'A Clarification on Misleading News'

This note seeks to refute a news item that is circulating in the social media that in a recently submitted report on ‘Make in Kerala’ to Government of Kerala, the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) had recommended that the state takes up domestic manufacturing of ‘tobacco products’ as a way of reducing its bourgeoning import bill. The news item is mischievous and is a clear misrepresentation of the preliminary conclusions reached in the above report.

The report, under reference, had drawn up a list of products that are amenable for domestic manufacturing in Kerala based on three criteria;

The product of these industries must have a larger share in the state’s imports;
The productivity of these industries in Kerala must be higher than that in the rest of India; and
The share of imports in the domestic consumption of these products must be sufficiently large enough to justify their further growth.

Applying these three, the study drew up a list of 25 industries at the four-digit level of National Industrial Classification. Items bearing NIC Code 1200, Tobacco products, did figure in the list of 25 products which met the criteria. But that by itself is not a sufficient condition for its eventual local manufacturing. The sufficient conditions required that the products ultimately taken for local manufacturing must be those which involve less land, employ primarily skilled labour and did not contribute to the environmental pollution. Further, we were also emphatic in our recommendations that the study is a very preliminary one and required detailed discussion with industry and other experts to arrive at a much more disaggregated list. The study itself recommended only pharmaceutical products and medical devices. The report also has an explicit disclaimer that it did not reflect the views of the CDS. Finally, CDS in no way recommends that tobacco products be manufactured in Kerala and its usage is completely banned within its own campus.