Exclusive: India sticks to e-cigarette ban in snub for Philip Morris
February 11, 2026 by reuters.com
Exclusive: India sticks to e-cigarette ban in snub for Philip Morris
India has decided not to ease its ban on e-cigarettes, including heat-not-burn tobacco products, rejecting a long-standing lobbying effort by Philip Morris International to allow such devices. The country implemented this ban in 2019. India is the seventh-largest cigarette market in the world, selling over 100 billion cigarettes annually, and tobacco use causes more than a million deaths each year. Philip Morris, the world's most valuable tobacco company, had aimed to make India a significant market for its IQOS heated tobacco device, which the company claims is less harmful than traditional smoking.
9.30% of the adult population are current smokers. There are approximately 100.2 million current smokers in India 16.70% of men are current smokers but only 1.40% of women.
SOURCE: GSTHR
