The corporate hijack of water is on and if the current trend continues, India’s water sources will be in private hands before long.

2001: THE old man shuffled his feet, acutely embarrassed. No matter which part of India you’re in, the first thing you do is offer your guests a glass of water. And this was one part of Nallamada in Andhra Pradesh blessed with that element. Things had changed, though. “Please don’t drink it,” he said, finally. “See how it is?” he asked, showing us a tumbler. Tiny blobs of thingummy floated atop a liquid more brown than transparent. But then he brightened up. “Will you have Coca-Cola instead? That, this village has.” And so it did. As in the Aamir Khan ad. The smaller bottle for Rs. 5.