The Long Arm of the Regulator: A New Era of Accountability for India’s Food Industry In a sweeping move that signals a significant shift in the regulatory landscape, India’s food safety watchdog has thrown down the gauntlet to some of the most powerful names in the global consumer goods industry. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has dramatically escalated its enforcement activities, issuing a flurry of notices that challenge the very foundations of how food and beverage companies market their products. This is not merely a bureaucratic formality; it is a high-stakes declaration that the era of…

For anyone standing in the departure terminal of Cochin International Airport in Kerala, the atmosphere over the past few days must have been thick with confusion and exhaustion. Families with children huddled near information boards, business travelers repeatedly refreshed their phones, and elderly passengers waited for announcements that seemed to promise more questions than answers. Many of them had booked tickets on SpiceJet, one of India’s most recognizable budget carriers, and they had arrived at the airport on the strength of a simple belief: that their flight would take off as scheduled. Instead, they were caught in a deeply unsettling…