Moving Beyond the Dropbox: Why ESG in the Indian Chemical Sector is Now a Margin Story, Not a Compliance Check.

As someone who has spent close to  three decades navigating the cyclical highs and lows of the global chemical industry, I have watched the definition of "operational excellence" continuously evolve. In the early days, it was purely about volume and yield. Today, we are staring down the barrel of a completely different matrix: ESG. 

For a long time, there was a quiet sentiment across sections of the chemical sector in India that ESG was largely a Western narrative—a luxury for high-margin markets or a tedious corporate checking exercise driven by frameworks like SEBI's Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR).

But looking at the current landscape, that view is not just outdated; it’s a strategic liability.

The Shift from "License to Operate" to "License to Survive"

The global chemical sector has faced a prolonged downcycle, forcing a hyper-focus on cash preservation, capital allocation, and portfolio optimization. To insulate against commodity volatility, the natural migration has been toward specialty chemicals, advanced polymers, and high-performance formulations.

Here is the catch that many legacy operators miss: You cannot win global specialty chemical market share today without an unassailable ESG architecture.

When a multinational corporation qualifications a new supplier for a specialized molecule, they aren't just audits for chemical purity or logistical proximity anymore. They are auditing your carbon intensity, your water footprint, and your supply chain transparency. With Europe’s CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) taking real shape and global tier-1 buyers actively decarbonizing their Scope 3 emissions, an Indian chemical company with a high carbon footprint will simply find itself engineered out of the premium global supply chains.

The Realities on the Ground: E, S, and G

From a leadership perspective, we have to look at the three pillars through a lens of pragmatic execution:

• Environmental (The Resource Efficiency Imperative): In a legacy chemical plant, "green" used to mean a cost center. Today, true environmental stewardship is directly linked to the bottom line. Process intensification, shifting to bio-based raw materials, utilizing digital twins/AI for energy optimization, and advancing zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) technologies are efficiency plays. Every liter of water recycled and every unit of power saved is a direct reduction in structural operating costs. 

• Social (The Safety & Talent Crucible): In chemicals, "Social" begins and ends with asset integrity and process safety. But it is also about the future workforce. The next generation of top-tier R&D talent and chemical engineers do not want to work for legacy polluters. To build a robust pipeline of innovation, our workplace culture and safety standards must mirror global benchmarks.
• Governance (The Capital Magnet): Governance is the ultimate gatekeeper for capital. Domestic and international institutional investors are putting strict premiums on assured, third-party audited ESG data. If you want access to low-cost capital, green bonds, or sustainability-linked loans to fund your next major Capex expansion, your board-level oversight on sustainability metrics must be flawless.

Leapfrogging the Legacy Blueprint

India’s chemical sector is currently projected to grow robustly over the next decade, positioning it as a critical growth engine for the country. Because we are expanding and building new capacities, we possess a unique strategic advantage: The power to leapfrog.

We do not have to retrofit 50-year-old uncompetitive legacy assets like much of Western Europe is struggling to do. We can build sustainability into the very blueprint of our new, world-scale plants from day one.

The Takeaway for Fellow Leaders

ESG is no longer a corporate social responsibility initiative run by a siloed department to publish a glossy annual report. It is a core pillar of risk management and portfolio strategy.

As CEOs and business leaders, our job is to transform ESG from a regulatory compliance burden into an engine for margin expansion, capital attraction, and global competitiveness. The companies that realize this today will lead the global market tomorrow. The ones that treat it as a bureaucratic exercise will get left behind in the downcycle.

I would love to hear from my peers in the industry: How are you driving the integration of sustainability into your core manufacturing operations this year? What are the biggest friction points you are encountering?

 

 

 

#ChemicalIndustry #SpecialtyChemicals #ESG #Sustainability #Leadership #IndiaManufacturing #CorporateGovernance

 

Navigating Europe’s CSDDD and CBAM: A Playbook for Indian Specialty Chemical Leaders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Navigating Europe’s CSDDD and CBAM:  

A Playbook for Indian Specialty Chemical Leaders

The conversations I am having with European business leaders lately point to a massive shift that Indian specialty chemical boards cannot afford to ignore.

European buyers are moving past the initial phase of the "China Plus One" strategy. They aren't just looking for alternative manufacturing capacity anymore; they are looking for legally compliant partners.

With the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) tightening up, European companies face severe legal liability if their global suppliers fail ESG audits.

During my time leading regional business across the Asia Pacific, I saw firsthand how quickly regulatory shifts can disrupt an export pipeline if the leadership team is caught off guard. "I remember when a sudden change in regional environmental policies disrupted our supply lines in late last decade , teaching us that compliance is a core commercial strategy."

For Indian specialty chemical companies looking to capture premium European market share, our boardrooms need to stop treating ESG as a compliance box to check, and start treating it as an existential risk management priority.

Three specific areas require immediate board-level attention:

Supply Chain Traceability:
We must be able to map and prove the environmental footprint of our raw feedstock, not just our finished products.

Carbon Component Pricing:
If our manufacturing relies heavily on non-renewable energy grids, CBAM carbon tariffs will eventually wipe out our pricing advantages in Europe. Investing in green energy transitions is now a margin-protection strategy.

Board-Level Oversight:
Risk committees need to actively audit multi-jurisdictional compliance protocols before an international contract is signed, not after a violation occurs.

Manufacturing excellence got Indian chemical companies to the global table. But staying there requires us to match that excellence with institutional governance.

#SpecialtyChemicals #CorporateGovernance #SupplyChain #ChemicalIndustry #BoardDirector #ESG ##CSDDD #CBAM #Sustainability

Customs Duty Exemption on Lithium & other rare minerals to Boost EV Sector Growth in India

 

The proposed exemption in customs duty on import of lithium, cobalt and other rare minerals in the Union Budget 2024-25 is likely to lower the battery production cost and help in making electric vehicles more affordable for the buyers.

 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget for 2024-25 proposed to fully exempt customs duties on 25 critical minerals and reduce Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on two of them.

This will provide a major fillip to the processing and refining of such minerals and help secure their availability for these strategic and important sectors, she noted. Minerals such as Lithium, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements are critical for sectors like nuclear energy, renewable energy, space, defense, telecommunications, and high-tech electronics, Sitharaman stated.

Exemption of customs duty on import of lithium, cobalt and other rare minerals and extension of concessional customs duty on Li-Ion cells till March 2026 and withdrawal of equalization levy of 2 per cent on e-transactions is expected to propel the growth of the Indian auto industry. .

The move is likely to encourage few players to indigenise battery production in India.The industry was not expecting a lot but was definitely looking for some announcements with respect to FAME III subsidies, and other direct benefits for BEV/ NEV (New Electric Vehicle). One  have to wait to see if there are any further relaxations in the future by the FM or by the GST Council.

The strategic move will significantly impact India's EV market by lowering production costs and enhancing competitiveness.

Indian cabinet allows Lithium's commercial mining to charge up it's EV ambitions

Indian Cabinet approved amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, on July 12, allowing for mining of lithium and other minerals, ET reported citing sources.

It was widely reported earlier  that the government was planning to amend the  act to encourage exploration of deep-seated minerals   such  as tellurium, selenium, lead, zinc, cadmium, indium, gold, silver, diamond, rock phosphate, apatite, potash, and elements of the rare earth group.

Critical and strategic minerals such as lithium, cobalt, molybdenum, rhenium, tungsten, graphite, vanadium, nickel, tin, platinum  etc.   Group of elements like  columbite, tantalite, lepidolite, scheelite and cassiterite are also part of the list.

The amendment proposed to insert the provision of an exploration licence in the law which will be granted through auction for undertaking reconnaissance and prospecting operations, according to an official.

Companies will be allowed to suggest areas they want to explore, and eventually mine in India, as per the changes. This is a deviation from the usual practice where blocks or mines are defined by the government to be taken up for auction.

The licence will also be granted only for deep-seated and critical minerals that will be specified in a new schedule to the Act, said the official.

The changes are likely to incentivise private sector participation in all spheres of mineral exploration, with a focus on precious and critical ones. They will allow junior mining companies to get exploration rights on the basis of available baseline survey data. These companies explore the area from the reconnaissance stage and bring it up to the level required for starting mining operations.

Companies will also be allowed to transfer the mineral concession in full or part during the exploration period or at the conclusion of exploration, as per the changes.

 

Source : ET India (Reproduced with edited version)

 

FDA allows emergency use of drug remdesivir for COVID 19

The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized Remdesivir (a nucleoside ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymerase inhibitor) an experimental antiviral drug, for emergency use to treat Covid-19.

The authorization allows the intravenous drug to be distributed to doctors to administer to patients with severe disease.

Many health experts have had high hopes for the drug, which was initially developed by Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola. In past,it was also  used in experiments to treat the coronaviruses SARS and MERS. That early testing gave remdesivir a head start in the race for a treatment to Covid-19.

The NIH trial, called the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, included 1,063 patients. The results showed that the median time to recover for patients who randomly received the placebo was 15 days while patients who received remdesivir had a median recovery time of 11 days. Remdesivir also lowered the mortality rate compared to the placebo group, from 11.6 percent to 8 percent.

These results, however, are preliminary. There are at least 19 studies on remdesivir around the world underway or in planning stages, some recruiting thousands of patients. It will be several months before they yield definitive answers, but they will, hopefully, bring the world closer to a working treatment.

Earlier  a randomized trial of the drug in China recently published in the Lancet  found that there was no statistical benefit to taking the drug. The study  was based on a true randomized controlled trial from Wuhan, China, with 237 patients. The study was also peer-reviewed by other scientists. Initially, the authors wanted to include up to 450 patients, but the lockdown imposed in the city meant that patients stopped arriving.

The FDA on 28^th March, 2020  had approved  emergency use authorization to a malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, after President Donald Trump repeatedly promoted it as a possible treatment for COVID-19. 

Here is the link to the announcement.

US FDA announcement