By John Richardson THERE are 2.8bn people – 40% of the world’s population – who live on $2-10 a day. These people are “the fragile middle”, according to the Financial Times, as they are constantly in danger of falling back into poverty. And those risks have been greatly escalated by the policies of the US Federal Reserve. Here […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Modi: Great Words, All The Best, But We Are Watching You
By John Richardson IT IS once again fantastic news that Narendra Modi has highlighted the need to improve sanitation in India, as he also did last month. During his National Day speech last week, India’s prime minister called on listeners to join him in a nationwide campaign to improve sanitation, noting that many women, lacking […]
Indonesia’s Jokowi: Poverty Alleviation The Key
By John Richardson INDONESIA’S new president seems like a breath of fresh air because he is outside the establishment and has portrayed himself as a man of the people. But one of Joko Widodo’s problems is that the establishment isn’t going to go down with a fight, as the appeal against his victory by rival […]
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 […]
How To Cash In On India’s Demographic Dividend
By John Richardson A DEMOGRAPHIC dividend is only a demographic dividend if you can create enough jobs for most of your young people. That’s one of India’s biggest challenges. During the economic Supercycle, cashing in on this dividend was relatively straightforward. If India had managed to sort out its restrictive labour practices, a sometimes nightmarish […]
How To Measure Modi’s Success
By John Richardson WINNING an election is one thing and governing is entirely different – as the hopeless Tony Abbott is discovering in Australia (more in a later blog post). We sincerely hope that Narendra Modi proves to be a great deal more competent than Abbott, who has confirmed our fears. Modi’s first budget, which […]
Modi’s Biggest Challenge: Tackling Poverty
By John Richardson Narendra Modi, as we discussed last week, faces a big job in unlocking the stalled infrastructure investment that is holding back India’s economic growth. Optimists, however, point to his success as chief minister of Gujarat, which he might repeat at a nationwide level if, as expected, he becomes Prime Minister. They […]
China Pulls Back From Funding Other Emerging Markets
By John Richardson IT important to be relentlessly realistic about the risks no confronting emerging markets in general, now that China is focusing much more on its own internal problems and needs. One of these risks – reduced funding of infrastructure and other projects in the emerging world by Chinese banks – was highlighted in this […]
Poverty Alleviation Matters More Than GDP
By John Richardson RICH people, relatively speaking, don’t buy that many chemicals and polymers – hence, poverty reduction matters from a dollars and cents as well as a moral perspective. Thus, a report released this week by the Asian Development Bank, Support for Inclusive Growth, makes for very disturbing reading. David Pilling from the FT, […]
India Can Be Plastic Fantastic
By John Richardson THE blog has recently heard India described as “very disappointing” by several overseas executives of major polyolefins producers. When pressed about what they meant, they told us: Economic growth over the last few years has been much weaker than expected. This has been the result of infrastructure constraints and lack of foreign […]
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