Dr. Raman Ramachandran

Head South Asia & CMD,

BASF India Ltd - Chairman CAB Specialty Chemicals World Expo 2019

We are one of the fastest growing economies of about 2.5 trillion USD; and foreseeing to double it to 5 trillion USD in next 5 – 10 years, thus will become one of the biggest economies in the World. And most important part of this is, we intend 20 percent to 25 percent of this to come from manufacturing, to reach this very ambitious objective. Chemical Industry is the enabler of most of the other manufacturing industries. So, we are a very vital industry in terms of opportunities exist for all of us. But the question is, if this is going to be catered by the local manufacturers or would it be imported through other countries? We advocate to the Government for creating an enabling environment to do business better in terms of infrastructure, energy cost, stifling regulating rules, and various other factors.

Mr. Gurpreet Kohli

Global Program Director (R&D)

Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

As an end-user’s perspective, Innovation is the life-line for HUL, without which survival is not possible in this FMCG industry. Innovation for us is to understand the emerging consumer needs and finding the right product for them. Here the Specialty Chemical Industry plays a very pertinent role, to identify the chemistry, create the chemistry, and supply it at scale. Sustainability is a license to operate. Because, the world around us is changing so rapidly due to climate change, effects of pollution and consumption of materials like water, energy, etc., which is stressing the environment.

Dr. Sanjay Mishra

Head of Innovation, Specialty Chemicals

SABIC

The definition of innovation in our view is changing. It’s no longer limited to only introducing a new chemistry, a new product, or a new process. Innovation often comes in the form of Service, Business Model, Digitalization; and more importantly it’s not EITHER – OR, it’s AND. It’s a little bit of all of these that are going to get us to the next level, as we think about the next 5 years or 10 years or 15 years’ time-frame. Successful innovations will depend upon creating co-innovations. Co-innovation is the mantra or the theme that will get us into the future. Digitalization is here in full swing. We got to run with it with all arms surrounded; but it does need us to move from ‘Functional Optimization’ to ‘System Transformation’ for it to really show the effects.

Mr. Omer Dormen

Vice President, India and South Asia,

Castrol India Limited

The world is going to need energy by 30% more in next 20 years. At the same time, we need to significantly reduce the emissions in order to meet the climate goal. On the face of challenges, we can evolve by three levels, Product Innovation, Process Innovation, and Catering to Customers. While we are looking at Product Innovation, we also need to be sustainable in terms of how we produce our products.

Mr. Sanjeev Chopra (IAS)

Principal Secretary, Industries Department,

Govt. of Odisha & Chairman, IPICOL

The Vision of Odisha is to attract Rs. 2.5 lakh crore of new investments in 6 identified focus sectors and create 30 lakh job opportunities by Yr. 2025, as per Odisha Industrial Development Plan: Vision 2025. Chemicals & Petrochemicals is classified as a focus sector of the state and is eligible for special incentives as per the Odisha Industrial Policy Resolution, 2015. There is also a prominent expansion plan of Paradip Port in place with a current capacity of 277 MMTPA to 325 MMT by Yr. 2020.

Mr. Ajay Durrani

Managing Director- Indian SubContinent

Covetsro India Pvt. Ltd.

Circular Economy emphasizes the shift from ‘Take-Make-Dispose’ approach to ‘Reduce-Reuse-and Recycle’ approach. And this topic has global importance. However from the Indian perspective of circular economy, a big question is: how do we make an Economic Sense out of this Whole Concept. India being the entrepreneur based economy, it is important to check that the business is really creating value not only for us, but for the whole ecosystem. And the entire Supply Chain is also really making something out of it.

Mr. Allwyn Crasto

Head, Transportation and Distribution Safety

Emergency Response and Fire Prevention, South Asia, BASF India Ltd.

When we talk about the safety & sustainability going together – there are about 5 lakh accidents happen on the road each year causing approximate 1.5 lakh fatalities, as reported by the government in 2017. Out of this, 72% of fatalities impact the people within the age group of 18 to 45 that results in loss of productive work force. As a preventive measure, leading chemical companies have collaborated to create ‘Nicer Globe’ platform to give the chemical industry a platform for safe and secured transportation. The USP of this platform is 24X7 ‘Emergency Response’, as it is easy to track-n-trace. Another very important aspect we introduced to promote and enhance sustainability is the Digital Check-tool, which can be accessed through the android based device and uses cloud-based database and reduces the paper consumption significantly.

Mr. Satish Cheeti

CEO Recycling

Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd.

Since inception, we have generated 8.3 billion metric ton of plastics; we have been to dispose of only 2 billion metric tons of 6.3 billion metric ton which still remains in the system and is just 12 times of the weight of all human beings combined in the world.It is the time to come up with strategies to circumvent and to surpass this problem. For that, we use the concept of ‘UpCycling’ – not the ‘Recycling’. Because, in recycling, at some point of time, we need to dispose-off the waste. Recycling does not eliminate the issue, instead it’s just going to defer. However, in UpCycling, the waste is brought back as a product into the main stream.

Mr. Karol Kerrane

Business Development Director

EPC Engineering & Technologies GmbH

Sustainability and Circular Economy have been integral since Industrial Revolution or far back as you want to go. When we look at the design of a plant, it’s just not an environmental issue, it is the needed balance of technology, economy, and environment. We could have the technological solutions ready with us for all of our environmental issues, but it may not be economically feasible. Circular economy goes all the way from designing of something, to production, to use by consumers, to post-consumer recycling, and back-in-use.

Mr. Ravi Kapoor

Chairman & Managing Director

Heubach India

In the previous century, there was a concern for ‘Energy Resources’. Now the concern has been shifted to ‘Resource Crisis’. This is going to be the future. And that becomes the challenge for a country like India, because we have to grow; but, we have to grow in a responsible manner. Basically, Circularity has no limit. First, it is a thinking process. It’s first the innovation in your head; It’s first having the approach for the right time to plan for the project. If waste management cannot be done in the most effective way, the project should not see the daylight.

Mr. D. Radhakrishnan

Principle Technologist – I,

Chemical Technology Group, SRF Ltd.

Ideally, in the chemical industry, there should be only products and no wastes. But in reality, that is not the case. So more the industry uses the wastes in real scenario, more closer they will be to the ideal industry and larger will be their production. One of our plant in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan is working on Zero Discharge Concept. It does not discharge any effluent (either solid, or liquid, or gaseous) to the environment. In other areas, we either convert all the discharges into sellable products, or recycle back to the original products.

Mr. Samir Somaiya

Chairman & Managing Director

Godavari Biorefineries Ltd

We need to create bridge amongst Industry, Academia, and the Market so that we can create really innovative products which India and the rest of the World can be proud of.

Dr. Diels Ludo

Research Manager Sustainable Chemistry

VITO – Flemish Institute for Technology

To practice innovation through sustainability, we need to look at the alternatives for limited resources in chemical industry. Firstly, we have to intensify our conversion and downstream processes to make them more efficient and effective. Secondly, reuse side-streams to reduce the cost for land-filling and for treatment. Thirdly, replace regular feedstock with renewable feedstock and energy with renewable energy. Lastly, we will also have to reuse the auxiliaries like solvents, water, catalysts, and so on.

Dr. Dietmar Hueglin

Director Innovation Campus Mumbai (RA / OM), Vice President Advanced Materials &

Systems Research, BASF Chemicals India Pvt. Ltd.

While industry research is always directed towards better processes and better products, academia and their professors who can fundamentally look at the topics such as prototypes, but not the products. Academia can play an active role to bring translational research to the market. In the ecosystem of government, industry and the academia, it is critical to see the role that each of these entities can play.

Dr. Amita Joshi

Sr. Manager, Technical – Biotechnology Research Assistance Council

Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology

BIRAC is the brain-child of Department of Biotechnology, under the Ministry of Science and Technology which has evolved with time. It was started with the idea to offer schemes to spur the research with the industry under various forms of partnerships. BIRAC attempts to bridge the gaps through appropriate schemes. SIBRI & BIPP are the initiatives to spur innovation and research in big industries, there are schemes for SMEs to put their best foot forward. BIRAC has initiated certain schemes to bring academic research forward through academia-industry partnership. BIRAC funds the projects of academic partners to develop the pilot scale or take it up to pre commercialization stage. With partner organizations like ‘Shrishti’ we fund innovative ideas coming out directly from University Students at the Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and PhD level.

Mr. Ketan Karkhanis

Head-IT

Clariant Chemicals, India

When we talk about Digitalization enablement of Health and safety, we name it as EHS 4.0 or Digital EHS. It is nothing but the collaborative framework of Industry 4.0 and EHS being empowered with various applications viz. Industry IoT, Big Data Analysis, Mobility, Cloud, etc. And this Digital EHS or EHS 4.0 is garnered by wearables such as smart glasses, devices for health , emission & environment monitoring, beacons & sensors, cloud mobility and Augmented & Virtual Reality.

Mr. Punit Krishna

Co-Founder and CEO

Chemarc

In today’s world, we deal with businesses through Pipeline Business Model. In this model, we have a seller or provider; we also have a buyer or receiver; and partners we share things with such as information, expertise, documents, and ideas. Then the decisions are followed by flow of Goods, Services & Cash which happens in the pipelines. There is a producer at one end and the other end is occupied by the buyers and this pipeline is controlled by both the parties. A particular business can have as many pipelines as they wish and the growth of business is proportional to the increase in number of pipelines.

Mr. Sharad Joshi

4.0 Roll-out Leader South Asia, South East Asia, and

Australia & Nz, BASF

Digital transformation is expanding in waves across industries and value chains, which is a challenging route ahead. This transformation wave starts with ‘Digitalization of Media & Marketing’, and proceeds through ‘Digitalization of Distribution’, ‘Digitalization of Services’, and ‘Digitalization of Production’. Data help us creating extra value along the entire value chain. Agility, iterative movements, and early customer involvement allow us to leverage the power of digital technology through interdisciplinary team, fast decision making, end-to-end ownership, entrepreneurial spirit and relentless innovation.

Mr. Sandeep Srikumar

Global Head, Digital Operations

Henkel Adhesive Operations

This is the Era of Customization, which means the product needs to be the perfect fit for the customer-demand and not a matching demand. When you do a perfect fit, you need to create thousands of variants of the master product to fit to the individual needs of the customers. This is where digitalization plays the critical role to bring in its uniqueness. One of the main ingredient of digitalization in the context of specialty chemical process industry is to look at end-to-end. From the value-chain point of view, we need to have the data collection for end-to-end process. Because finally the quality and value-proposition of a product is not only about delivering it on time, but it is about when the product behaves in the best way in customers’ environment.

Mr. Subramanyam Kasibhat

Founder & CEO

Vegam Solutions

Digitalization, in our perspective, has been adopted by the giants first, due to their drivers. However from economy and disruption point of view, small companies can afford it too and can compete with the giants without making any hefty investment. Because, today the entire technological platform is accessible. Digitization has a disruptive capability at the bottom-most layer. But we have seen its adoption at the highest level.

Mr. Adnan Ahmad

VC & MD

Clariant Chemicals (India) Ltd.

The Ease of Doing Business is a very contentious issue. Is it easy to do business in India? Or, is it a pain? Are we competitive as a country or as a territory to do business? We can keep asking this questions; however, let’s not forget that there are many of us who are doing business in India and enjoying the benefits derived from it. But that doesn't mean – it is easier, and we have achieved what we wanted to. When you want to setup any manufacturing business, what kind of things would you want to be drawn to that territory? The first thing would be the input cost. In our business, 50% - 60% cost is incurred by the raw material. Therefore, we need to get the raw material at a competitive price.

Mr. Suyog Kotecha

Partner

McKinsey & Company

If you plot all the public listed companies in last 16 years versus the returns that their shareholders got, chemical sector comes right at the top in terms of total return to the shareholders. And this is true for last 15 years. This is a clear indication that this industry gives better return compared to their feedstock suppliers or in terms of their consumer industries. China is going through its own problems with environment norms and with the government’s push to move from industrial to more consumer facing industries. Going from manufacturing to services, there is a bit concern for chemical industry. Japan and Korea are the case of block structuring. Even though we don’t know much from outside, it’s much protected; and in the overall global scheme of things, India has come out as a very bright spot for a sector in the world, which has given very high returns historically.

Mr. Rajendra Gorgi

Chairman & Managing Director

Aarti Industries Limited

This is golden period for Indian specialty chemical industry. Before the start of easternization in 1990, everything was produced in US, Europe & Japan. Due to the peculiar nature of chemical industry, chemical industry has moved to China and India largely due to availability of chemistry and chemical industry landscape. Though China has the larger share, but in the last six years the dynamics have started to change. According to World Bank, labour cost in India is 50% in terms of dollars as compared to China. However, due to environmental disruption in China the industry has lost its cost advantage thus making India the lower cost destination.

Mr. Meghav Mehta

General Manager Strategy

Deepak Phenolics Limited

Digitization was able to take over the industry to drive progress faster; however, our education system could not keep up with that. We are going to end up with the population that will go through job training which will not add any value to the organization. There are definite issues both from industry perspective and the education perspective; but we need to keep pace with one another. More collaborative approach will help to understand each other. First we have to understand why there is problem & why the sense of urgency is high. Once we have that empathy, we have to understand how we phase out the old and the phase in the new. Once we have that clarity, then we need to act fast without wasting time and without going back-and-forth.

Dr. Raman Ramachandran

Head South Asia & CMD,

BASF India Ltd - Chairman CAB Specialty Chemicals World Expo 2019

We are one of the fastest growing economies of about 2.5 trillion USD; and foreseeing to double it to 5 trillion USD in next 5 – 10 years, thus will become one of the biggest economies in the World. And most important part of this is, we intend 20 percent to 25 percent of this to come from manufacturing, to reach this very ambitious objective. Chemical Industry is the enabler of most of the other manufacturing industries. So, we are a very vital industry in terms of opportunities exist for all of us. But the question is, if this is going to be catered by the local manufacturers or would it be imported through other countries? We advocate to the Government for creating an enabling environment to do business better in terms of infrastructure, energy cost, stifling regulating rules, and various other factors.

Mr. Gurpreet Kohli

Global Program Director (R&D)

Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

As an end-user’s perspective, Innovation is the life-line for HUL, without which survival is not possible in this FMCG industry. Innovation for us is to understand the emerging consumer needs and finding the right product for them. Here the Specialty Chemical Industry plays a very pertinent role, to identify the chemistry, create the chemistry, and supply it at scale. Sustainability is a license to operate. Because, the world around us is changing so rapidly due to climate change, effects of pollution and consumption of materials like water, energy, etc., which is stressing the environment.

Dr. Sanjay Mishra

Head of Innovation, Specialty Chemicals

SABIC

The definition of innovation in our view is changing. It’s no longer limited to only introducing a new chemistry, a new product, or a new process. Innovation often comes in the form of Service, Business Model, Digitalization; and more importantly it’s not EITHER – OR, it’s AND. It’s a little bit of all of these that are going to get us to the next level, as we think about the next 5 years or 10 years or 15 years’ time-frame. Successful innovations will depend upon creating co-innovations. Co-innovation is the mantra or the theme that will get us into the future. Digitalization is here in full swing. We got to run with it with all arms surrounded; but it does need us to move from ‘Functional Optimization’ to ‘System Transformation’ for it to really show the effects.

Mr. Omer Dormen

Vice President, India and South Asia,

Castrol India Limited

The world is going to need energy by 30% more in next 20 years. At the same time, we need to significantly reduce the emissions in order to meet the climate goal. On the face of challenges, we can evolve by three levels, Product Innovation, Process Innovation, and Catering to Customers. While we are looking at Product Innovation, we also need to be sustainable in terms of how we produce our products.

Mr. Sanjeev Chopra (IAS)

Principal Secretary, Industries Department,

Govt. of Odisha & Chairman, IPICOL

The Vision of Odisha is to attract Rs. 2.5 lakh crore of new investments in 6 identified focus sectors and create 30 lakh job opportunities by Yr. 2025, as per Odisha Industrial Development Plan: Vision 2025. Chemicals & Petrochemicals is classified as a focus sector of the state and is eligible for special incentives as per the Odisha Industrial Policy Resolution, 2015. There is also a prominent expansion plan of Paradip Port in place with a current capacity of 277 MMTPA to 325 MMT by Yr. 2020.

Mr. Ajay Durrani

Managing Director- Indian SubContinent

Covetsro India Pvt. Ltd.

Circular Economy emphasizes the shift from ‘Take-Make-Dispose’ approach to ‘Reduce-Reuse-and Recycle’ approach. And this topic has global importance. However from the Indian perspective of circular economy, a big question is: how do we make an Economic Sense out of this Whole Concept. India being the entrepreneur based economy, it is important to check that the business is really creating value not only for us, but for the whole ecosystem. And the entire Supply Chain is also really making something out of it.

Mr. Allwyn Crasto

Head, Transportation and Distribution Safety

Emergency Response and Fire Prevention, South Asia, BASF India Ltd.

When we talk about the safety & sustainability going together – there are about 5 lakh accidents happen on the road each year causing approximate 1.5 lakh fatalities, as reported by the government in 2017. Out of this, 72% of fatalities impact the people within the age group of 18 to 45 that results in loss of productive work force. As a preventive measure, leading chemical companies have collaborated to create ‘Nicer Globe’ platform to give the chemical industry a platform for safe and secured transportation. The USP of this platform is 24X7 ‘Emergency Response’, as it is easy to track-n-trace. Another very important aspect we introduced to promote and enhance sustainability is the Digital Check-tool, which can be accessed through the android based device and uses cloud-based database and reduces the paper consumption significantly.

Mr. Satish Cheeti

CEO Recycling

Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd.

Since inception, we have generated 8.3 billion metric ton of plastics; we have been to dispose of only 2 billion metric tons of 6.3 billion metric ton which still remains in the system and is just 12 times of the weight of all human beings combined in the world.It is the time to come up with strategies to circumvent and to surpass this problem. For that, we use the concept of ‘UpCycling’ – not the ‘Recycling’. Because, in recycling, at some point of time, we need to dispose-off the waste. Recycling does not eliminate the issue, instead it’s just going to defer. However, in UpCycling, the waste is brought back as a product into the main stream.

Mr. Karol Kerrane

Business Development Director

EPC Engineering & Technologies GmbH

Sustainability and Circular Economy have been integral since Industrial Revolution or far back as you want to go. When we look at the design of a plant, it’s just not an environmental issue, it is the needed balance of technology, economy, and environment. We could have the technological solutions ready with us for all of our environmental issues, but it may not be economically feasible. Circular economy goes all the way from designing of something, to production, to use by consumers, to post-consumer recycling, and back-in-use.

Mr. Ravi Kapoor

Chairman & Managing Director

Heubach India

In the previous century, there was a concern for ‘Energy Resources’. Now the concern has been shifted to ‘Resource Crisis’. This is going to be the future. And that becomes the challenge for a country like India, because we have to grow; but, we have to grow in a responsible manner. Basically, Circularity has no limit. First, it is a thinking process. It’s first the innovation in your head; It’s first having the approach for the right time to plan for the project. If waste management cannot be done in the most effective way, the project should not see the daylight.

Mr. D. Radhakrishnan

Principle Technologist – I,

Chemical Technology Group, SRF Ltd.

Ideally, in the chemical industry, there should be only products and no wastes. But in reality, that is not the case. So more the industry uses the wastes in real scenario, more closer they will be to the ideal industry and larger will be their production. One of our plant in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan is working on Zero Discharge Concept. It does not discharge any effluent (either solid, or liquid, or gaseous) to the environment. In other areas, we either convert all the discharges into sellable products, or recycle back to the original products.

Mr. Samir Somaiya

Chairman & Managing Director

Godavari Biorefineries Ltd

We need to create bridge amongst Industry, Academia, and the Market so that we can create really innovative products which India and the rest of the World can be proud of.

Dr. Diels Ludo

Research Manager Sustainable Chemistry

VITO – Flemish Institute for Technology

To practice innovation through sustainability, we need to look at the alternatives for limited resources in chemical industry. Firstly, we have to intensify our conversion and downstream processes to make them more efficient and effective. Secondly, reuse side-streams to reduce the cost for land-filling and for treatment. Thirdly, replace regular feedstock with renewable feedstock and energy with renewable energy. Lastly, we will also have to reuse the auxiliaries like solvents, water, catalysts, and so on.

Dr. Dietmar Hueglin

Director Innovation Campus Mumbai (RA / OM), Vice President Advanced Materials &

Systems Research, BASF Chemicals India Pvt. Ltd.

While industry research is always directed towards better processes and better products, academia and their professors who can fundamentally look at the topics such as prototypes, but not the products. Academia can play an active role to bring translational research to the market. In the ecosystem of government, industry and the academia, it is critical to see the role that each of these entities can play.

Dr. Amita Joshi

Sr. Manager, Technical – Biotechnology Research Assistance Council

Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology

BIRAC is the brain-child of Department of Biotechnology, under the Ministry of Science and Technology which has evolved with time. It was started with the idea to offer schemes to spur the research with the industry under various forms of partnerships. BIRAC attempts to bridge the gaps through appropriate schemes. SIBRI & BIPP are the initiatives to spur innovation and research in big industries, there are schemes for SMEs to put their best foot forward. BIRAC has initiated certain schemes to bring academic research forward through academia-industry partnership. BIRAC funds the projects of academic partners to develop the pilot scale or take it up to pre commercialization stage. With partner organizations like ‘Shrishti’ we fund innovative ideas coming out directly from University Students at the Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and PhD level.

Mr. Ketan Karkhanis

Head-IT

Clariant Chemicals, India

When we talk about Digitalization enablement of Health and safety, we name it as EHS 4.0 or Digital EHS. It is nothing but the collaborative framework of Industry 4.0 and EHS being empowered with various applications viz. Industry IoT, Big Data Analysis, Mobility, Cloud, etc. And this Digital EHS or EHS 4.0 is garnered by wearables such as smart glasses, devices for health , emission & environment monitoring, beacons & sensors, cloud mobility and Augmented & Virtual Reality.

Mr. Punit Krishna

Co-Founder and CEO

Chemarc

In today’s world, we deal with businesses through Pipeline Business Model. In this model, we have a seller or provider; we also have a buyer or receiver; and partners we share things with such as information, expertise, documents, and ideas. Then the decisions are followed by flow of Goods, Services & Cash which happens in the pipelines. There is a producer at one end and the other end is occupied by the buyers and this pipeline is controlled by both the parties. A particular business can have as many pipelines as they wish and the growth of business is proportional to the increase in number of pipelines.

Mr. Sharad Joshi

4.0 Roll-out Leader South Asia, South East Asia, and

Australia & Nz, BASF

Digital transformation is expanding in waves across industries and value chains, which is a challenging route ahead. This transformation wave starts with ‘Digitalization of Media & Marketing’, and proceeds through ‘Digitalization of Distribution’, ‘Digitalization of Services’, and ‘Digitalization of Production’. Data help us creating extra value along the entire value chain. Agility, iterative movements, and early customer involvement allow us to leverage the power of digital technology through interdisciplinary team, fast decision making, end-to-end ownership, entrepreneurial spirit and relentless innovation.

Mr. Sandeep Srikumar

Global Head, Digital Operations

Henkel Adhesive Operations

This is the Era of Customization, which means the product needs to be the perfect fit for the customer-demand and not a matching demand. When you do a perfect fit, you need to create thousands of variants of the master product to fit to the individual needs of the customers. This is where digitalization plays the critical role to bring in its uniqueness. One of the main ingredient of digitalization in the context of specialty chemical process industry is to look at end-to-end. From the value-chain point of view, we need to have the data collection for end-to-end process. Because finally the quality and value-proposition of a product is not only about delivering it on time, but it is about when the product behaves in the best way in customers’ environment.

Mr. Subramanyam Kasibhat

Founder & CEO

Vegam Solutions

Digitalization, in our perspective, has been adopted by the giants first, due to their drivers. However from economy and disruption point of view, small companies can afford it too and can compete with the giants without making any hefty investment. Because, today the entire technological platform is accessible. Digitization has a disruptive capability at the bottom-most layer. But we have seen its adoption at the highest level.

Mr. Adnan Ahmad

VC & MD

Clariant Chemicals (India) Ltd.

The Ease of Doing Business is a very contentious issue. Is it easy to do business in India? Or, is it a pain? Are we competitive as a country or as a territory to do business? We can keep asking this questions; however, let’s not forget that there are many of us who are doing business in India and enjoying the benefits derived from it. But that doesn't mean – it is easier, and we have achieved what we wanted to. When you want to setup any manufacturing business, what kind of things would you want to be drawn to that territory? The first thing would be the input cost. In our business, 50% - 60% cost is incurred by the raw material. Therefore, we need to get the raw material at a competitive price.

Mr. Suyog Kotecha

Partner

McKinsey & Company

If you plot all the public listed companies in last 16 years versus the returns that their shareholders got, chemical sector comes right at the top in terms of total return to the shareholders. And this is true for last 15 years. This is a clear indication that this industry gives better return compared to their feedstock suppliers or in terms of their consumer industries. China is going through its own problems with environment norms and with the government’s push to move from industrial to more consumer facing industries. Going from manufacturing to services, there is a bit concern for chemical industry. Japan and Korea are the case of block structuring. Even though we don’t know much from outside, it’s much protected; and in the overall global scheme of things, India has come out as a very bright spot for a sector in the world, which has given very high returns historically.

Mr. Rajendra Gorgi

Chairman & Managing Director

Aarti Industries Limited

This is golden period for Indian specialty chemical industry. Before the start of easternization in 1990, everything was produced in US, Europe & Japan. Due to the peculiar nature of chemical industry, chemical industry has moved to China and India largely due to availability of chemistry and chemical industry landscape. Though China has the larger share, but in the last six years the dynamics have started to change. According to World Bank, labour cost in India is 50% in terms of dollars as compared to China. However, due to environmental disruption in China the industry has lost its cost advantage thus making India the lower cost destination.

Mr. Meghav Mehta

General Manager Strategy

Deepak Phenolics Limited

Digitization was able to take over the industry to drive progress faster; however, our education system could not keep up with that. We are going to end up with the population that will go through job training which will not add any value to the organization. There are definite issues both from industry perspective and the education perspective; but we need to keep pace with one another. More collaborative approach will help to understand each other. First we have to understand why there is problem & why the sense of urgency is high. Once we have that empathy, we have to understand how we phase out the old and the phase in the new. Once we have that clarity, then we need to act fast without wasting time and without going back-and-forth.