Representatives of e-cigarette and heatsticks companies acknowledge that their products are “no doubt harmful” and that “ideally there should be no choice between bad and good.” They would nevertheless prefer “some choice” – one that is between “bad and worse.”

When contacted, Dr M Siddiqi, chairman of the Kolkata-based Cancer Foundation of India and an independent researcher on the affects of tobacco on smokers, said: “The Centre should have first amended the relevant law to bring all forms of ENDS at par with normal cigarette and tobacco products. This would have entailed some form of regulation which has been imposed on cigarettes and other tobacco products. In a way, the government’s decision to ban ENDS will only end up helping large cigarette companies.”

Dr Siddiqi, however, maintained that both ENDS and paper-rolled cigarettes and similar tobacco-based products, in which chemicals are used, are equally harmful.