Uber will compensate victim, comply with rules but will stay in Delhi: Eric Alexander

On the issue of police verification of drivers, Uber said that it is willing to work with third party verification agencies to perform background checks on drivers. 

Taxi hailing app Uber's top management on Monday told ET that it is willing to compensate the victim financially and is okay to be subjected to regulation and licensing rules of the state in order to operate its services. "We would be happy to assist in her recovery. Financially. If there are things that we can do to help her, we will do.

And I think that is the right thing," said Eric Alexander, President of Business for Uber in Asia. He added that Uber is not willing to leave the Delhi market. "Absolutely not! We are looking at ways to appeal against the government order in court," said Alexander. He said India was one of Uber's top markets globally, neck-to-neck with China after the United States. This is the first interview by a senior Uber official to any media since the crime committed by one of its registered drivers. So far Uber has only communicated through its blog posts. 

On the issue of police verification of drivers, Uber said that it is willing to work with third party verification agencies to perform background checks on drivers. It is also willing to set up a call centre in India. Currently, Uber only has an email and twitter support for its customers in India unlike radiocab firms such as Meru or Mega that have full-fledged call centre operations and GPS trackers fitted on all their cars. "We are also willing to be subjected to Indian laws and regulatory regime. 

We have done that in other markets and we are willing to do it here," said Alexander. Alexander said that Uber employees in India were nervous and the company's office in Bengaluru was 'almost attacked' by a mob. "You never know what a mob can do. So we have, for now, pulled all our employees out of our office in Delhi and Bengaluru and are still to take a decision to operate out of them this week," he said. 

All employees in the capital for instance had vacated their office in Gurgaon and were camping in a five star hotel in Delhi. On the issue of installing GPS trackers, he said that the company is willing to install physical devices in cabs of its partner-drivers 'if that helps'. Uber cabs are still operational in the capital despite the ban.