NYT, August 23, 2006 Market Place For 2 Giants of Soft Drinks, a Crisis in a Crucial Market By AMELIA GENTLEMAN

The Center for Science and the Environment announced in August. that drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in India contained on average more than 24 times the safe limits of pesticides, which could come from sugar, water and other ingredients.

When those reports appeared on the front pages of newspapers in India, Coke and Pepsi executives were confident that they could handle the situation. But they stumbled.

They underestimated how quickly events would spiral into a nationwide scandal, misjudged the speed with which local politicians would seize on an Indian environmental group’s report to attack their global brands and did not respond swiftly to quell the anxieties of their customers.

...

In hindsight, Ms. Bjorhus, the Coke communications director, said she could now see how the environmental group had picked Coca-Cola as a way of attracting attention to the broader problem of pesticide contamination in Indian food products.

Sunita Narain, who heads the group, “has serious concerns about pesticides in the food chain,” Ms. Bjorhus said.

“By focusing her attention on the soft drinks industry, she gets a lot of attention.”

...

Regulators have not set standards for allowable levels of pesticides in soft drinks. Cleansing sugar of pesticide traces is difficult, and India’s groundwater is so contaminated that most food products contain some pesticide residue.

Asim Parekh, a vice president for Coca-Cola India, said his “heart sank” when he heard first heard the accusations because he knew that consumers would be easily confused. “But even terminology like P.P.B. — parts per billion — is difficult to comprehend,” he said. “This makes our job very challenging.”

So is the great NYT saying the question of whether desi colas are contaminated or not isn't as much as scientific problem but a 'weak/ faulty communication' problem on part of the cola gaints? Yes, Mr. Sinking-Heart-Parekh, we be so ignorant that we don't comprehende P.P.B and s**t; so pliss just be giving us a slew of ads (preferably engineered by PR companies that specialize in crisis management) with Bollywood stars feeding cola to their kids for breakfast instead of "doodh" fhata-fat, and we will go back to dinking dem colas, pesticides or not. ...

NYT, August 21, 2006 Fresh Princes of Mumbai, Building a Global Audience By LAURA M. HOLSON

India has a robust movie industry with none of China’s political constraints. Mr. Lynton offered to introduce the actor to Indian producers, actors and directors. And the next month Mr. Smith took his first trip to India.

Now he has a deal — to make movies there instead.

Overbrook Entertainment, the company created by Mr. Smith and his business partner, James Lassiter, announced it was working with UTV, a television and film concern run by the entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala. The two have agreed to produce two movies, neither of which will star the popular Mr. Smith.

UTV will pay the films’ costs up to a specified sum (after that amount, Overbrook has to raise the money) but the burden is on Mr. Smith and Mr. Lassiter to develop a script and hire the cast.

Will Will Smith get jiggy with Bollywood babes is the question? After Ms. Mallika -my-body-is-like-Viagara - Sherawat flashed Jackie Chan, which lady will do the same for our brotha from Bel Air, all in the name of art?