The projected 30 per cent annual growth in the consumption of legally brewed liquor in India during the first half of the current decade will not surprise many. [1] But what will raise eyebrows all around is the fact that —according to a study by The Lancet, the prestigious London-based medical journal—two-thirds of the alcohol consumed in India originates in the illegally brewed hooch, the English term for desi liquor, officially called tharra.[2]