Vapouround magazine ISSUE 22 | Page 32

NEWS BY GORDON STRIBLING The Indian Government’s proposal to restrict the promotion of vaping on social media may be revised thanks to a letter sent by the Association of Vapers India (AVI). The Indian Government’s proposal to restrict the promotion of vaping on social media may be revised thanks to a letter sent by the Association of Vapers India (AVI). Announced in December, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY)’s proposed amendments to the IT Act, which would compel online platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to remove content that ‘threatens public health or safety.’ This includes the promotion of ‘Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) & like products that enable nicotine delivery.’ The AVI’s letter countered that public health would in fact suffer if India’s 120 million smokers could not be made aware of less-harmful alternatives. In response to feedback from the AVI and the public, Rakesh Maheshwari, scientist and group coordinator of cyber law at MeitY, said: “We do not, in fact, understand vaping and ENDS. All those things actually became known to us after the comments which we started receiving from people. “If vaping is actually promoting reduction of cigarettes, reduction of intoxicants, reduction of any harmful things, then from our perspective, there is nothing illegal in it.” 32 | VM22 The Health Ministry urged the states to ban e-cigarettes last year, claiming that they posed a ‘great health risk’. They are currently banned in eight out of 29 states. Meanwhile, a Reuters source has claimed that US giant JUUL hopes to launch in India by the end of the year. The source said: “[The plan] is currently at an exploratory stage, but the company needs people on the ground in India.” However, Camilla Dorma, JUUL Labs’ EMEA head of communications, told Vapouround: “As you may be aware, JUUL Labs’ mission is to improve the lives of one billion adult smokers around the world by providing them with a viable alternative to combustible cigarettes. “In order to achieve this, we are currently exploring various international markets. To date, however, we do not have definitive launch plans for these markets.”