station, was quoted as saying by Times of India.

The victim in her complaint said she was forced to consume a drink spiked with alcohol in the vehicle after which the cab was taken to a secluded forest area near Jarcha. The complainant told police that the driver went away, while another man named Praveen reached there and raped her.

The woman, who works in a BPO in Noida Sector 37, then called police and reported the matter after which a case has been registered under relevant sections.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has detained at least six people in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, the woman has been sent for medical examination.

Man refuses to take Muslim driver's cab ride, Ola says it is secular

Inciting communal sentiments to unfathomable levels, a man cancelled his Ola cab ride after he realised that the driver was a Muslim. As an act of casteist attitude, a verified Twitter user Abhishek Mishra, who apparently belongs to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, tweeted saying that he does not give to his money to “jihadi people”. He had attached a screenshot of his Ola cab booking which named the Muslim cab driver.

His tweet sparked a communal conversation on the micro-blogging site and was condemned by a host of Twitter users including the likes of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Delhi Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee.

Many said it was an act of encouraging religious discrimination in the country, asking Ola to block such hate-mongering users.

In response to Abhishek Mishra’s anti-Muslim tweet, ride-hailing company Ola issued a strong-worded statement saying that “the company is a secular platform and it does not discriminate its driver partners or customers based on their caste, religion, gender or creed. We urge all our customers and driver partners to treat each other with respect at all times”.

Ola plans to add 10,000 electric vehicles, mostly e-rickshaws in 12 months

SoftBank-backed cab aggregator Ola today said it plans to add 10,000 electric vehicles, a majority being e-rickshaws, to its platform over the next 12 months as part of its 'Mission Electric' programme.

The Bengaluru-based company is aiming to get one million electric vehicles on its platform by 2021 to boost the electric vehicle ecosystem in the country.

"Three-wheelers are a vital means of transportation and a source of livelihood for millions of people every day. It also represents an immediate opportunity to improve outcomes for all stakeholders while reducing pollution across towns and cities," Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said.

In May last year, Ola had launched its first electric vehicle project in Nagpur. The project includes electric cabs, electric auto rickshaws, electric buses, rooftop solar installations, charging stations, and battery swapping experiments.

"After more than 4 million 'electric' kilometers travelled and many lessons learned, we are significantly expanding our commitment to electrify mobility in India," Aggarwal said.

He added that the company is looking at working with state governments and other partners to introduce accessible, affordable, and sustainable mobility solutions at scale.

Ola, Uber strike: Mumbai Police arrests MNS transport wing chief, 11 others

On the second day of the Ola, Uber indefinite strike, the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested 12 people, including Sanjay Naik, the president of the transport wing of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), besides some drivers of either Ola or Uber, an executive of a ride-hailing company told Business Standard. The arrests were made after the filing of a first information report (FIR) against the MNS workers for organising the nationwide strike.

The indefinite strike of drivers of cab aggregators Ola and Uber continued for a second day on Tuesday causing a lot of difficulties for scores of office-goers and other commuters in the metros.

There are around 1.5 million Ula and Ola cabs in the country, and many of them refused to operate, crippling traffic and causing inconvenience to travellers. "Drivers are in huge debt," said Sanjay Naik, president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena, the transport wing of the MNS, adding that they were not making enough money to survive or service their car loans payments. While all of Uber’s cars are owned by the company, Ola allows its drivers to own some of its cabs as well as runs its own cabs across the country.

Ola, Uber indefinite strike begins, commuters set for bumpy ride: 10 points

Do you use Ola and Uber for your daily commute? If yes, you may want to find other modes of transport as drivers for app-based cab aggregators Uber and Ola on Monday started an indefinite strike across India. The strike, which began at midnight on Sunday, centred on Mumbai and was called by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's transport union.

The strike, which will be observed in key cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, aims to voice the drivers’ woes of not being able to cover rising costs due to falling business. They are currently being paid Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per month, according to media reports.

"Ola and Uber had given big assurances to the drivers, but today they are unable to cover their costs. They have invested Rs 500,000 to Rs 700,000 and were expecting to make Rs 150,000 a month. But drivers are unable to make even half of this because of the mismanagement by these companies," said Sanjay Naik, President of Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena, reported news agency PTI.

Uber offers 21-year-old Delhi boy Rs 1.25 cr salary, job in San Francisco

Sidharth, a computer science engineering student of Delhi Technological University (DTU), has been offered an annual salary package of Rs 1.25 crore from United States-based app-based taxi aggregator Uber Technologies, reported The Hindustan Times on Friday.

While this is the second-highest pay package offered to a student from DTU, this is not the first time in the recent past that Uber has offered such a large package to a prospective employee. According to the New Indian Express, in December last year, during the placements in the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Uber offered an M.tech passout from the varsity an international profile for a pay package of Rs 1.25 crore.

According to the HT report, Sidharth, an alumnus of Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, has been offered the position of a software engineer at the San Francisco office of Uber. The whopping salary package he has been offered includes basic pay of Rs 71 lakh and benefits, the latter of which take the package to Rs 1.25 crore.(Read More)

Uber launches hourly cab rental service UberHIRE; cash-only option for now

San Francisco-based ride hailing company Uber has launched a service that will allow Indian users to hire cabs on an hourly basis, in an attempt to take on local taxi operators and rival Ola which launched a similar service last year.

The service dubbed UberHIRE will be available across New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vizag and Nagpur. Users will be able to utilise the service for a maximum of 12 hours and will be available only between 6 am and 10 pm.

"UberHIRE is a time-based Uber that's available on-demand, to let you explore and travel around cities knowing that your Uber will wait for you. It's perfect for travellers exploring a new city, senior citizens who need to make trips punctuated with multiple stop overs, or for business travellers who have multiple meetings," the company said in a statement.(Read More)

Uber falls in line; receives license to ply on Karnataka's roads

Uber has finally received a license from the department of transport of the State of Karnataka to ply on the roads of cities such as Bengaluru and Mysuru, months after a case in the high court ruled that the state found it within its powers to regulate taxi aggregators.

The San Francisco-based firm received its license on December 31, nearly six months after rival Ola was granted a license by the state. Uber adhered to the minimum criteria of equipping 100 cabs with digital fare meters, panic buttons and state taxi permits.

"On Saturday, December 31, we received the Karnataka Aggregator's License from the transport department, and will continue to work with authorities to bring in progressive regulations that recognise ridesharing and allow Uber to best serve the drivers, riders and cities of India," said an Uber spokesperson.

While the company has received a license, it says it will continue to engage with the state to push for reforms in the state's aggregator rules. Both Uber and the state are awaiting the Union government's proposed amendments to Section 93 of the Motor Vehicle Act to take things forward.

In June, Uber had filed a petition against the state in the Karnataka High Court seeking to quash the rules that capped fares, required cabs to be fitted with GPS modules, panic buttons and taxi boards. The company's main contention was that the rules were unconstitutional and that the state did not have the power to regulate companies such as it.(Read More)