Rijo M. John

PhD | Economist | Prof. @rajagiri.edu | Consultant to @WHO @WorldBank @TobaccoFreeKids @EconForHealth | Former faculty @iitjodhpur

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@Aaditya397 @MnshaP @palkisu എനിക്കൊന്നും മനസിലായില്ല. അതുകൊണ്ട് കുഴപ്പമില്ല.

[Shubh @kadaipaneeeer]

Aamir khan met Sonam wangchuk in 2008 at CNN IBN event (clip attached)

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@theliverdoc Great.. I hope Wiki doesnt get banned for this :)

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

With all the forced pseudoscience projects with questionable outcomes emerging from Indian Institutes of Technology across India, degrading decades of scientific credibility, mostly from political and religio-cultural agenda from the BJP and the Ministry of Ayush, this is a timely piece. Never before seen kind of "secret war" for those who really love this nation. Science community in India needs to be stronger than ever and come together to fight this spreading blight and growing rot. The hapless public deserve our candles in the dark.

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@Subytweets @rojimjohn @vdsatheesan Me. He's three years younger😊

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

Proud of my brother @rojimjohn on becoming Kerala’s Minister for Higher Education in the Govt. led by CM @vdsatheesan. I'm sure his wide exposure to college & university campuses across the country will serve him well in this important role. Congratulations and best wishes ahead.

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@theliverdoc Congratulations, Doc. Looking forward to reading it sometime.

[EAC-PM @EACtoPM]

Tobacco consumption is rising fast, spreading wider, and embedding itself deeper into the lives of poorer households - just as the state expands publicly funded healthcare. Latest working paper by Dr. @ShamikaRavi and @Partha_Protim05 1/15

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@theliverdoc Same case with many statistics including suicide rates, crime data, etc from NCRB wherein people are often misled by the lack of context. Similarly, different fever types detected in Kerala draw intense attention, while “mystery fevers” elsewhere receive far less scrutiny.

[Devyanshi Bihani @devyanshibihani]

No smoke without harm

Most tobacco products are taxed at the highest GST slab of 40%, beedis are taxed at just 18%, making them significantly cheaper than cigarettes, justified as protecting rural workers.

@RijoMJohn

Full story : https://t.co/YWsenYUTSW

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

In my op-ed for @NewIndianXpress, I examine India’s recent tobacco taxation overhaul. Major changes to GST & excise duties effective 1 Feb 2026. While the reforms fundamentally reshape tobacco taxation, significant challenges remain, particularly the taxation of bidis.

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Dear friends, I have something important to tell you.

In December 2024, 'researchers' from multiple Indian Government Homeopathy institutions along with 'researchers' from Israeli Homeopathy institutes, published a randomized controlled trial that concluded that use of Homeopathic formulations in children during first 24 months of life reduced infections and antibiotics use compared to 'standard of care.' This was published in the prestigious European Journal of Pediatrics.

The study was viral. It was all over the media and news here in South India and also in some National media and was Whatsapp 'proof' of Homeopathy being better than modern medicine in infants. The study was used to promote anti-vaccine sentiments and Homeopathy products in South India. Homeopaths hailed the study as 'path breaking' - also because the Ayush Ministry and Government Homeopathy practitioners were study authors involved in it.

I read the study. I am trained in advanced statistics and research writing.

The study was utter nonsense. And fraud. It looked like the authors did not even actually perform the study. I really doubted whether any patients were involved at all.

I wrote a letter to the editor of the journal, asking him to kindly review the paper and investigate 'scientific integrity' and ethics.

And after nearly 10 months of investigations by the Journal, Publisher and Research Integrity Team, we were proven correct.

The paper was fraud and now it has been RETRACTED. @RetractionWatch

The lesson here is that, if people really did understand what Homeopathy is and what its practitioners are, it is easy to find that it is clearly fraud. There is nothing in Homeopathy that works. It is unscientific utter nonsense. Every positive study on Homeopathy is mostly published in 'Homeopathy' journals. Sometimes, it infiltrates a real, valid journal (like in this case) and then it gets retracted because the scientific community is always alert.
There are many such instances: See - https://t.co/JHC3anPss3 and https://t.co/iDRNha2Yw5 and https://t.co/84S02zuxv3

The worst part here is that all these Homeopathy practitioners who are authors of the study are working in Indian Govt. public health sector - meaning, their salary is paid from public funds and citizens taxes. These wastrels are eating away our hard earned money and using it to fund fraud. Who will stop these criminals?

Even worse, the fraud, now retracted study was published as 'open access' in the European Journal of Pediatrics - which means, the authors paid £3090.00 GBP or $4990 USD, or €3990 EUR equivalent in INR to publish fraud. Where did they get this money from? Yes. Indian public tax money.

Homeopathy needs to be booted out of this country. Parents, do not send your children to study Homeopathy even though India offers a 5 year course and gives them a "Dr." title at the end of it. They are not doctors. They are legitimized frauds and legalized quacks, as you can see from this retraction.

"Homeopathy is a lively relic of the prescientific era. Not healthcare."
@arifhussaintm

Link:
https://t.co/0CxLrVMHDj

[Soumyarendra Barik @imsoumyarendra]

🚨Ground report: I spent 3 days as a gig worker for Zomato, Blinkit & Swiggy in Delhi.
23 deliveries. 15.5 hours. 105 km.
Total earnings: Rs 782 (Rs 34/hour)
After fuel: ₹532
This is India's convenience economy. A thread on what I learned @IndianExpress

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@RoyLakshman That's quite an accurate summary and explainer. Do you have a source from MoF that can be cited which says the existing NCCD will be applied on top of the new notified excise rates. Anything in the public domain? Thanks.

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@puji1110 @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman @pankajchaudhary @narendramodi Which evidence? Taxes are recognized to be one of the most effective tools to regulate tobacco consumption. The WHO and many international institutions stand by it. Indian literature also shows tobacco consumers are price sensitive. I have written extensively on this subject.

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

The recent tax restructuring with 40% GST & the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025 cannot plausibly justify a price hike of this magnitude on cigarettes. This is a familiar industry practice of tax over-shifting, raising prices beyond the tax increase to extract more profits.

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@dilipjain1979 I am all for raising taxes. A quick glance through my TL will tell you that. My point here is to say that the companies are using this opportunity to profit more.

[Rijo M. John @RijoMJohn]

@tehseenp If you read my tweet carefully, you will see that I did not argue that the company should not increase prices. My point was simply that the recent tax increase does not justify a fourfold rise in prices in order for firms to maintain their previous profit levels.

[Karthik Muralidharan @karthik_econ]

Evidence shows that when NREGS was implemented well, it raised rural wages and private employment—boosting demand and growth; promoting equity and efficiency.

Reforms should fix implementation, not revoke the right to employment.

Read my op-ed (w @sandipz) in @htTweets today: