India: Overview
India is the world's third largest tobacco producing country after China and Brazil. 46.6% of males and 16.8% of females are smokers. Of the 120 million smokers in India, only about 28 million smoke cigarettes.
More traditional forms of tobacco products are consumed throughout the country such as bidis, gutka and chewing tobacco. Bidi smokers are 10 times as prevalent as cigarette smokers in India.
India ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on February 5, 2004.
Recent developments: India implemented a national smoke-free law on October 2, 2008 despite legal challenges from the hospitality industry. Find out more >>
India’s smoke-free law prohibits smoking in workplaces and public places including hotels, restaurants, coffee houses, pubs, airport lounges, shopping malls, cinemas, educational institutions, and libraries, hospitals, auditoriums and railway stations. However, the law allows certain establishments, such as restaurants with seating capacity for 30 or more, to build separate smoking rooms, with no food or drink allowed to be served in these rooms.
Tobacco products are heavily taxed and in particular cigarettes are most heavily taxed as opposed to traditional tobacco products. Cigarette tax accounts for 90% of the government's revenue from tobacco taxes.
Existing legislation prohibits tobacco advertisements for all forms of media. Cigarette packs sold in India contain the statutory warning: "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health."
Legislation requiring pictorial warnings was set to take effect in late 2007 but was delayed due to opposition from the tobacco industry leading to a government review of the law that altered the pictorial warnings originally mandated.
Latest News
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Moneycontrol.com / Television Eighteen
02 Jan 2009