Govt bans all unregistered app-based taxi providers

* Unregistered internet taxi firms to halt operations in India

* Thailand orders Uber cabs off its roads too

* Uber, other internet taxi firms banned in New Delhi

India ordered state governments to halt the operations of all unregistered, web-based taxi companies on Tuesday after a female passenger reported she was raped in New Delhi by a driver contracted to U.S. cab company Uber.

The case has caused uproar in India after it emerged that the suspect had previously been charged for rape but had obtained a character reference signed by a police officer that was forged.

It has also revealed a failure to regulate the booming market for app-based taxi services in India. The Delhi transport department said it ordered Uber to cease operations on Monday by post.

"Such service providers which are not licensed ... are prohibited to operate till they get themselves registered," Home Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament, where several lawmakers grilled him over the lack of women's safety in the capital.

"The Delhi Police is also exploring the issue of possible legal liability of the taxi service Uber in the crime committed," he said.

Singh's comments came after New Delhi's transport division banned Uber and other similar web-based taxi providers that are unregistered. A public notice on Tuesday stated only six radio taxi companies will operate in New Delhi.

Piling pressure on Uber, Thai transport authorities on Tuesday ordered the company to cease operations.

Thailand's Department of Land Transport said drivers picking up fare-paying passengers via Uber were neither registered nor insured to drive commercial vehicles, and that Uber's credit-card payment system did not comply with regulations.

Taxi booking apps have irked drivers at traditional taxi firms across the globe. Consumers are increasingly using the smartphone software to find people willing to drive them, rather than booking a cab by phone.

Uber was blacklisted in New Delhi on Monday after police said it had failed to run background checks on the driver, who was held three years ago on suspicion of rape but later acquitted.

The arrested driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, appeared in court on Monday and was remanded in custody for three days. Yadav had obtained a reference from the Delhi Police, but the deputy commissioner of police for north Delhi Madhur Verma told Reuters it was forged.

Verma also said the police have registered "a case against Uber for cheating its customers and violating government orders".

The Uber case has reignited a debate about the safety of women in Asia's third-largest economy, especially New Delhi, which is often dubbed India's rape capital.

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