Coca-Cola Co has temporarily halted operations at a bottling plant in northern India over alleged environmental violations, an ongoing controversy which has dogged its factories in the country.
The beverages giant told reporters it had voluntarily suspended manufacturing at its Dasna plant near New Delhi while the local environmental authority investigates.
Activists said the factory in Uttar Pradesh contaminates groundwater meant for farmers and pollutes the soil, and that sewage is not properly treated.
“We received a communication from Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board [UPPCB] and submitted a detailed response,” Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages — which bottles drinks in India for the US giant — said in a statement on Thursday. “To show our commitment to compliance with regulatory norms, we decided to temporarily suspend manufacturing at Dasna plant.”
There are 54 plants producing fizzy drinks in India for Coca-Cola, which has eyed expansion in the world’s second-most populous country where income levels are rising.
However, the company has met opposition from activists who have waged a more than decade-long battle against it in India over alleged environmental offenses.
“We conducted an inspection and based on the findings, the UPPCB has withheld the consent to operate this Coca-Cola plant in Dasna for some valid reasons,” Uttar Pradesh environmental board chief environmental officer S.R. Sachan said, without giving further details.
Amit Srivastava, who leads the India Resource Center, an activist group that has targeted Coca-Cola for years, said the company’s action did not go far enough.
“This is not really a victory because of all the pending issues such as the polluted groundwater and soil, as well as the loss of livelihood for the contract workers and farmers in the area,” Srivastava told reporters. “There is a lot more that needs to be done to remediate the problems caused by Coca-Cola in Dasna.”
Coca-Cola, which has said it plans to invest US$5 billion in India by 2020, has faced a string of objections from local communities over water use.
In 2004, it shut one of its plants in southern Kerala over similar allegations.
The company denies any wrongdoing.
Last year it dropped plans to open a new bottling plant in southern Tamil Nadu over protests by locals who also claimed it would rob them of groundwater.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Her white-gloved, waistcoated uniform impeccable, 22-year-old Hazuki Okuno boards a bullet train replica to rehearse the strict protocols behind the smooth operation of a Japanese institution turning 60 Tuesday. High-speed Shinkansen trains began running between Tokyo and Osaka on Oct. 1, 1964, heralding a new era for rail travel as Japan grew into an economic superpower after World War II. The service remains integral to the nation’s economy and way of life — so keeping it dazzlingly clean, punctual and accident-free is a serious job. At a 10-story, state-of-the-art staff training center, Okuno shouted from the window and signaled to imaginary colleagues, keeping
RSS