MUMBAI: India moved a step closer to banning the sale of unpackaged cigarettes, with a view to discourage smoking in a country where close to a million people each year die of tobacco-related diseases. More than 70 per cent of the cigarettes sold in India are loose.

The federal health ministry has accepted the recommendation of an internal panel and will seek cabinet approval before imposing the ban, Health Minister J. P. Nadda told parliament in a written statement on Tuesday.

Shares in India’s largest cigarette maker, ITC Ltd, fell 5.2 per cent, its biggest daily drop in five months, and Godfrey Phillips India Ltd lost nearly 9pc. By comparison, the main Mumbai market index fell 0.8pc.

As many as 900,000 people in India die from tobacco-related diseases a year, and that number could jump to 1.5 million by 2020, the Inter­national Tobacco Control Project estimates.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014