India, March 26 -- India has grappled with tragedies related to alcohol including hooch mishaps. While such tragedies also happen elsewhere in the world, the frequency of such events in India is definitely way above the rest of the world. Banning alcohol is not the solution as one has seen in Bihar where hooch tragedies have jumped after prohibition. A more pragmatic solution therefore lies somewhere else.

WHO estimates that 25.5 per cent of global alcohol is "unrecorded" (illicit + legal homebrew and community alcohol). Some of it is what local communities and tribals have made for generations and while the product quality may be open to debate, there has been no health scare there. The bulk (81per cent) of the global illicit market is ...