Few days back I was just having a look at web site of Richard Stallman (www.stallman.org) and just stumbled upon a issue that the great guy raised in US. The issue was a very naive one, that of Packaged Drinking Water and it was like he had just opened a pandora box before me and it was not long before I was trying to figure out how a  thing like Water has become aRamesh J. Chauhan commodity which can be sold for a price. It must have been a mind of genius who must have figured a way to bring such a concept (though in my humble opinion, it’s one of the most inhumane things). So having searched for some time I found myself at home page of Bisleri, the defacto standard name for a packaged drinking water bottle sold in India.

Bisleri was brought into India in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., an Italian company. Initially two varieties of plastic bottle were introduced in Mumbai - bubbly & still. Signor Felice Bisleri was the person behind the company Bisleri. However Parle took over Bisleri (India) Ltd. in 1969 and started selling mineral water in glass bottles under the brand name - Bisleri. However the product never got a huge response from the Indian market perhaps due to lack of advertising at those times.

It was in year 1995 when Mr. Ramesh J. Chauhan started thinking about the product seriously and started expanding the Bisleri operations substantially. Along with very aggressive marketing and due to the huge effect that media was already having on common mass, Bisleri soon became a house hold name. Today if one thinks of Packaged Mineral Water, then automatically the name Bisleri surfaces in our mind. The product was so heavily advertised that people stopped drinking water at Public Taps at places like Bus Terminals and Railway Stations. It’s now considered to be very unsafe to drink the tap water and many educated people think of packaged mineral water as the true solution (Though I’m not very sure how good this concept is). Bisleri’s turnover has multiplied over 20 times since last 10 years and average growth rate is around 40%. These are real mind blowing stats for a country like India which has ample amount of water resources and it’s due to the true intelligence of Mr. Chauhan that Bisleri has reached the heights where it is as of today. The company has around 8 plants and 11 franchises, spans across every nook and corner of country and has over 60% market share.

Hey is any one from Govt. bureaucracy is reading this post then please learn from the man and try to atleast provide drinkable water to common mass. (After all, we all do pay water tax, don’t we ?)

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