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.”
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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.”