This paper examines Lacto Calamine, a widely used topical cosmetic-lotion marketed by Piramal Pharma, through the lens of pharmacological efficacy, regulatory ambiguity, and ethical marketing. Drawing from publicly available data on its ingredients—primarily kaolin clay, zinc oxide, glycerin, and aloe vera—this study interrogates whether the formulation justifies its “pseudo-medical” truth-claims. It situates Lacto Calamine within India’s broader landscape of over-the-counter (OTC) cosmetic-medicinal hybrids that thrive on consumer faith rather than clinical validation. Methodologically, the paper employs both toxicological data analysis and self-reflexive ethnography, integrating critical theory and personal testimony to illuminate how pharmacological discourse and neoliberal consumerism intertwine. Ethical questions regarding celebrity endorsements, placebo reassurance, and gendered beauty expectations are explored. The study concludes that Lacto Calamine functions less as a pharmacologically commensurable product and more as a symbolic artefact of cosmetic capitalism, merging colonial legacies of fairness with neoliberal health consumerism.
Piramal’s Supradyn: Illusory Vitality and Expensive Urine
This communication critically examines Piramal Pharma’s over-the-counter multivitamin supplement Supradyn, highlighting concerns of pharmacological redundancy, cumulative risks, and misleading advertising. While promoted as a universal “energy booster,” Supradyn’s formulation—comprising multiple water- and fat-soluble vitamins, trace minerals, and herbal additives like ginseng—offers limited physiological benefit for healthy adults: water-soluble vitamins are largely excreted, fat-soluble vitamins and trace minerals may accumulate to toxic levels, and ginseng poses risks of insomnia, cardiovascular effects, drug interactions, and psychiatric destabilization. Evidence from Indian and global experts underscores that routine supplementation is unnecessary in non-deficient populations, and clinical trials consistently show minimal to no outcome benefit, contrary to perception-driven surveys like the EIGEN 2020 study. Piramal’s marketing strategies, which exploit fatigue, lifestyle anxieties, and survey-based claims, risk contravening the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, Food Safety regulations, and ethical standards of pharmaceutical communication, while fine-print disclaimers fail to ensure informed consumer consent. The analogy with financial exploitation through DHFL underscores how trust is commodified in both finance and health, extracting costs under the guise of benefit. In light of public health ethics, global regulatory frameworks, and consumer safety, the letter urges Piramal Pharma and relevant authorities to adopt transparent labeling, evidence-based advertising, and stricter oversight, emphasizing diet-first strategies and targeted supplementation for clinically confirmed deficiencies rather than universal promotion of multivitamins.
Sloan’s “Promise”: Heritage Brand or Hazard in a Bottle?
This representation critically examines Sloan’s Liniment/Balm (Piramal Pharma), exposing concerns about its irrational Fixed Dose Combination of counter-irritants (methyl salicylate, menthol, camphor, turpentine oil, eucalyptus oil, capsaicin), absent from global pharmacopeias (USP, Ph. Eur., WHO EML) and unsupported by clinical evidence in arthritis. Risks such as systemic salicylate poisoning, camphor neurotoxicity, turpentine irritation, and capsicum hypersensitivity are compounded by misleading claims of “lasting arthritis relief,” which distract from proper treatment and may delay evidence-based care. Regulatory loopholes in India (Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940; Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954) enable this obsolete heritage brand to persist despite international withdrawal. Sloan’s thus embodies an ethical paradox: irritants sold as therapy, financial wounds masked as cure—mirroring the DHFL victims’ plight. The representation urges Piramal Pharma to halt deceptive claims, disclose safety data, and validate efficacy, while calling on CDSCO, WHO, FDA, and EMA to review authorization, issue advisories, and protect patients from irrational formulations.
Urgent Call to Reassess Piramal Pharma’s Tetmosol Soap
Tetmosol soap, marketed by Piramal Pharma Limited as a treatment for scabies and lice, contains the outdated active ingredient Monosulfiram (5% w/w). While effective for its intended use, Tetmosol’s widespread over-the-counter (OTC) availability in India and other developing regions, coupled with vague marketing claims, has led to rampant misuse for undiagnosed dermatological conditions. This misuse risks ineffective treatment, skin irritation, and delayed diagnoses, raising serious concerns about consumer safety and Piramal’s ethical responsibility. The article critically examines Tetmosol’s composition, safety, regulatory status, consumer misuse, and Piramal’s marketing practices, alongside broader enforcement challenges and Piramal’s product portfolio. It argues for a temporary suspension of Tetmosol’s sales until clearer labeling, robust consumer education, and stricter regulations are implemented to protect public health.
Piramal, Tetmosol, and DHFL: The Itch of Conscience-less “Conscious” Capitalism
This petition-letter addresses the ethical, medical, and financial practices of the Piramal Group, linking the continued marketing of Tetmosol (containing Monosulfiram) — an obsolete, unapproved, and potentially harmful dermatological product absent from global pharmacopoeia — with the structural injustices of the DHFL resolution that allegedly stripped ordinary depositors of their life savings. By highlighting toxicity concerns, regulatory loopholes, misleading advertisements, and the export of outdated drugs to vulnerable populations in the Global South, the letter frames Tetmosol as a metaphor for systemic exploitation: superficial relief masking deeper harm, profit extracted from public vulnerability, and corporate narratives of “conscious capitalism” greenwashing exploitation in both health and finance. It calls for urgent regulatory review by CDSCO, WHO, and international agencies, demands alignment with global treatment standards, and urges cross-sectoral accountability where medical and financial mis-selling are recognized as analogous public harms requiring restitution.
Piramal, Polycrol, Pesticides, and the Politics of Stomachs
This letter critically examines Polycrol, an over-the-counter antacid by Piramal Pharma, as both a medical product and a metaphor for systemic socio-economic and political injustices in India. While marketed for short-term relief of digestive discomfort, Polycrol contains aluminium compounds whose chronic ingestion poses documented neurotoxic, skeletal, renal, and haematological risks, yet long-term clinical evidence of efficacy is absent. The correspondence situates the product within broader “pharma-political” dynamics, linking corporate profiteering, regulatory laxity, celebrity endorsements, and pesticide exposure to a cultural normalization of self-medication. Drawing parallels between the symptomatic relief of Polycrol and the quick-fix, extractive logic of crony capitalism—as exemplified in the DHFL financial scandal—the letter calls for regulatory transparency, public health accountability, and corporate ethical responsibility, arguing that systemic reform, rather than temporary palliatives, is essential to safeguard health, justice, and societal well-being.
The Pharma-Politics of Headache: Saridon, Piramal, DHFL
This letter to Mr. Ajay Piramal, framed through the metaphor of Saridon’s “triple action” composition, critiques the intersection of corporate power, judicial indulgence, and regulatory opacity in India. It juxtaposes the systemic injustices surrounding DHFL’s takeover with the ethical concerns of marketing a drug banned worldwide yet freely advertised in India. Paracetamol, Propyphenazone, and Caffeine are deployed symbolically to expose how legality masks long-term damage, structural power deepens inequity, and profit stimulation creates societal precarity. A chronology of judicial decisions highlights the asymmetry between corporate privilege and citizens’ prolonged struggles for justice. The letter denounces the collusion of commerce, law, and politics, invoking the concepts of iatrogenic harm and “medical nemesis” to underscore how quick fixes mask deeper crises. Ultimately, it appeals for accountability: transparent dialogue with DHFL victims, establishment of an independent redressal mechanism, alignment of pharmaceutical and financial practices with global safety norms, and the withdrawal of Saridon from the Indian market.
Keep Kolkata’s Roads Open, Safe, and Climate-Resilient (AN ONLINE MASS PETITION)
Kolkata, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, faces a critical urban crisis as its weak road network—covering only 6–7% of city land—struggles under massive congestion from festivals, religious events, political rallies, and private gatherings. This gridlock endangers lives by delaying emergency services, escalates economic costs, worsens air pollution and climate impacts, and violates the constitutional right to free movement. Case studies, including Red Road, highlight the risks of relying on ad hoc permissions in high-security zones. The city urgently needs regulated alternatives for public events, strict enforcement of road-use laws, climate-conscious urban planning, and promotion of sustainable celebrations to balance cultural vibrancy with safety, accessibility, and environmental resilience. This petition is initiated by the Fridays For Future India chapter, supported by the Kolkata unit.
Conscious Capitalism or Spiritual Washing? Vaiṣṇava Philanthro-Capitalism and the Case of Ajay Piramal
This article critically examines the intersection of religion, capitalism, and corporate power in contemporary India, using Ajay Piramal and the DHFL scandal as a case study to interrogate the concept of “conscious capitalism” and its spiritualized variants. It argues that ostensibly ethical and Vaishnava-aligned philanthropy—what may be termed “Vaishnava philanthro-capitalism”—often functions as a moral façade for systemic exploitation, environmental negligence, financial expropriation, and political cronyism. The piece highlights Piramal’s alleged expropriation of DHFL investors’ life savings, corporate entanglements, and use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to intimidate dissent, juxtaposed against his projected image as a Paramavaishnava disciple of ISKCON’s Radhanath Swami. Drawing on environmental, socio-political, and cinematic examples, it demonstrates how spiritual rhetoric is deployed to legitimize wealth accumulation, mask structural inequities, and neutralize democratic critique, while philanthropic gestures—though socially visible—fail to address labor hierarchies, ecological harm, or systemic injustice. Situating these phenomena within broader debates on crony capitalism, moral laundering, and ethical branding, the article contends that spiritualized corporate practice risks transforming devotional ethics into instruments of power, leaving social, economic, and environmental vulnerability intact, and calls for a critical reorientation toward structural accountability, redistribution, and the protection of marginalized voices.
When Hindutva Betrays Hindus: The Market Mask of Identity
This article presents a critical analysis of Hindutva as a political and economic project, arguing that its purported aim of protecting Hindu interests is a façade for market fundamentalism, crony capitalism, and authoritarian consolidation. Using the DHFL financial scandal as a case study, it demonstrates how ordinary Hindu investors and pensioners suffer losses while political insiders and corporate cronies benefit, exposing the betrayal embedded within the saffron narrative. Beyond economic exploitation, the piece highlights the systematic suppression of dissenting Hindu voices—eco-activists, reformist priests, and ascetics—whose advocacy for ecological balance, spiritual pluralism, and resistance to commodification has been marginalized or violently silenced. The article situates communal polarization, Islamophobia, and other engineered religious tensions as deliberate distractions that conceal the underlying agenda of capital extraction and consolidation of power. Through examples from domestic policy, foreign aid, heritage destruction, and environmental mismanagement, it contends that Hindutva endangers Hindu communities from within, revealing a profound contradiction between its rhetoric and its effects. The critique underscores that the issue is not religion per se but the instrumentalization of religious identity for neoliberal and authoritarian ends, culminating in a call for Hindus to recognize and resist Hindutva’s internal threats.
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 