Is Johnson's baby powder banned in India?

Three different events get folded into the word 'banned'. The first is Indian: on 15 Sep 2022 Maharashtra FDA cancelled the manufacturing licence of Johnson & Johnson's Mulund plant for baby powder, after two of eleven samples drawn in November 2019 showed a pH above the limit in IS 5339, the Indian standard for infant skin powder. The company went to the Bombay High Court, which on 11 Jan 2023 quashed the cancellation as unreasonably delayed, while ordering the November 2019 batch recalled and destroyed.

The second is a company decision. In August 2022 Johnson & Johnson announced that talc-based baby powder would be discontinued worldwide in 2023, to be replaced by a cornstarch formula. The reasons given were consumer demand and the cost of litigation in the United States, where tens of thousands of claims allege asbestos contamination. No Indian regulator has tested for or found asbestos; IS 5339 does not cover it.

The third is administrative. On 6 Aug 2024 CDSCO published a notice cancelling seven cosmetics import registration certificates held by Johnson & Johnson Pvt Ltd, covering 59 products made in Korea, Thailand, China, the United States and Switzerland. The notice records that the company surrendered them because it had stopped importing in late 2022 and its consumer business had moved to Kenvue. It is sometimes read as a ban; it is not.

So: not banned, never banned, and the talc version is gone for commercial reasons. The cornstarch product on sale today has no regulator record against it.