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Presented to: prof.navneet bawejaPresented by: jyoti Waindeshkar (94) shreelekha pillai (78)

Coca-cola’s unethical operations

in India

Coke In India

Coca cola the leading soft drink brand in India until 1977

Returned to India in 1993

From 1993 to 2003 Coca Cola invested more than US$1 billion in India, making it one ofthe country’s top international investors.

Coke In India – unethical track record

2003 – Allegations were made that Coke contains pesticides.

2004 - Closure of the bottling plant in Kerala.

2009 - Coca-Cola Violating fundamental Human Rights by Denying Access to Water.

2010 - If Junk Food is Bad for Americans, Are They Good for Indians and Chinese?

PepsiCo announced $ 2.5 billion and $ 200 million investment in china and India respectively.

CocaCola announced additional $250 million investment in India to build more bottling plants and increase its market share.

McDonalds just announced an additional $20 million annually to open 30 outlets each year in India.

 It is said that those who don't learn from the mistakes of the past are destined to repeat them.It seems that the Coca-Cola has not learnt any lessons from Plachimada - a village in the state of Kerala in India where the community-led campaign has shut down its plant since March 2006.

Kala Dera - Thirsting from Coca-Cola

• Kala Dera is a large village outside the city of Jaipur where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood. Coca-Cola started its bottling operations in Kala Dera in 2000, and within a year, the community started to notice a rapid decline in groundwater levels.

Continued Misery in the Face of Certainty

Kala Dera lies in an overexploited groundwater area and access to water has been difficult. Summers are particularly intense in the area, and summers are when water shortages are most acute.

Ironically, summer months are also when Coca-Cola reaches its peak production, and it is in the summer months that the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kala Dera extracts the most water, making already existing water shortages even worse.

On the one hand, Coca-Cola talks a good talk about being a good corporate citizen.Yet, it continues to deplete groundwater causing undue hardships to the community even after it has been told to stop doing so.

Coca-Cola's Response - Unethical and Dishonest

• Coca-Cola should have conducted an Environmental Impact Assessment before setting up the plant.

• They refused to share the environmental impact assessment it conducted for Kala Dera citing “legal and strategic confidentiality” reasons.

• However, the Central Ground Water Board of India had already assessed the groundwater in and around Kala Dera to be “overexploited” in 1998.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility - A Scam?

• While there have been no genuine initiatives on the part of Coca-Cola to correct its mistakes in Kala Dera, the Coca-Cola company has stepped up its corporate social responsibility spending to announce to the world that it is a green and socially responsible company. Such an effort, however, rings hollow when it comes to India

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Rainwater Harvesting – A Bluff