Graphic pictorial warnings like a cancer-disfigured face or diseased lungs - to highlight the hazards of tobacco intake - were supposed to have hit the market May 31. But they are nowhere in sight and the tobacco industry says it will take more time.

"Given the fact that the various trade channels hold fairly large quantities of inventory, it will take some time for stocks with the new health warnings to be available in the marketplace," Udayan Lall, director of the Tobacco Institute of India (TII), told IANS.