Home Blogs Asian Chemical Connections

Asian Chemical Connections

India Creates 20,000 New Jobs A Month When It Needs One Million

By John Richardson WHEN Narendra Modi was campaigning to be India’s Prime Minister in 2013 he promised to create 10m new jobs every year. But in July 2014-December 2016, after Modi had become PM, 614,000 jobs were created in India’s eight major employment sectors – manufacturing, trade, construction, education, health, information technology, transport, accommodation and […]

India’s Currency Reforms: Potential Lehman Bros Moment

By John Richardson IN normal global economic, social and geopolitical circumstances, Narendra Modi’s decision to overnight remove 86% of the cash from the Indian economy would have been a major risk. But these are not the normal global circumstances that most of us are familiar with. They are instead very much like the 1930s. This is why India could end […]

Narendra Modi: Revisiting The “Toilet Test”

By John Richardson LAST year I set India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi a “toilet test: Would he be able to fulfil his promise of giving every Indian access to a toilet by 2019? I should have actually qualified this question by pointing out that access wasn’t enough, but instead has to be accompanied by a […]

India HasTo Focus On Sanitation And Education

By John Richardson SO far so good, perhaps: During the last financial year (March 31 2014 to 1 April 2015), 58.6 million new toilets were constructed in India, according to official government statistics. This compares with 48.9 million during the financial year 2013-2014. Narendra Modi has thus made some progress towards tackling the “toilet test” […]

India’s Budget: Going Beyond The 2% Who Own Shares

By John Richardson ANYBODY who invests in the Indian stock market might well regard today as a buying opportunity ahead of tomorrow’s announcement of India’s latest budget. Or, of course, it might be an opportunity to go short if you think that India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will disappoint the business world through the content […]

India’s Search For A New Growth Model

By John Richardson THE great news is that China is moving towards a new, and potentially very effective, economic growth model. Can we say the same for India? The reason why I pose this question is because, since Narendra Modi has been elected as Prime Minister, a lot of my Indian contacts have talked about […]

Creating Sustainable Chemicals Growth In 2015

By John Richardson AS just about everyone, including me, obsesses about the more than 40% collapse in oil prices and what it means for the chemicals industry, here is another statistic for you: 58,000 newborns die in India every year because they come into this dysfunctional world with bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. The root […]

US Petrochemicals: The Way Forward

By John Richardson ANYBODY out there prepared to make a guess? How long are these fantastic earnings for US petrochemicals companies in the key polyolefins space going to last? Six months, 12 months, 18 months or perhaps even longer? The question then becomes how financial analysts, investors, stock markets and therefore companies will respond when […]

India’s Budget: The Toilet Test

By John Richardson IT was fantastic news to hear that Narendra Modi, in his first budget as Prime Minister, has repeated his pledge of ensuring that every Indian has access to a toilet by 2019. But will he follow through on this pledge? We sincerely hope so as tackling this one big issue should define […]

Jump to page: