1. INTRODUCTION
The Government of India imposed a ban on tobacco Industry on 6th February, 2001 prohibiting Tobacco Companies from advertising their products or funding sporting and cultural events. The move caused a serious lift between the government and tobacco proponents who composed mainly of tobacco companies. The tobacco proponents felt that the move was unjustified. The bone of contention was whether the ban was ethical, commercially right or even, if at all, was implementable and practically effective.
The tobacco sub-sector was a chief source of revenue for the Government of India. According to IBS Centre for Management Research, during the 2000/2001 season tobacco raked in 8,000,000,000 Rupees (about USD166,937,941) in excise revenue.
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A study on tobacco consumption and employment showed that effective policies to reduce smoking were likely to increase rather than decrease employment. The justification for this was that when people quitted smoking, the money would remain in the economy and would then be spent on other goods and services – increasing the demand for these goods and services in the process. This, in effect would create new employment.
2.2 The Cons of the Ban:
Enthusiasts of free will opposed the ban arguing that the action implied unnecessary Government incursion into the personal lives of its people. By enacting the ban on advertisements and sponsorships, the Government was actually looking down upon those who smoke that they were not adept at making sound decision on their own. The enthusiasts referred to court precedencies in other countries such Canada where the Supreme Court determined in a comparable case that placing ban tobacco advertisement was not a good form of parenting. Others argued that "Adults who consume tobacco do so of their own free choice. The risk falls entirely on them and is fully explained to them” (Amit Sarkar, Editor, Tobacco