Sivakasi, in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar district, grew into India's fireworks capital over the twentieth century, helped by a dry climate suited to pyrotechnic manufacture. Today the town and its neighbours host hundreds of licensed units, and the region is widely cited as producing around 90 per cent of the country's fireworks, alongside its well-known printing and match industries.
The trade is tightly seasonal, with the bulk of sales in the weeks before Diwali, and tightly regulated: manufacture, storage, transport and retail all fall under the Explosives Rules, 2008. Small agencies and retailers — the category into which the Viswanatham listing falls — form the last link between Sivakasi's factories and buyers across South India.