"The infrastructure for background checks and criminal records in India is more or less nonexistent"

Duh. Not true. It is not a perfect system, but there is a system of police verification. If someone has gone to jail for rape, (as this driver has) the check would bring it up.

Besides the point isn't whether the system is perfect. The point is that Uber didn't bother using the system or following the laws of the land and plays fast and loose with claims of "verification of drivers".

From Uber CEO Travis Kalanick "We will work with the government to establish clear background checks currently absent in their commercial transportation licensing programs"

He makes it sound like it is the government's fault. No, background checks are not "currently absent" in transportation licensing.

Police verification of taxi/transport drivers is mandated by law. Uber ignored this law (as it ignores many laws, all over the world). Now this lowlife blames the government/Indian laws.

You can't decide not to follow laws because you think them "incomplete", and then not get blamed when such avoidance bites you in the ass.

What a dick. "Safest rides on the road" my ass.