The Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) rules are being amended for this purpose and all 782 companies manufacturing bottled water will have to upgrade their standards without any time lag.

"The legal position is very clear on the issue; the moment the PFA rules are amended, the revised drinking water standards will come into effect," official sources said asking the companies to set up necessary infrastructure to ensure they are not caught napping.

They said PFA rules amendment and notification of revised packaged drinking and mineral water norms would automatically nullify existing licences given to the 782 companies. As a result, those bottles which were marketed under old licences and quality norms and not meeting the new standards would have to be destroyed.

New licences will only be given to those companies which are able to produce a sample before the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) meeting the new norms.

The revised standards have listed 32 pesticides whose collective and individual concentrations in water must not exceed 0.5 and 0.1 micro milligram per litre.

They said even the phased upgradation of the BIS testing facilities would not be a hindrance in implementing the revised norms because the analysis for these pesticides would be conducted by an accredited laboratory using internationally established test methods meeting the new pesticide residue limits.

The resurgence of the Unchahar project after its take-over by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is a glorious saga of success. It is hard to believe that a plant with a Plant Load Factor (PLF) as low as 18 per cent at the time of the take-over would be reincarnated within 10 years with a PLF zooming to around 89 per cent.

NTPC had taken over Stage I of the plant (420 mw) as a result of a commercial settlement with the U. P. Rajya Vidyut Uthpadan Udyog against its outstanding dues in 1992 and immediately charted for itself the task of turning it around. A detailed assessment of the productivity and work culture of the plant was carried out and upgraded to the norms in vogue at NTPC.

What emerged from the above operation is a trend-setter. The plant started its new lease of life with an ever-increasing PLF year after year, which eventually rocketed to 89 per cent in 2001-02.

Enthused by the results of the turnaround of Stage 1, NTPC embarked upon Stage II (2 x 210 mw) which was completed within 44 months in October 1999—a record in itself—increasing its capacity to 840 mw.

Today, Unchahar Power Plant is among the top 10 best performing plants of India.

Surya Herbal Limited, the first Ayurvedic ISO 9001 certified company, launches X-Diaba, a herbo-mineral approach, that can slow, stop and cure diabetes. X-Diaba is unique and a rational combination of some of the most effective anti-diabetic herbs and minerals mentioned in the age old Ayurveda. Surya Herbal Limited sets the standards of quality, safety and efficacy for Ayurvedic medicines and herbal health care products.

Surya Herbal has an ultra modern manufacturing unit in Noida near the national capital, Delhi. Their plants are equipped with sophisticated and automatic state-of-the-art equipment. The automation of the entire process meets the requirement of good manufacturing practice (GMP) as per the guidelines of WHO (World Health Organisation). Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder which is characterised by an increase in sugar levels in the body. Nature has provided us with some effective anti-diabetic herbs and minerals, which can be given orally and for prolonged periods without any side effects. Surya Herbal’s X-Diaba is an effective herbal formulation for the management of diabetes. It helps in lowering blood sugar by stimulating insulin secretion. The X-Diaba capsules contain Basant Kusumakar Ras (with gold and pearls), which is highly effective against diabetes by providing strength to the brain, heart and the kidneys. It also contains Vijay Saar which has been scientifically proved to regenerate the activity of the pancreas. Other Ayurvedic herbs are Gurmar, Kerala and Neem extracts, among others. Regular doses of X-Diaba along with strict dietary control, a daily regimen of walking and light exercise would help in regulating glucose levels, check fatigue and activate the pancreas to secrete insulin without the risk of hypoglycaemia. Surya Herbal’s X-Diaba is available at Rs. 200 for a pack of 20 capsules.

Surya Herbal has launched X-Diaba on a countrywide basis and it is retailed in all leading metros and smaller towns across the country. The company is renowned for its highly effective herbal formulations which have penetrated foreign markets as well. The Surya Herbal brand and its vast product portfolio of Ayurvedic medicines are being exported to the U. S. A., Europe, Russia, Kazakhistan, Kirgiztan, Ukraine and many other countries.

The ‘liquid gold’ that has been the staple of the ancient Roman and Greek cultures since as much as 5,000 years ago is now set to hit Indian shores.

Marico Saffola Olive Oil, directly imported from the finest Spanish orchards of Rafael Salgado, will soon titillate the palettes of discerning and increasingly health conscious Indians. Not only is olive oil acknowledged as one of the most health-friendly oils all over the world by nutritionists and the medical profession, it is the edible oil of choice in all Mediterranean countries and the West.

Besides being ‘healthy’, olive oil is known for the subtle taste and texture it imparts to salads and most gourmet cuisine. In New Delhi, recently, renowned gourmet chef Ms Karen Anand, on behalf of Saffola Olive Oil, presented a unique event for the connoisseurs and gourmets of Delhi. A group of celebrities of the capital took part in a ‘theatre-of-food’ where they displayed their considerable cooking skills.

Ms Anand demonstrated a number of international recipes using olive oil which can be made with ingredients available in India—among them Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Crostini, Corn Basil, Fusili Soup, Warm Thai Chicken Salad and Penne Al’Arabia. Conceptualised and presented by event manager, Frontier Integrated the occasion kicks of with a recipe contest with a fabulous range of consumer durables as prizes. Olive oil is the only cooking medium which is derived from a fruit and till today is extracted by basically the same process that was used 50 centuries ago—pressing the ground olives and separating the oil from the oil-vegetation water mix.