The Chief Minister's Office of Rajasthan on Sunday, 26 July 2026 highlighted Bharat Taxi Sahakarita as an innovative initiative under the Ministry of Cooperation, emphasising the concept of 'Sarthi hi Malik' ('the driver is the owner') as its defining principle. The post, addressed to Union Minister Mridula Mohol and tagged with the campaign hashtag #AapnoAgrani_Rajasthan, signals the state government's alignment with a cooperative-based model for urban transport.

Context

The post describes Bharat Taxi Sahakarita as an initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation that operationalises the idea of driver-owned taxi services. The phrase 'Sarthi hi Malik' — meaning the driver is the owner — encapsulates a model where taxi operators hold ownership stakes in the cooperative rather than working as gig workers for a platform intermediary. The Rajasthan CMO's endorsement places the state among early advocates of this approach.

Policy Backdrop

The Ministry of Cooperation was established by the Central government in July 2021 to deepen and diversify India's cooperative economy beyond its traditional strongholds of agriculture and dairy. Extending cooperative structures to urban transport represents a significant broadening of that mandate. Globally and domestically, driver-owned cooperative models have been proposed as a counter to platform-economy arrangements that critics argue concentrate earnings at the intermediary level.

India's informal and gig transport workforce — estimated in the crores — has long operated without formal ownership rights or collective bargaining structures. A cooperative taxi framework, if scaled, would formalise these workers' economic participation and provide them a share in enterprise assets and revenues.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of a cooperative taxi model are taxi and cab drivers who currently work under aggregator platforms or as independent operators with limited financial security. Under the 'Sarthi hi Malik' principle, drivers would collectively own the enterprise, potentially improving income stability, access to credit, and social protections. Rajasthan, with a large semi-urban and rural transport workforce, stands to see significant ground-level impact if the model is rolled out at scale within the state.

The tagging of @mohol_murlidhar — associated with the Union cooperation portfolio — suggests active coordination between the state government and the Centre on implementation. The hashtag #AapnoAgrani_Rajasthan ('Our Leading Rajasthan') frames this as part of the state's broader development narrative.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to state-level implementation details: registration mechanisms for driver cooperatives, integration with existing transport licensing frameworks, and financial support structures such as subsidised loans or equity-sharing arrangements. Parliamentary and regulatory steps at the Centre to formally back driver-owned transport cooperatives will be closely watched. If Rajasthan moves ahead with a structured rollout, it could serve as a replicable model for other states seeking to formalise gig-economy transport workers within the cooperative framework.