Tag Archives: Coca-Cola

Tour guide Varanasi

Posted on by
Reply

An American contacted me to book his train ticket from Varanasi to Agra. I told him to buy ticket online but he could not do it as it was so complicated for him. He had told me to meet for dinner in Benares. We met in Benares in his hotel near Assi ghat. He was staying in very nice hotel. When I entered in his hotel, I found one 50 years old man talking to two western girls that he was unable to find a train ticket so he mailed a guy in Varanasi and offered dinner in exchange of booking his ticket.

I knew he was talking about me so I asked him if he was Christopher and obviously his answer was Yes. I am sure he had thought that I helped him in greed of a dinner at a nice restaurant in Varanasi. He was happy to get his ticket and then he asked me what restaurant I wanted to eat at. I had never thought about his offer, I thought he just wanted to talk me but his thinking was quiet strange. Usually I don’t want to eat in restaurants so I said that I didn’t want to eat with him.

Then he said that he had told his hotel that he will eat out somewhere in any restaurant therefore hotel will not prepare food for him. So I took him to a restaurant where he had his dinner. We talked a lot about Coke issue and again he was not agree that Coke was doing wrong. He thought that it was people’s and Indian government fault.

Next day he called me again asking if I would be his tour guide and I excepted his offer. We went to a lot of temples, wandered around in city. He was very much interested in meeting people so I got him meet to Lali Baba. I am sure he was quiet happy with my work but he paid me very little salary. I think he was the richest person I had ever worked with but the least salary I had every got in my whole life. A person who was a piano player and had housing in upper east side of Manhattan, where the average per head salary is $3,20,000 per year, paid me only $10 for one day of work.

I could not ask for more money because I didn’t see the money he paid me. Later when I saw that green note, I found that it was only and only $ 10. It made me remember about what Lane told me- You don’t need to be rich to spend and poor to save money. hahaha, It was so funny.

History of Coca-Cola in India

Posted on by
16

Coca-Cola came to India in the year 1956. Since India had not any foreign exchange act, Coca-Cola made huge money operating under 100% foreign equity. Indian foreign exchange act was implemented in the year 1974 during Indra Gandhi time. The foreign exchange act stated that foreign companies selling consumer goods must invest 40% of its equity stake in India in its Indian associates. Coca-Cola agreed with investing 40% foreign equity but stated that they would still hold full power in technical and administrative units with no local participation allowed.

This demand was against the foreign exchange act. The government instructed Coca-Cola to either write up a new plan or to leave the country. In 1976 Indira Gandhi called for elections and all of the other political parties formed one party in her opposition. They called themselves the Janta Party (Public Party). The Janata Party came into the power in 1977 and stressed that Coca-Cola should either accept the foreign exchange act or leave the country. Coke India left that year. After the departure of Coke company from India, George Fernandez said:-
Coke had 100% equity in India. Their investment was not much. They came into the country with Rs. 6,00,000, which at the present rate of exchange is less than $20,000. On this Rs.6,00,000 investment, they had taken out of the country, by a modest estimate, 250 million rupees (about $ 8 million) as profit in the twenty years they had been in the country. In 1993 Coca-Cola re-entered after government approval, due to the new liberalization policies that were coming to India. The foreign exchange act which had once prevented companies from keeping too much equity had now been completely modified.

The modification made it so that companies which exceeded foreign equity by 40% of the total were to be treated on par with Indian companies. Automatic approval was to be granted for equity investment of up to 51% and for foreign technology agreements in high priority industries. Non-Indian residents and companies owned by them abroad were allowed to invest up to one hundred percent equity in high priority industries, allowing greater freedom for repatriation of capital.


In 1999, Coca-Cola bought Parle, India’s top soft drink brand, which bottled Thums up, Limca and Gold Spot. Before Coke and Pepsi re-entered India, more than 50 Indian soft-drink brands had been developed and 200 production plants set up. As time passed after Coke and Pepsi entered India, people witnessed the progressive disappearance on indigenous drinks and the demand for healthier drinks lowered as well.

London Law Researcher studies Coca-Cola in Mehdiganj

Posted on by
Reply

I worked with a Law Researcher from University of London as Assistant and translator. He was interested in legal perspective of Coke issue. He had already lived in India for more than a year therefore he knew a little bit of Hindi but not good enough to interview people. He is president of an NGO called Glocality International that has its office in London and New Delhi. I worked with him for three days in Varanasi.

Tyler was working on some International Law Cases also like he and his friend had sued 7 ministers of China including President and Prime Minister for killing over a million people in Tibet. He said that the case was registered in Spain because no other country was agree to accept a case in their court against Chinese Government .

We interviewed a lot of villagers, Nandlal Master and few government officials including Regional Pollution Control officer, Ground Water Authorities and District Village Committee’s officers. He was very impressed with the way Nandlal and his friends were running movement. Since he had only 3 days and he wanted to interview as much as he could, we spent one night in Lok Samiti’s office to interview Nandlal and his friends.

We had hard time with Regional Pollution Control Officer because he thought that he knew good enough English to talk Tyler therefore never wanted to use me. Tyler had already told him about me but he wanted to talk on his own. Most of the time he did not understand what Tyler was asking about but he was so confident answering. He was trying to hide everything and Tyler always wanted to get as much as he could.

There was a hot talk between Tyler and Officer. Actually Tyler had a voice recorder but he did not ask the officer before using it and finally when he came to know that Tyler was recording everything, they started yelling on us. He was threatening us by taking Police’s name. At last Tyler said that he will sue Pollution Control Department in Supreme Court of India for being corrupt with Coke issue and if Supreme Court finds it true then the Officers will be sent to Jail which made officer more angry.

Finally we came out of office laughing and talking about that creepy officer. It was really funny for me see a PCS officer getting angry on me but could not do anything. District Village Committee Officer was very much interested talking to Tyler. He explained everything he knew about Coke issue and role of Village Committees. He promised us to provide all the documents and support he could. He was first Government officer I had ever met who was really interested talking to people, may be he was interested in talking to a foreigner.

Meeting Lok Samiti to discuss the Coca-Cola issue

Posted on by
Reply

One student from University of California, Santa Barbara came to my guest house to stay for a month. She was doing PhD in Sociology and was interested in globalization and water privatization in India. She was the first one in my life who told that Coca-Cola is a disputed company in India. I knew that there was a Coke plant in Varanasi but never knew that it was disputed. She wanted to meet Mr. Nandlal who was running movement against Coca-Cola in Varanasi. We called him and scheduled an appointment to meet. Krista wanted a translator because Mr. Nandlal Master doesn’t speak English. So she told me to work as her translator. Me, Lane and Krista went together to Mehndiganj where Mr. Nandlal Master lives and Coke is situated.

Nandlal Master had given me an idea of getting to his place but it was so complicated. After reaching Rajatalab, 3 Kms from Mehndiganj, we asked few locals about Nandlal Master and most of the people knew him and his place. By mistake we reached Coke’s plant and I thought to ask Coke’s security guard about Nandlal Master’s place which I realize a big mistake now. He immediately got angry at me as he heard Nandlal Master’s name. He just told me go and ask somewhere else. Finally few locals directed us the right way and we reached Lok Samiti’s office where Nandlal Master lives.

We talked Nandlal Master about the movement which sounded like a huge issue. He told us about a lot of disputed matter about Coca-Cola, Varanasi which I had never heard before. He said that Coke is disputed because of not following industrial hazardous waste act, fight with community, stealing of water, stealing of revenue, low wage to employees, land capturing of village committee etc……………….. It was a shock for me that all these things were going on in my city since past 5 years and I had never heard it before. I asked Nandlal about why people living in city don’t know about it so he replied that Coke buys advertisement from media and that is why media never wants to talk about this issue.

Krista wanted to interview locals about their water problems. Right after the first meeting from Mr. Nandlal Master we started interviewing locals. Krista was the most hard working girl I had ever met in my life. The temperature was terrible those days, about 45 degree Celsius but she never cared about it. I had problems sometimes but she always wanted to meet more and more people. We would meet people in their fields, at home or anywhere on road so usually we had to face the direct sun heat.

We interviewed more than 40 people in 25 days. We interviewed few government officials also like Pollution Control Board officers, Ground Water Authority officers, District Magistrate of Varanasi etc…….. Krista wanted to interview few Coke officials but she was never ever able to find one. We tried hard but never got sucsses. Now I have to transcribe all the audio recordings of interviews that was done in Mehndiganj.