In Brief: Govt plans 10% commission cap for Ola, Uber; BlackBuck offers truck owners free FASTTags

The central government is planning to cap the commission earned on rides by cab aggregators like Uber and Ola to a maximum of 10% of the total fare, The Economic Times reported. This is the first instance where the government is looking to regulate the commission collected by such firms, which currently stands at about 20%.

A government official told ET that the government is planning to release a draft with aggregator rules for public feedback sometime next week. The final rules for cab aggregators which will come under the Motor Vehicle Act, 2019, is likely to be formalised before the end of the year, it added.

The Indian ride-hailing market is dominated by Uber and Bengaluru-based ANI Technologies, both of which count Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group as one of their backers. The country’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman even pointed at the companies for the dwindling auto sales in the country. The Indian government is now looking into regulating the segment and even plans to bring a limit on surge fee to twice the base fare as well as state taxes.

Also read: Shared mobility major Uber pumps $246 mn into India arm

BlackBuck offers free FASTags to truck owners across India

Zinka Logistics Solutions, the Bengaluru-based company that owns logistic solutions platform BlackBuck, is offering free FASTags to all truck owners in India. Truck owners can order FASTags on BlackBuck’s digital services platform exclusively for truck fleet owners’ BOSS app, it said in a statement. The FASTags will be delivered to their doorstep free of cost until 31 December 2019. The company’s initiative is expected to help over 3 million trucks in India become FASTag compliant, the statement added. FASTag is an electronic toll collection system in India. The government has made FASTags mandatory for all vehicles that are crossing national highway tolls, since December 1. And those who do not have the tag will have to pay double the toll in cash.

Ola Money, Twid enter into a strategic alliance

Bengaluru headquartered reward-based payment network app Twid has partnered with Ola Money to offer its wallet balance on Twid network and seamless checkout option. The partnership will enable customers to make purchases at any of the Twid’s partner brands with their reward pool, Ola money wallet and postpaid balance with a single click checkout, the companies said in a joint statement. Customers can also settle the payment made from their Ola postpaid once in 15 days, the statement added.

British Council, FutureSkills join hands to introduce EnglishScore

Eglish language institution British Council has entered into a partnership with FutureSkills, which is Nasscom's flagship initiative on reskilling to provide English assessments to current and future working professionals. The move is aimed towards improving the language proficiency of the employable workforce in the IT-BPM industry, the British Council and FutureSkills said in a joint statement. The National Association of Software and Services Companies is the trade association for the Indian IT industry.

Graphic India launches TikTok motion comics; garners over 20 million views in India

Character entertainment creator for original superheroes Graphic India and social media video app TikTok has launched a short-form comic book, 18 Days: The Mahabharata and Graphic’s female super-heroine series, DEVI on TikTok. The graphic books have received 20 million views in 30 days on the platform, the companies said in a statement. Graphic India claims to reach over 50 million views a month with the help of TikTok.