Indian campaign against Cola

In: Uncategorized

11 Aug 2006

I read in today’s Financial Times (see below) that many Indian states are banning drinks from Coca-Cola and Pepsico. Allegedly there are unsafe levels of pesticide residue in their soft drinks. I am not in a position to make a definitive judgement but I am suspicious about this campaign. I suspect the fears are probably exaggerated and in any case a better campaign would be for India to improve its awful system of water supply (for more on this read the World Bank’s latest development policy review on India).
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Indian states join Coke and Pepsi ban
By Jo Johnson in New Delhi

A quarter of India’s 28 states have announced partial or total bans on Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in the wake of fresh concerns over pesticide levels in soft drinks.
More bans are expected in the coming days in a political backlash against the US companies that has the potential to disrupt flows of US and other foreign investment to India.