In 1974 Indian government introduced FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) after which foreign companies operating in India were asked to dilute their equity to domestic companies (upto 60 percent). Indira Gandhi executed it with iron hand partuclaly during Emergency.
In 1977 Janta Party defeated Congress and for the first time a non Congress government came to power. At the same time the protectionist Morarji Desai government asked Coca Cola to dilute their 60% equity to local companies and give their secret recipe as part of fair competition policy. Coca Cola agreed to the first condition but refused the second. The Janta Party government refused them permission to conduct trade in India and Coca Cola left the country. Now there was a 100 crores Cola market in India untapped. The government decided to launch their own soft drinks brand. After deliberations the name of the brand was fixed as “77” (Double seven) to commemorate the year of launching and he year of formation of Janta Party government (1977). So the Cold Drink was staged as an achievement of the Janta Party and this political marketing didn't do great favours to either the brand or the company. Their advertisements promoted the cold drink with the promise of “Good Times” (the promise of Acche Din started from there only!!)
The cold drink was launched in late 1977 with massive PR claiming the cold drink to be a Swadeshi brand and claimed that it tastes exactly like Coca Cola. But this claim failed badly because people gave negative response to the brand and considered it way inferior to the taste of Coca Cola. Also Parle Agro launched Thums Up which was much superior Cola brand. So the sales were poor gaining a profit of only 93000 and after that the losses started piling so that government stopped issuing the sales reports of the company.
Another problem was that the Janta Party government was itself very unstable and within 3 years and two PM’s later the government lost the 1980 elections and Congress came back to power. Congress Party saw Double Seven as a Janta Party initiative and therefore didn't promoted it due to which the company died gradually. By 1990’s Pepsi and Coca Cola reentered Indian market and Thums Up was bought was Coca Cola. Double Seven was long forgotten.