For India, with fizz

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The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on pesticide residues in and safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages is out. It agrees there were pesticide residues in soft drinks the Centre for Science and Environment had tested, so clearly posing a health hazard. But more importantly, it goes on to make path-breaking recommendations on food safety, water security and public health in India. What JPC wants done is no less than outright reform. Clean water must be ensured; if water is used as raw material, it must be fairly paid for. The report desires a health-based pesticide policy; also, the current mess in regulations due to multiple authorities must be sorted out. The Committee has also pulled up Cola majors for "misleading' the common person by claiming that their products were safe.

In setting this agenda, the Committee has set India on the road to a way of policy-making that ensures safe food and water would be available to the common person. Most of all, it endorses that commitment to public health be central to public policy in future. The soft drinks sector and the final product standards The report says it all: "The Committee notes with deep concern that the soft drink (Carbonated water/ Sweetened Aerated water) industry in India with an annual turnover of Rs 6,000 crore is unregulated'. It starkly differentiates