The Union government has scripted a U-turn in a year. Until March 2015, several regulatory authorities held the common stand that PET bottles and plastic multi-layered packaging was injurious for human health, besides being a serious environmental hazard. By August 2015, this common line turned fuzzy.

By March, the volte-face was complete: the government, almost unanimously, concluded that there was no proof that plastic packaging was dangerous, at least for medicines. How did the about-face happen? The National Green Tribunal took note of this reversal. In March last year, the ...