Bottled Water

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed initiating insolvency proceedings against Himalayan Mineral Waters, allowing Jammu & Kashmir Bank's plea for default of a corporate guarantee given for LeeL Electricals. The Allahabad bench of NCLT has also appointed Bhoopesh Gupta as the interim resolution professional (IRP) for this Dehradun-based firm's Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). "We are satisfied that the Applicant/Financial Creditor (J&K Bank) has proved the debt and the default, which is more than the threshold limit... the application u/s 7 is found to be fit for initiation of the CIRP against the Corporate Debtor (Himalayan Mineral Waters," said a two-member bench in the order passed last Monday. Jammu & Kashmir Bank had claimed a default of Rs 50 crore against Himalayan Mineral Waters, engaged in the business of manufacturing of beverages, being the corporate guarantor for the credit facilities availed by the Leel Electricals. LeeL ...

Believers say it is pure and has minerals that tapped water lacks

A litre of bottled water could contain about 2.4 lakh plastic pieces on average, which is about 10 to 100 times greater than previous estimates that mainly concerned plastics of larger sizes, according to a new study. While microplastics range from a micrometre -- a millionth of a metre -- to 5 millimetres, nanoplastics are smaller than a micrometre and are measured in billionths of a metre. Researchers from Columbia University analysed three popular brands of bottled water sold in the US, measuring plastic particles down to 100 nanometres in size. They detected about 1.1-3.7 lakh plastic fragments in each litre -- 90 per cent nanoplastics and the rest microplastics. Their findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Previously this was just a dark area, uncharted. Toxicity studies were just guessing what's in there," said study co-author Beizhan Yan, an environmental chemist at Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth ...

We would like to hit the Rs 500 crore mark in the next three years, even to call it making an entry, said George

The rapidly-growing bottled water industry can undermine progress towards a key sustainable development goal: Safe water for all, says a new United Nations report

Nearly 44 per cent residents of Delhi slums depend on bottled water for drinking purposes, while around 76 per cent of households in the city have piped water connections, revealed a report

Health experts are still divided over the superior properties of these waters

The move comes as India emerges the fourth-largest market for Coke's premium water brand 'smartwater', launched in 2018

The majority of plastic particles in water are larger than 150 micrometers in diameter and are excreted from the body, said WHO

Food safety authority's puzzling regulations

With reference to the editorial, "Dangerous bottled water" (June 1), the affinity to bottled water is fading, as environmental and health concerns about it are taking centre stage. Besides, using 1.6 litres of water to package one litre of water that tastes no better than tap water, and generating huge post-consumer trash seem unwise. Pepsico had admitted last year that its Aquafina brand of mineral water contains nothing but tap water.Sikkim became the first Indian state to ban packaged bottled water in government departments and events; Bihar followed suit.It would be a huge betrayal of people's trust if bottled water were found to contain toxic chemicals even as processed food is under the scanner.For the regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to be inconsistent on the presence of potentially hazardous potassium bromate in bakery products and bottled water is tantamount to playing with the lives of people.The World Health Organization is right in recommending that bo