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Smoking kills more than 1 million people a year in India, according to BMJ Global Health and the World Health Organization says tobacco-related diseases cost India $16 billion annually.India earlier this year ordered manufacturers to cover 85 per cent of their tobacco pack's surface in health waings, up from 20 per cent."

There is no evidence to suggest that cigarette smoking would cause the diseases depicted in the pictures or that large GHW (graphic health waings) will lead to reduction in consumption," ITC said in a statement filed to the Indian stock exchanges.The $11 billion tobacco industry protested against the rules for weeks and even resorted to a brief factory shut down that cost them more than $800 million.Officials at the health ministry could not immediately be reached for a comment.ITC also said the new waings would encourage smuggling of illegal cigarettes into the country that do not comply with packaging requirements. The rules, still being challenged in a state court, were implemented on orders of the Supreme Court. The company said it was in talks will with govement officials for reasonable regulations.ITC's cigarette packs sold in India currently carry the picture of a man with a diseased throat with a message that says "smoking causes throat cancer".

It also said higher taxation and the new health waings were hurting the business of the organised cigarette industry.Health activists and the Indian govement say bigger waings create awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco consumption and help reduce consumption.India's biggest cigarette maker ITC on Wednesday criticised the govement's decision to impose bigger health waings on cigarette packets, saying there was little evidence to link smoking to diseases depicted in those pictures.ITC, which is part-owned by British American China Hosiery Machinery Suppliers Tobacco, said the health waings were "excessively large, extremely gruesome and unreasonable".The $11 billion tobacco industry protested against the rules for weeks and even resorted to a brief factory shut down that cost them more than $800 million.