Teaching Note: Bournvita’s removal from “health drinks” category – revitalization threats?

On 10th April 2024, The Commerce Ministry of the Government of India directed all the e-commerce platforms that “no such thing as ‘health drink’ defined under the country’s food and safety standards laws)” which came as a bolt from the blue to Mr Deepak Iyer, the president for India & Southeast Asia of Mondelez International. As a result, e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon, BigBasket had to remove all drinks and beverages, such as Bournvita, Horlicks, Protinex, from the health drinks category after receiving the instructions from Commerce Ministry advisory, which made Mr Iyer really anxious. Now, under these circumstances,...