August 21, 2026
An Op-Ed co-authored by OHT’s Dr. Amit Summan in Indian Express highlights findings from Dr. Summan’s OHT collaborative study on the long-term health and economic benefits of more effective bidi taxation. Bidis are the most widely used smoked tobacco product in India.
Published in BMJ Tobacco Control, the researchers modelled the impact of a 30 percent tax-driven increase in bidi prices alongside ending tax exemptions for small producers.
The authors found that bringing bidi taxation closer to that of other tobacco products could improve public health, reduce the burden of tobacco-related illness, and generate additional tax revenue.
Read the coverage here.
