Soft drinks include all drinks made from water or mineral water, sugar, aromas, and essences, and usually contain carbon dioxide. Other beverage products such as flavored water, sports and energy drinks, and ice teas use a similar manufacturing process. Due to the nature of these products it is not easy for the consumer to tell the category of one product from another. Non-carbonated soft drinks are water-based flavoured drinks prepared with water and one or more of the following ingredients: fruit juice; fruit pulp; vegetable, herbal or other plant extracts; natural identical or artificial flavouring materials, permitted colourings, sweetening agents, acidulants, clouding matter and preservatives; carbon dioxide and other ingredients such as caffeine, taurine and carnitine.
Carbonated Soft Drinks include sodas such as colas, pepper-types, root beer, lemon-lime, and citrus types, both diet/light and regular types. These beverages may be clear, cloudy, or may contain particulated matter (e.g. fruit pieces).
The Indian soft drink market might continue its "robust growth trajectory" as annual per-capita bottle consumption is expected to reach around 84 by 2021, according to a report by PepsiCo India's bottling partner Varun Beverages NSE 1.75% Ltd (VBL). The industry would have a broad-based growth across categories, especially helped by juices and bottled water, VBL said in its 2018 annual report. Over the past two years, the soft drink industry has seen a value growth of 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and a volume growth of 5% CAGR. In total, 1.25 billion people in the country drink 5.9 billion litres of soft drinks in a year.