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When India liberalized in 1991 and welcomed foreign investment again rick Coke simply bought out a lot of local competitors. Even today my favorite local soda '

When India liberalized in 1991 and welcomed foreign investment again rick Coke simply bought out a lot of local competitors. Even today my favorite local soda 'thums up' is marketed as a separate drink by Coke in India. A water scarce country like India should really not promote high consumption of soda and sugar based drinks. However the same cannot be said about other industries. Pre liberalization India used to be a country of license permit raj. Handful of local companies were highly inefficient and did not produce quality products or have incentive to improve and innovate. Liberalization did introduce competition and a lot of international products like Honda motorcycles and scooters. Indian 2 wheeler manufacturers like Bajaj had to innovate to compete and did become succesful. However a lot of sectors today are facing the problem from cheap Chinese products. Even though we are a much poorer country a lot of local products could not compete with Chinese imports. A classic example is furniture. Wood was always expensive here and it was crafted into something useful by local carpenters and artisans for what i would consider were reasonable prices. However a lot of urban furniture is now imported from China.

rammy1234 6y ago
Indian companies are slowly avoiding chinese products, for example all the chinese apps are now not allowed. https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/checkout-the-name-of-the-chinese-banned-apps-in-india/articleshow/76696132.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/checkout-the-n... Also today's news, Hero Cycles of India is shelving its plans to do business with China in light of recent changes. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/plans-business-china-rs-900-crore-shelved-hero-cycles-6489756/ https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/plans-bu...
saagarjha 6y ago
> A water scarce country like India should really not promote high consumption of soda and sugar based drinks. I mean, I can see not promoting sugary drinks in general…but what does this have to do with water scarcity?
- telesilla 6y ago
  It takes a lot more than the volume of water to make the same volume in soda, beer and other commercial beverages. Consider bottle sterilization, crop irrigation.. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/energy-environment/22iht-rbog-beverage-22.html https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/energy-environme...
- nkurz 6y ago
  I'm dubious about the numbers as well, but this article tries to do a full calculation of water usage for a .5L bottle of Coca Cola produced in the Netherlands: https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-2010-ProductWaterFootprintAssessments.pdf https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-... It concludes that each .5L bottle requires 35L of water as input. The majority of this is from the water required to grow sugar beets, which comes primarily from natural rainfall. Obviously, India is not the Netherlands, but I'd guess the same principle applies: growing the sweetener takes a lot of water, and theoretically there could be better uses for this water.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - slim 6y ago
    coke gets delivered around the world in barrels concentrated. only water is added in factories.
    - johannes1234321 6y ago
      This is a nice legend about the secret recipe. However production differs oflver the world. I.e. I'm the US the sweetener is high fructose corn syrup, while Europe uses Sycrose.
      - bb611 6y ago
        And in Mexico uses cane sugar.
perl4ever 6y ago
>A water scarce country like India What makes you say that?
- rurban 6y ago
  The fact that India has a water crisis, caused by a political/corruption crisis. https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-india https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-ind...
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    The phrase "water scarce" still seems odd to me. Would you say the US is water scarce? Your link describes aspects of the "water crisis" that include contaminated water, and lack of collection of the water that is available. To me, saying that it is a "political/corruption crisis" is equivalent to saying that water isn't really scarce.
nnain 6y ago
What's your definition of Water scarce? 38 years, Barring the dessert region, which part are you talking about?

rammy1234 6y ago

Indian companies are slowly avoiding chinese products, for example all the chinese apps are now not allowed. https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/checkout-the-name-of-the-chinese-banned-apps-in-india/articleshow/76696132.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/checkout-the-n... Also today's news, Hero Cycles of India is shelving its plans to do business with China in light of recent changes. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/plans-business-china-rs-900-crore-shelved-hero-cycles-6489756/ https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/plans-bu...

saagarjha 6y ago

> A water scarce country like India should really not promote high consumption of soda and sugar based drinks. I mean, I can see not promoting sugary drinks in general…but what does this have to do with water scarcity?

telesilla 6y ago
It takes a lot more than the volume of water to make the same volume in soda, beer and other commercial beverages. Consider bottle sterilization, crop irrigation.. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/energy-environment/22iht-rbog-beverage-22.html https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/energy-environme...
nkurz 6y ago
I'm dubious about the numbers as well, but this article tries to do a full calculation of water usage for a .5L bottle of Coca Cola produced in the Netherlands: https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-2010-ProductWaterFootprintAssessments.pdf https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-... It concludes that each .5L bottle requires 35L of water as input. The majority of this is from the water required to grow sugar beets, which comes primarily from natural rainfall. Obviously, India is not the Netherlands, but I'd guess the same principle applies: growing the sweetener takes a lot of water, and theoretically there could be better uses for this water.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- slim 6y ago
  coke gets delivered around the world in barrels concentrated. only water is added in factories.
  - johannes1234321 6y ago
    This is a nice legend about the secret recipe. However production differs oflver the world. I.e. I'm the US the sweetener is high fructose corn syrup, while Europe uses Sycrose.
    - bb611 6y ago
      And in Mexico uses cane sugar.

perl4ever 6y ago

>A water scarce country like India What makes you say that?

rurban 6y ago
The fact that India has a water crisis, caused by a political/corruption crisis. https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-india https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-ind...
- perl4ever 6y ago
  The phrase "water scarce" still seems odd to me. Would you say the US is water scarce? Your link describes aspects of the "water crisis" that include contaminated water, and lack of collection of the water that is available. To me, saying that it is a "political/corruption crisis" is equivalent to saying that water isn't really scarce.

nnain 6y ago

What's your definition of Water scarce? 38 years, Barring the dessert region, which part are you talking about?