UNETHICAL PRACTISE OF COCA-COLA

Roll No : 29 MMS

College : AIMSR

Company Background

The Coca-Cola Company re-entered India through its wholly owned subsidiary, Coca-Cola India Private Limited and re-launched Coca-Cola in 1993 after the opening up of the Indian economy to foreign investments in 1991.

Since then its operations have grown rapidly through a model that supports bottling operations, both company owned as well as locally owned and includes over 7,000 Indian distributors and more than 2.2 million retailers.

Today, our brands are the leading brands in most beverage segments. The Coca-Cola Company's brands in India include Coca-Cola, Fanta Orange, Limca, Sprite, Thums Up, Burn, Kinley, Maaza, Minute Maid Pulpy Orange, Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh and the Georgia Gold range of teas and coffees and Vitingo (a beverage fortified with micro-nutrients).

In India, the Coca-Cola system comprises of a wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company namely Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd which manufactures and sells concentrate and beverage bases and powdered beverage mixes, a Company-owned bottling entity, namely, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, thirteen licensed bottling partners of The Coca-Cola Company, who are authorized to prepare, package, sell and distribute beverages under certain specified trademarks of The Coca-Cola Company and an extensive distribution system comprising of our customers, distributors and retailers.

Coca-Cola India Private Limited sells concentrate and beverage bases to authorized bottlers who are authorized to use these to produce our portfolio of beverages. These authorized bottlers independently develop local markets and distribute beverages to grocers, small retailers, supermarkets, restaurants and numerous other businesses. In turn, these customers make our beverages available to consumers across India.

Unethical Practice

The Company Coca-Cola entered India in the year 1993 But , before this the Company was forced by the Indian Government to leave the Country in 1977 due to its Unethical practices that it followed being in the Country

Each bottling plants extracts up to 1.5m liters of water everyday from the ground.

It takes nine liters of clean water to manufacture a liter of Coke. In 2000 Coca-Cola opened a plant at Plachimada, a village in Kerala to

produce 1.2m liters of coke every day. The conditional license granted by the local Panchayat authorized the use

of motorized pumps But the company drilled more than six wells & illegally installed high-

powered electric pumps to extract millions of liters of pure water. The level of the water table fell from 45 to 150 meters below the surface The company started dumping waste outside causing a serious health

hazard. The court gave Coca-Cola a notice to cease water extraction The theft of water was not only limited to Kerala Overexploitation of groundwater soon started in Kaladera

Kala Dera - Thirsting from Coca-Cola

Kala Dera is a large village outside the city of Jaipur. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood. Coca-Cola started its bottling operations in Kala Dera in 2004, and within a

year, the community started to notice a rapid decline in groundwater levels.

Unusable Well in Kala Dera Showing Depleted Water Level

Community Response

The community in Kala Dera organized itself to challenge the Coca-Cola company for the worsening water conditions - through extraction and pollution - and demanded the closure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant.

Coca-Cola’s Response

Coca-cola took seven month to respond Coca-cola not respond to the concern raised Unethical and dishonest campaign Chosen to continue the operation Continued in misery of thousand people

But , Later on

Coca- cola recharged more water than the use from the groundwater resource

Rain water Harvesting was done .