Synopsis
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi anticipates India becoming its largest market in a decade, highlighting dynamic growth and talent. The company is investing in tech centres and a data centre partnership with Adani Group, while exploring logistics and local commerce opportunities.Listen to this article in summarized format
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on AI, EVs & Why India Could Become Uber’s Biggest MarketIndia is on course to becoming Uber’s largest market in the next 10 years in number of trips, up from third now, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told ET in Mumbai during his five-day India visit last week. Khosrowshahi, who took over in 2017 amid the chaos that followed the ouster of founder Travis Kalanick, has transformed Uber into one of the most profitable ride-hailing platforms in the world. He spoke about Uber’s big India bets, its new data centre partnership, a possible return to food delivery, the threat of AI and autonomous vehicles and a potential partnership with Kalanick. Edited excerpts:You’ve had a packed trip, announcing your data centre partnership with the Adani Group and two new tech centres. How has the past week been?
It’s been terrific. If there’s one word I’d use to describe the Indian market, it’s dynamic. Things are changing fast. There’s been a huge amount of growth for us here as a business, and I came to better understand both the opportunities and the challenges in India generally. But this remains an incredibly important market for us, both in terms of talent and growth. India is our largest talent base outside of the US, hence the investments in technology centres. It continues to be one of our most exciting growth markets as well, and I’ve met a lot of our partners, the finance minister… it’s been quite rewarding and I’m going to fly back with my brain buzzing about everything that’s going on in India.
The government has introduced labour sector reforms and a new gig worker policy. Have there been any deliberations on this during your meetings?
There’s been discussion around social security benefits and the new policy framework being considered here, which we’re quite supportive of. Historically, in many countries, people thought of full-time work as coming with benefits, while part-time or flexible work came without. We think the solution we’re talking about — part-time flexible work with benefits, including social security — is quite constructive, and we’re having a dialogue there.
