For a long time, it has been taboo to criticize the Orthodox Church in Georgia. Quite recently, however, the clergymen themselves lifted this taboo by publicly carrying out their conflicts. The visit of Pope Francis in September 2016 sparked a plethora of mutual accusations. Archpriest Davit Isakadze was against the Pope’s visit and blamed the two other Archpriests Toedore Gignadze and Aleksandre Galdava for being sectarians and church enemies.

After a hike in excise tax on cigarettes in January 2017, the Parliament of Georgia is going to introduce legislative changes to the existing tobacco control law (TCL) in March. Since its enactment in 2003, TCL has been modified several times. However, the recently proposed changes can be considered the most radical step towards a tobacco-free society in Georgia. New draft law comprehensively covers production, packaging, marketing, advertising, selling and consumption of tobacco, and other activities of tobacco businesses.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that cigarettes are bad for human health. Yet, whenever the government tries to regulate the consumption of cigarettes by increasing their price, it gets a very mixed reaction from the public. Some people (mostly non-smokers) welcome these policies, while others accuse the government of being greedy and proclaim the policies ineffective. Who is right and who is wrong in this debate? Let’s take a closer look at the facts.

Mikheil Nadareishvili graduated from Oxford University with MSc in Applied Statistics before attending ISET and graduated as part of the Class of 2014. He joined TBC bank shortly afterward, motivated by his deep interest in using statistical and machine learning tools to gain insights from vast amounts of data and use them to inform policies and decisions. His initial role was to develop statistical models to segment customers, understand their needs, and predict their behavior.

ISET Policy Institute together with Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Georgia offers free of charge training program "Leaders in Development". The program is designed for anybody who is involved in or is affected by, public policy decisions: government analysts and decision-makers, parliament staffers, private sector executives, civil society activists, as well as development professionals working in international organizations.