Saying no to Chinese fircrackers does not help the cause of Indian manufacturers

Realization appears to have dawned that banning import and sale of Chinese firecrackers during Diwali has had little or no effect on domestically made crackers. This is mainly because of anti-cracker campaigns run by schools, resident welfare associations (RWAs) and others.
The ASSOCHAM had interacted with firecracker wholesalers, retailers, traders in 10 cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Mumbai to understand the enthusiasm and demand for firecrackers together with impact of ban on Chinese crackers across India.
This has been reported in indianexpress.com dated 28 October 2016.

The dismal outlook is not only on cheap Chinese firecrackers but multiple other factors like growing environmental awareness, rising cost of living, growing tendency amid people to save their hard-earned money rather than spoiling it on burning crackers, paucity of time, traffic congestion during festive period etcetera.
Agreed that banning Chinese firecrackers was a welcome move targeted at strengthening the domestic industry, but growing criticism of bursting firecrackers and the associated negative publicity together with rising air and noise pollution have resulted in the firecracker industry across India gong into the doldrums.
Hundreds of units in Sivakasi have closed down because of intense campaigns and growing sales of China-made crackers over the years. On a rough estimate, nearly 30,000 people have lost their livelihood. There are about 800 licensed firecracker making units in Sivakasi and this industry accounts for a market size of about 2,500 crore rupees. But, rise in cost of raw materials and, overall inflation have also discouraged people from buying firecrackers and this trend has been going on for past few years now.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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