MAY 2024

We explore the fundamental and underlying forces that are shaping India and the lives of Indians. Today, we confront a pressing question.

What is the greatest threat to India? Is it Pakistan, China or perhaps something else entirely different?

We will try to find something common between these entities to unravel this question.

So, carefully examine what is common in the FDA of the United States, Everest & MDH in Singapore and India, Patanjali of India and Nestle of Switzerland.

• Government and Corporates – Holy and Unholy Partnership  

• Regulatory Capture - Government, Corporate and Democracy 

• Media Tactics During COVID - Part 1 

These seemingly disparate entities share a common thread, and they all underscore their impact on Indian society.

So how is it? Let us scan each of them. 

Patanjali, the renowned Ayurvedic medicines company, boasts a staggering reach that extends to millions of households across India.

• Media Tactics During COVID - Part 2 

According to a recent survey, more than 70% of Indian households have at least one Patanjali product with them.

This widespread adoption underscores the Patanjali brand’s influence in shaping consumer behaviour and health choices. Patanjali is a revolution. 

However, amidst this widespread trust and alarmingly fantastic statistics, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Patanjali faced blame for misleading advertising practices.

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...Patanjali, the founders and the management were doing this risky advertising for business, they were doing it deliberately

Reports indicate that widespread Indians expressed concern about the efficacy and safety of Patanjali’s COVID-19 remedies, and they highlighted the potential harm caused by deceptive marketing and putting lives at risk. 

Consequently, the law took its course, and after the intervention of the Supreme Court of India, 14 products of this grand Patanjali brand were banned, and an apology was sought from the founder and the owner of Patanjali.

So, it is no less than falling from grace.

The pertinent deduction is, when Patanjali, the founders and the management were doing this risky advertising for business, they were doing it deliberately.

They knew that they were going to harm and risk the lives of millions of their followers who had faith in their system. So why did they do it? Furthermore, the followers happened to be mostly Indians.

Similarly, household spice brands like Everest and MDH hold a dominant position in the Indian market.

According to industry reports, these brands collectively control more than 80% of the spice market in India. 

Moreover, they have fallen from grace again, with recent findings of high levels of carcinogenic substances in their products, which has raised significant severe alarms.

So it is estimated that, again, 80% of Indian households regularly consume these spices, and therefore, anything substantial found in these products has widespread implications.

Again, these are Indian brands founded by Indians and used mainly by Indians.

Then, let us not forget the Nestle baby food scandal that rocked recent times.

Nestle, a Swiss multinational corporation, has been involved in this controversy of baby food since 1977, for the first time, where they faced severe backlash for its aggressive marketing of infant formulas in underdeveloped countries. 

This company has had a history of baby food controversies since then. A boycott was launched against Nestle then, and it expanded globally with concerns as the company’s unethical practices resonated across borders.

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Nestle, a Swiss multinational corporation, has been involved in this controversy of baby food since 1977...

They were aggressively trying to replace breast milk across the world, especially in underdeveloped countries where the awareness was low. 

Here in India, what has been discovered is that in baby food, Nestle has 7.1 grams of added sugar, which is about two sugar cubes per hundred grams of feed or two teaspoons.

Again, it is surprising that no added sugar is in the same products when sold in Europe.

The problem with added sugar is that child like the food, and they have a preference for this food, and they are likely, very likely, to develop obesity and diabetes as time passes. 

In a way, the Nestle food harms the country’s children. When this scandal is exposed in India, we know that this is a Swiss company, but then its Indian management and Indian chairperson.

Furthermore, over time, they have prioritized profit over Indian public health. On one hand, when the Nestle baby food has a high level of added sugar, which may and will induce diabetes.

Conversely, the FDA of the United States wields significant influence over global food and pharmaceutical drug regulation.

According to the report, the FDA oversees approximately 20% of the total consumer expenditure on food and drugs worldwide. 

However, over time, serious concerns about the FDA’s impartiality have been raised. 

A glaring example, which is fundamental to the working of the FDA, is that 70% of the FDA’s funding comes from user fees, which are paid by the industry.

Moreover, it raises serious questions about conflict of interest. It raises questions about the FDA’s regulatory independence.

While the FDA regulates pharmaceutical drugs, foods, veterinary products, surgical products, lasers, and cosmetics, it very conveniently does not get involved with the coating that comes over the utensils, afterall cooked food safety is as important.

The FDA does not review the Teflon coating on the non-stick utensils. It is a dangerous thing which continues to happen with lives across the globe. 

Teflon contains something called an everlasting chemical called C8, which is supposed to affect harmfully the nerves and the liver and is categorized as carcinogenic.

Studies show that nearly all people, regardless of age, have some form of C8 in their blood. Hence, it is called a forever chemical because it does not leave the body.

While Teflon is said to be water resistant and heat resistant, and the FDA does not review the utensils, what is not studied is the effect of Teflon and its effect on the body and how it infuses into the bloodstream after continuous use of the nonstick utensils.

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The FDA does not review the Teflon coating on the non-stick utensils

We can only guess why the FDA is not reviewing Teflon. Is it because DuPont made Teflon, whose annual worldwide revenue from Teflon is about 29 billion dollars? It is about 2.5 lakh crore Indian rupees.

While we trust the FDA as a stamp of authenticity, there have been, of late, severe issues of large-scale opioid addiction via prescription drugs in America. 

Also important to know here is that the FDA, on its own, does not conduct any tests on the products. Instead, they are only the approvers of the test that the manufacturers are doing.

So, there are severe flaws in the way the FDA operates. There are fundamental fallacies in which the FDA operates. Still, an FDA stamp is considered a source of product approval, trust and authenticity.

In contrast, Indian food safety regulators have struggled to maintain the rightful oversight of this evolving food safety landscape, which is visible in the Nestle, Patanjali, Everest, and MDH scandals.

From a perspective, we have a very lethal mix of situations here. It is a mix of Indians deceiting Indians for an Indian brand and Indians tricking Indians for a foreign brand.

Indians believe in a foreign brand rather than Indian regulators, even though the foreign regulator has a dangerous conflict of interest. It is just that Indians generally do not know about it.

Nevertheless, the question is, why should Indians believe Indian regulators after their irresponsible failure with brands like Everest, MDH, Nestle and Patanjali?

With this lethal mix, how many people are affected altogether? The answer lies in the number of affected Indians- nothing less than a billion.

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It is a mix of Indians deceiting Indians for an Indian brand and Indians tricking Indians for a foreign brand

All these companies and organizations that we spoke about, the recent scandals, are a reflection of how India interacts, how Indians accept, use, welcome, corrupt, and reject things and ideas from within India and from outside India.

Now, to reflect on our originating question, who is India’s real enemy?

It becomes evident that the real enemy lies not in the external threat of Pakistan or China but in the systemic failure and the misplaced trust, whether it is the exploitation of consumer loyalty by domestic 

brands, the regulatory lapse of international authorities or the unethical practices of multinational corporations dumping things into India, considering it as a dustbin and experimental ground.

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Now, to reflect on our originating question, who is India’s real enemy

Reflecting on these sobering realities that have come to light recently, it is important to consider the role each Indian are playing in shaping the future of India.