India has emerged as a leading market in bottled water. The sale of bottled water entails the commodification of safe drinking water. Access to clean water has been deemed a human right. Restaurants and hotels that serve bottled water levy service tax and VAT which leads to the further commodification of safe water. The paper makes an overview of the short term and long term trends in the bottled water market. The causal factors analyzed are economic as well as non-economic in their determination.