Unofficial Sources

The decades-old auto rickshaw space had a monopoly over urban mobility in India, and then came the Ola and Uber disruption. They offered cars with comfort and air condition over the hot and dusty auto rickshaw. While these companies expanded with an auto rickshaw vertical, the two industries battled it out for years. Now the rise of an airborne pandemic has seen a decline in the cab business. Suddenly autos seem to be the answer, with their open structures and ventilation. Even bike taxi player Rapido has realised this potential and entered the space. In present day it has now set up an interesting three way three wheeler race, with each company having their different strengths and intent to dominate the market. Story originally reported by Pranav Balakrishnan. Uber, Ola, Rapido—the 3 wheels of India’s post-Covid auto race https://the-ken.com/story/uber-ola-rapido-the-3-wheels-of-indias-post-covid-auto-race/    Over the last 5 episodes, we tried something different - we decided to do two segments, one narrative that follows a story, and another segment that's an interview or a panel discussion with experts. Our listeners have helped us experiment and shape the voice of the podcast.   But now we’ve decided to discontinue the second segment and continue with just the narrative segment. This will mean shorter episodes, but we may bring back the second segment in some form later.    Hosts Anushka Chhikara  Olina Banerji   Guests   Aditi Surie of IIHS Shashank Atreya of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Janane Venkatraman on Chennai autos Rayna Lele on Mumbai autos Aleser Murtaza on Bangalore autos     Music and editing by Sameer Rahat from Baqsa Studios. Special offer for our podcast listeners: https://the-ken.com/podcastoffer/ Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/TheKenWeb Psst share your feedback with us on podcast@the-ken.com

Show Notes

The decades-old auto rickshaw space had a monopoly over urban mobility in India, and then came the Ola and Uber disruption. They offered cars with comfort and air condition over the hot and dusty auto rickshaw. While these companies expanded with an auto rickshaw vertical, the two industries battled it out for years.

Now the rise of an airborne pandemic has seen a decline in the cab business. Suddenly autos seem to be the answer, with their open structures and ventilation. Even bike taxi player Rapido has realised this potential and entered the space.

In present day it has now set up an interesting three way three wheeler race, with each company having their different strengths and intent to dominate the market.

Story originally reported by Pranav Balakrishnan.

Uber, Ola, Rapido—the 3 wheels of India’s post-Covid auto race

https://the-ken.com/story/uber-ola-rapido-the-3-wheels-of-indias-post-covid-auto-race/ 

 

Over the last 5 episodes, we tried something different - we decided to do two segments, one narrative that follows a story, and another segment that's an interview or a panel discussion with experts. Our listeners have helped us experiment and shape the voice of the podcast.

 

But now we’ve decided to discontinue the second segment and continue with just the narrative segment. This will mean shorter episodes, but we may bring back the second segment in some form later. 

 

Hosts

Anushka Chhikara 

Olina Banerji

 

Guests

 

Aditi Surie of IIHS

Shashank Atreya of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

Janane Venkatraman on Chennai autos

Rayna Lele on Mumbai autos

Aleser Murtaza on Bangalore autos

 

 

Music and editing by Sameer Rahat from Baqsa Studios.

Special offer for our podcast listeners: https://the-ken.com/podcastoffer/

Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/TheKenWeb

Psst share your feedback with us on podcast@the-ken.com

What is Unofficial Sources?

Each fortnight we take India’s most significant business and tech stories and strip away complexity, spin and PR and add unbiased analysis, simplicity and wit. The result is business stories and conversations that are both fun and insightful. Told by the trusted and experienced writers and editors of The Ken, India’s first and leading subscribers-only business publication, and hosted by Anushka and Olina.