Knee-jerk. The Delhi government transport department has announced that apart from licensed radio taxi services, that includes Easy Cabs, Mega Cab, Meru Cab, Chanson Cab, Yo Cab and Air Cab, no other taxi service providers are allowed to provide services in Delhi, until they get a license from the department. "All other transport/taxi service providers through web based technology, who are not recognized, are prohibited from providing such services in the NCT of Delhi to public till they get license/permission from the Transport Department." A copy of the public notice is below: A PTI report suggested that the centre was looking to extend this ban across India, however a TOI report said that a ban in other cities was unlikely. Interestingly, another TOI report mentions that the Karnataka government was looking to book around 450 cabs, most of which was affiliated to Uber, for operating intra-city routes with an all-India permit back in July this year. However, the Karnataka high court had stayed this move back then. What this ban does Reduce competition, and options for consumers. This notice appears to go against a key feature of the Internet: that of aggregation. Aggregators and marketplaces are mere intermediaries. Just as Snapdeal and Flipkart aggregate sellers for buyers and Google aggregates sellers for advertisers, these taxi booking apps aggregate taxis for consumers. They make it easier for buyers and sellers to discover each other, facilitate a transaction, but hold no liability because they're mere intermediaries and marketplaces. It might also go against section…
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