Abstract
With other Pepsi markets nearing saturation, Pepsi decided to expand its international operations into India in the late 1980s. However, even prior to entering India, Pepsi was met with strong objections by one of India's leading political parties. George Fernandes, General Secretary of the Janata political party threatened Pepsi that it too, just like Coca Cola, will be expropriated if his political party returned to power. Regardless, Pepsi insisted on expanding into India and came up with a first entry proposal to the government, which was rejected. The second entry proposal followed Pepsi's strategy of primarily focusing on solving Punjab's problems, rather than focusing mainly on the soft drink industry. That proposal contained many promises to improve the economy of Punjab through increasing productivity and employment in the agricultural sector. Nevertheless, the reality turned out to be something rather different; Pepsi broke many of its promises to Punjab. This lead to a general public disapproval towards Pepsi, and just as the government was considering action against Pepsi, India experienced a foreign currency crisis in the early 1990s.
