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Introduction: The tobacco industry intends to ensure continuing marketing of tobacco products by influencing and interfering in tobacco control policies. This paper assessed trends of tobacco industry interference (TII), the level of implementation, and the government's response to enforcing Article 5.3 guidelines in India to safeguard tobacco control efforts from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry. Methods: We conducted a descriptive comparative analysis of four consecutive India TII Indexes (January 2018-December 2021) based on the seven key 5.3 recommendations and twenty indicators to capture (i) the Level of Industry Participation, (ii) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities, (iii) Benefits to the Tobacco Industry, (iv) Forms of Unnecessary Interactions, (v) Transparency, (vi) Conflict of Interest, and (vii) Preventive Measures. The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance's (SEATCA) TII Index was used to undertake this assessment. Results: The comparative analysis showed that the overall score of the India TII Indexes over the years decreased from 72 (2018) to 57 (2021). Improvements were shown over the years in adherence to Article 5.3 for limiting unnecessary interactions with the tobacco industry, avoiding conflicts of interest, and having preventive measures. However, major gaps were observed in restricting industry participation, regulating their so-called CSR, providing benefits to the industry in the form of incentives, exemptions, and maintaining transparency. Conclusion: The study provides the status of implementing Article 5.3 and its guidelines in India. Given the gaps in the existing measures, India needs to comprehensively adopt Article 5.3 guidelinesin all states and union territories adopting whole-of-government approach. There is an urgent need to establish an observatory for periodic compilation of the TII indexes to monitor the tobacco industry and report violations at the national and sub-national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There has been remarkable tobacco control progress in many places around the globe. Tobacco industry interference (TII) has been identified as the most significant barrier to further implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Civil society has been recognised as a key actor in countering TII. While TII has been extensively studied for several decades now, there is little research that focuses on counteractions to limit it and their effectiveness to do so. This scoping review seeks to map the peer-reviewed literature on civil society's activities of countering TII in policymaking to identify common counterstrategies and assess their effectiveness. Methods: Data sources: We searched Embase, IBSS, JSTOR, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science using the following terms: ("Tobacco industry" OR "Tobacco compan*") AND. ("corporate political activity" OR "CPA" OR "lobbying" OR "interference") AND ("advoca*" OR "counter*" OR "activi*"), without time or language restrictions. Study selection: Our selection criteria included peer-reviewed studies that were written in English, German, or Spanish that drew on primary data and/or legal and policy documents and reported at least one specific example of civil society members or organisations countering tobacco industry action-based strategies. Data extraction: Advocates' counterstrategies were analysed inductively and countered industry strategies were analysed using the Policy Dystopia Model (PDM). Perceptions of effectiveness of countering attempts were analysed descriptively. Results: We found five common counterstrategies among 30 included papers covering five WHO regions; 1. Exposing industry conduct and false claims; 2. Accessing decision-makers; 3. Generating and using evidence; 4. Filing a complaint or taking legal action; 5. Mobilising coalition and potential supporters. These counterstrategies were used to work against a wide range of industry strategies, which are captured by five action-based strategies described in the PDM (Coalition Management, Information Management, Direct Access and Influence, Litigation, Reputation Management). While some studies reported the outcome of the countering activities, their impact remained largely underexplored. Conclusion: The review shows that peer-reviewed literature documenting how civil society actors counter TII is scarce. It suggests that advocates employ a range of strategies to counter TII in its different forms and use them flexibly. More work is needed to better understand the effects of their actions. This could stimulate discussions about, and facilitate learning from, past experiences and help to further enhance advocates' capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Tobacco Industry (henceforth TI) yearns to portray itself as being "socially responsible" and fights for the decision-making positions; that are it used to deter, delay or dilute tobacco control measures. There is little documented evidence of Tobacco Industry Interference (henceforth TII) from India, the scope of their interference and challenges faced by the experts for effective tobacco control. This research study seeks to cover this significant gap in the literature on the TI of India.Methods: A cross-sectional qualitative research design, based upon in-depth interviews (N = 26), was used to explore the key stakeholders' opinions regarding TII in India. The interviews used a set of questions to collect information about the participant's roles and responsibilities in tobacco control, the nature of TII faced by the participants, means of influence by TI, barriers and challenges to tobacco control efforts.Results: Most of the respondents were engaged in tobacco control, training, advocacy and awareness generation activities for 5-10 years or more. The respondents defined the TI and its scope as per their experience with the help of the power ranking methodology. Most of them perceived TI as 'manufacturers' while others consider them as 'advertisers', 'public relation companies', 'wholesalers', 'vendors', and 'Government firms with TI stocks. The research team identified six significant domains: influencing the policy and administrative decisions, Interference in the implementation of tobacco control laws and activities, false propaganda and hiding the truth, manipulating front action groups (FAG), rampant tobacco advertising and promotion activities and others under which TII activities were classified. Most respondents believed that TI players were interfering in the policy decisions, implementing the tobacco control laws and activities and manipulating the FAG. A detailed taxonomic classification of the TII strategies that emerged from our analysis was linked to article 5.3 of FCTC.Conclusions: The study documented a significant level of TII in different domains, with stakeholders acting at various hierarchical levels. Thus providing insight into the tactics of the TI in order to enable stakeholders to anticipate and pre-empt the kinds of alliances the TI may attempt to build; stimulating academicians and researchers to undertake in-depth analysis into various strategies and therefore underscoring the need to ensuring transparency in official interaction with the TI and its representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, there has been no attempt to measure the implementation of World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3, which provides guidelines to address tobacco industry interference (TII). This study draws on a desk review conducted to assess the frequency and severity of TIIs and the government's response, reported between January and December 2017. This study highlights that the government of India does not allow tobacco industry to participate in policy development. However, the industry interferes by collaborating with the government's allied organizations. The tobacco industry has diversified as food industry in India, and directly or indirectly supports various government programs, by investing through their corporate social responsibility schemes. In addition, there are limited legislative measures to allow transparency in adoption of Article 5.3 guidelines across the country. Hence, the findings of this study underscore an exigent need to adopt and implement Article 5.3 at the national level in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study are to identify what hinders implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Article 5.3 in Korea, and to provide suggestions for the implementation of Article 5.3. Official governmental documents on tobacco control were reviewed. We also searched news articles for data triangulation. There were three factors that hindered the implementation of Article 5.3 in Korea. Firstly, there has been legal conflict between two tobacco-related laws, one of which is designed to promote the tobacco industry. The other is designed to promote public health. Secondly, the government has had economic interests in the tobacco industry, and its lack of action to effectively regulate the tobacco industry's corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices has hindered the implementation of Article 5.3. Thirdly, the tobacco industry's lobby and active interference in the policy-making process has been a barrier. To fully implement Article 5.3, this study suggests: defusing legal conflict between tobacco-related laws; not considering tobacco industry as a stakeholder; regulating tobacco industry's CSR activities; raising awareness of tobacco industry interference; securing transparency between the government and tobacco industry; and establishing a core group or a committee under the government to implement Article 5.3. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]