Indian Environmentalist DENTS two World’s Glossiest BRANDS..!!!!
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Ms Narain’s research and lobbying group, based in Delhi had reported that its laboratory had tested soft drinks made by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, bought in various parts of India, and found them to contain pesticide residues far above limits recommended by the government’s Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
Its latest soft-drinks report has led the governments of several Indian states to ban the sale of PepsiCo’s and Coca-Cola’s products in schools and government offices. One state, Kerala, has introduced total prohibition, which the companies have challenged in the courts.
In the 25 years since Ms Narain went to work as a volunteer with CSE’s founder, Anil Agarwal, it has had successes that must make it the envy of other activist groups. Most famously, the group’s campaign against air pollution in the 1990s was largely credited with the decision to use compressed natural gas as fuel in Delhi’s buses, taxis and three-wheeled “autorickshaws”. Normally, says Ms Narain, “the scale of the disaster overshadows the scale of the intervention.” In this, however, CSE made a difference. She is just as proud, however, of the way the group has brought rainwater-harvesting to the centre of the debate about how to cope with India’s worsening water shortage—an achievement that won CSE last year’s Stockholm water prize.
Ms Narain joined CSE from high school, because she was drawn to Agarwal’s vision of allying “the rigour of science to the passion of journalism”, and inherited his mantle when he died in 2002. At the time, some doubted whether CSE could maintain its standing. But this week, even Coca-Cola came close to suing for peace, leaking a letter “respectfully” disagreeing with the CSE laboratory’s findings, but asking for talks. CSE agreed—provided the agenda is confined to the implementation of the final-product standard. A non-scientist, Ms Narain is proud of having one useful journalistic habit: never being afraid to ask a stupid question. So far, at least, CSE has not given many stupid answers.
