At the start of the year, Hawai‘i became the first state in the country to raise the smoking age to 21. Reducing smoking has become a policy goal for governments around the world. That includes India—where progress is showing up in some unusual places. HPR’s Bill Dorman explains in today’s Asia Minute.
The corporate earnings of India’s largest publicly-traded tobacco company have disappointed investors and cheered anti-smoking activists. ITC Limited fell short of analysts’ expectations, saying the cigarette business in India remains under “severe pressure.”
The government has raised cigarette taxes - added graphic warnings to cigarette packages, and banned smoking scenes in movies. Bloomberg quotes a consumer analyst at HDFC Securities in Mumbai as saying cigarette sales may have plunged by as much as ten-percent in the last quarter. That matches longer-term estimates that India’s Health Ministry has given to parliament.
According to the Times of India, the Health Ministry reports about a 10% drop in cigarette production over the last several years. But a separate study shows the number of women smokers in India continues to climb. The country is now second only to the United States in the number of women smokers.
And there’s another tobacco challenge in India—the smokeless variety. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey found a quarter of Indian adults use smokeless tobacco—more than twice the percentage of smokers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may take aim at both categories---raising tobacco taxes even further in the government’s next budget—due late next month.
