The one-and-a-half-century jute industry, ever unconcerned about challenges emerging from alternative materials, has made it a habit to fall back on the government to keep competition at bay. And, so far, it has found obliging governments. What has helped the antediluvian industry win official sympathy is its making a case on about five million families engaged in raw jute cultivation being denied their livelihood if jute packaging material had to compete with synthetic substitutes.