• Indian tyre industry needs to tighten their grip

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Managing Director, LANXESS India
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    Numbers do not always tell the whole story. This classic maxim is best illustrated by the the Indian tyre industry. The healthy 25% revenue growth it posted during fiscal 2010-11 is no doubt a commendable number in the context of general economic slowdown. However, surge in input costs especially that of natural rubber (NR) negated any scale benefits, and resulted in a contraction of industry-wide operating margins by over 500 bps (basis point). This was despite numerous industry wide price hikes, cumulatively amounting to a 15-20% increase in tyre prices growth during Q1, 2011-12 supported by strong replacement and export demand.

    The industry is in fact up against several challenges that could cripple its growth and profitability in the short to medium term. The highly raw material intenstive industry is suffering intense competition from low priced tyres from China and other South East Asian countries. Despite being of comparable quality standards', Indian manufactured tyres lose ground when it comes to pricing.

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  • Chemistry and the Seven Billion

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Managing Director, LANXESS India
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    The United Nations has estimated that the world’s population crossed seven billion in 2011. Exactly when this happened is a matter of debate, but it is generally believed that human number 7 billion was born around October 31, 2011. By contrast, in 1900, the world’s population was around 1.6 billion. In just over a century, the number of people on this planet has grown 438 per cent.  Not only that, the world’s population is forecast to rise even more: to 9.3 billion by 2050.

    With growing population, the Earth faces growing challenges. Consider: Today, more that 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in cities (in 1950, that figure was only 28 per cent). This has led to unprecedented construction and congestion in urban areas.

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  • Can technology transform waste water?

    Posted By: Prakash Shanmugam_Associate GM-Head_Ion Exchange Resins
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    A recent article in the Economic Times newspaper (_click here to read the article)carried an estimate that the environmental technology market in India is worth about US $ 10 billion, with wastewater treatment forming an important part of it. Wastewater is water that has been contaminated with pollutants of some sort rendering it unfit for human use. Examples are domestic and municipal sewage and used industrial water.

    In short, it is about clean water. And, seen on a worldwide basis, this is a much larger problem than many people may believe. In fact, more than one billion people still had no access to clean water in 2010. This means additional focus is urgently needed to rectify this situation.

    Last year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that Asian countries, primarily China and India, will have a serious water crisis in the future unless something is done.more

  • LANXESS raises the bar for quality & efficiency in the industry

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Managing Director, LANXESS India
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    If a company wants to be truly successful and world class, it has to constantly meet and exceed customer expectations. This is no less true for the chemical industry. With increasing globalization and fierce competition, customers will choose your competitor if you fail to establish leadership in quality standards.

    Hence the topic of quality management has become more important today than ever before. With quality becoming a significant driver of customer choices, a company cannot envision a future without benchmarking it as part of their manufacturing process. This implies strict adherence to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, and quality management techniques such as Kaizen, and Total Quality Management (TQM).

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  • Will green chemistry lead to a better lifestyle?

    Posted By: Corporate Communications Department
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    These days, more and more people are concerned with using natural resources properly and not damaging the environment. All around the world, there is a demand to incorporate “green” technologies in our lifestyles. There is a sense that we need to protect resources for our children and their successors.

    Consider the case of detergents, which are widely used all over the world. Conventional detergents contain dispersing and complexing agents, whose job is to soften water. Many of these additives are not biodegradable and persist in the environment for a long time, sometimes leaching into groundwater.  But these days there is an environmentally friendly option – green detergents which have biodegradable water softeners and other additives. LANXESS has developed these chemicals as part or its Baypure®  product line, and consumers who buy green detergents can get the cleaning power of detergents while being environmentally responsible. Most people see this as a better lifestyle.

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  • Can biomass help cities be cleaner and greener

    Posted By: Namitesh Roychoudhary-GF IEA_Vice President
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    Urban and Rural areas produce a lot of waste. Some of this is biological waste and can be used to supply energy. Typically, biomass is what is usually considered as garbage – dead trees; broken branches; plant matter left over after crops are harvested; sawdust from lumber mills; cow and other livestock droppings.

    Trash from cities is usually sent to garbage dumps. Even with cities that recycle paper and some other recyclable products and produce some compost from vegetal waste, there is often material that can be reused which gets sent to the dump. If one recycles some of this material for fuel, this not only is efficient use of a resource, it also cuts down on the space required for landfills.

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  • How LANXESS is supporting the trend of urbanization

    Posted By: Corporate Communications - LANXESS India
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    The world’s population is supposed to hit 7 billion this year. This is a pretty dramatic rate of growth, since the world’s population hit 6 billion not that long ago, in 1999. Fifty years ago, it was only 3.5 billion.

    Most of the growth is in less-developed nations.  As everyone knows, India too has witnessed phenomenal growth of late. According to the recent census, the overall growth rate for India in the last decade was 17.64 percent.  However, the urban areas bore the brunt of it: it was 31.80 percent in urban areas as opposed to 12.18 percent in rural areas. Cities in India, long hailed as areas of opportunity, are growing at a rapid rate.

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  • LANXESS and Green Chemistry

    Posted By: Corporate Communications department - LANXESS India
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    When people mention environmentally-friendly “green chemicals” many people think that they will cost much more than the chemicals to which people have been used over the years. Yet this is a misconception. Many of the green chemicals and products made using them will turn out to be less expensive than the older chemicals over the full lifecycle of the products. (An example would be green or fuel-efficient tires which cost less than regular tires over their lifetimes.) Basically, if one factors in the environmental costs of using non-green chemicals – the depletion of natural resources, the costs of environmental clean-up, and so on – then it makes absolute sense to focus on green chemicals.

    LANXESS was one of the pioneers of green chemistry among chemical companies.

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  • Innovative Chemicals Figure Prominently in Our Modern Lives

    Posted By: Corporate Communications department - LANXESS India
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    It was not that long ago that the only way to preserve food was by pickling, salting and drying it. Thus, pickling ensured that one could have a taste of mango in the winter, when the fruit is out of season; salting was used in the production of bacon; and salting and drying fish ensured that a large catch could be preserved for later use. These time-worn methods, while still commonly used, have been augmented by innovative processing techniques in the last half century.

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  • How Ion-Exchange Resins can help produce clean drinking water

    Posted By: Prakash Shanmugam-BU Head_ION Exchange Resins
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    The Times of India newspaper published an article about the state government of the northeastern Indian state of Bihar assuring its villagers that it will make arrangements for safe drinking water. Many districts in the state are plagued with groundwater that is contaminated with arsenic, fluorides or iron.

    The chemical industry as a whole and LANXESS in particular develops a number of products that can be used in large-scale water purification. For instance, ion exchange resins are widely used in processes that separate, decontaminate and purify water.

    Sensing the growing need for water purification in India, last year LANXESS opened Asia’s most state-of-the-art plant for ion exchange resins in Jhagadia, Gujarat. The new factory boasts an annual capacity of 35,000 metric tons.more

  • The Role of High-Tech Plastics in Sustainable Development

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Manging Director, LANXESS India
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    World Environment Day is celebrated every June 5th, and we’d like to discuss how the chemical industry can help in sustainable development. One of the biggest issues for the environment today is the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming. LANXESS can and is making a great big difference in this area.

    Motorized vehicles on the road are major emitters of greenhouse gases. In countries like India and China, which are enjoying strong economic growth, car ownership and use is going up dramatically.  Thus, anything that can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emission as well as gain fuel efficiency for cars is a step in the right direction.

    LANXESS is producing high-tech plastics such as the Durethan polyamides and the Pocan polybutylene terephthalates that are playing a vital role in the design of more environmentally responsible cars. One of the primary benefits of high-tech plastics is that they make cars lighter by replacing metal parts that are many times heavier. Less weight means lower fuel consumption and thus lower carbon dioxide emissions. This is kinder on both the wallet and the environment. High-tech plastics are also playing a key role in the development of cutting-edge electric vehicles. (Batteries in electric vehicles weigh a lot so it is important to get the overall weight of the vehicle down.

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  • Indo-German collaboration’s role in Indian chemical industry

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Manging Director, LANXESS India
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    The chemical industry is a major part of the global economy, and uses our knowledge of chemistry to convert raw materials into more than 70,000 different products. Few goods are manufactured without some input from the chemical industry. Globally the chemical industry is a $1.5 trillion enterprise. About a quarter of the total number of chemicals produced are used as intermediates in other chemical processes to make products used directly by consumers.

    The birth of the chemical industry can be traced to the early years of the Industrial Revolution. Mills and textile making created a demand for bleach and dyes, which started the chemical revolution, and with it, the chemical industry. Today, the chemical industry is a mature industry that has changed our lives and continues to be responsible for how we live, work and play. A few examples are synthetic fibers for our clothes; medicines to make us well; water purification technologies for clean water; and film for movies.

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  • India’s growing role in the global chemical industry

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Managing Director, LANXESS India
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    The Asia Pacific (APAC) region is now the largest contributor to the global chemical industry, thanks to the strong economies of countries like India and China.  The APAC contribution is almost 42 % of the global share. By comparison, Western Europe is 25 %and North America is 22%.

    At US $ 100 billion, the Indian chemical industry is itself about 3% of the global chemicals market. It has the potential to grow immensely in the near future, thanks to strong domestic demand created by the ever-growing middle-class household consumption, increase in discretionary spending by the same middle-class and buoyant exports. Projected rates are in the 8-10% range for this year. This is because end-user industries like construction, automotive, tire and agrochemicals are all growing at very healthy rates currently.

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  • Are replacing plastics bags necessary? Is there an alternative?

    Posted By: Harshal Makasare, Head - Corporate Communications
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    As we celebrate World Earth Day this week, we are eager to know your ideas on how to make planet earth a better place to live in.

    Plastic bags have become ubiquitous in our lives. We use them to carry small or large things as soon as we step out or even to store objects in our houses and offices. They are cost-effective, durable, and available in various shapes, sizes and colors.

    But there is also a flip side: when not disposed of properly, they can end up choking drains and cause water logging during the monsoon. Some of the plastic bags are not biodegradable and remain around for a long time.

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  • Will giving up comfort of the car save our earth from pollution

    Posted By: Harshal Makasare-GF Head_Corporate Communication
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    We all know that a passenger car emits approximately 1.75 grams of hydrocarbon per kilometre; 13 grams of carbon monoxide per km; 0.87 grams of oxides of nitrogen; 260 grams of carbon dioxide; and 110 millilitres of petrol.
    For a lorry, these figures are higher.

    And as of 2010 there are more than 40 million passenger vehicles on the road in India currently, and the automotive market is supposed to grow by 16-18 percent in 2011.

    None of us want to pollute the planet but we also want those cars to maintain our present style of living.

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  • LANXESS’s Inorganic Pigments drive Sustainable Development

    Posted By: Buhary Shamsudeen-BU Head_Inorganic Pigments
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    Sustainable development means that natural resources are not used up faster than they can be replaced.  Given the growth in population and increased demands on natural resources, the only way forward is through the use of sustainable chemicals which help to protect the environment and that are produced to all principles of Responsible Care..

    Before industrial paints were invented, people in India used lac (a deep red colorant extracted from the lac insect) for making red pigment, turmeric and the petals or stems of certain flowers for yellow, indigo dye (called “neel”) from the indigo plant for blue, and so on.

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  • How Rubber Chemicals help in improving mobility on Indian roads?

    Posted By: Amit Tandon-BU Head_Rubber Chemicals-Marketing
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    As some of you who follow LANXESS may know, the Rubber Chemicals Plant in Jhagadia, Gujarat, celebrated its first anniversary this month. The plant was inaugurated on March 3rd last year in the first phase of LANXESS’s committed investment of Euro 50 million at this location.

    The Jhagadia Chemical Park was developed by the Gujarat Government to draw chemical industry to the location.

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  • LANXESS Celebrates the International Year of Chemistry

    Posted By: Harshal Makasare-GF Head_Corporate Communications
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    Did you know that 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry (IYC), as declared by the United Nations?  (The 63rd Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution in December 2008 declaring 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry.) The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are coordinating the event globally; the official launch of International Year of Chemistry 2011 took place at UNESCO’s world headquarters in Paris at the end of January 2011.

    The idea is that “national and international activities carried out during 2011 should emphasize the importance of Chemistry for sustainable development in all aspects of human life.” Lots of educational events are planned for the year.

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  • Plastic to become the new "metal" of the future

    Posted By: Amlanabha Das-BU Head_Semi-Crystalline Products
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    Fuel efficiency is the most important factor that influences the decision to buy a car in India. However, we often tend to oversee the fact that roughly 50% of the fuel consumed is used to move the weight of the car. This means that if we reduce the weight of the car by 10% it becomes 5% more fuel efficient.

    LANXESS has taken the lead in developing Durethan and Pocan grades of high performance plastics, which are replacing metal parts used in cars, making them lighter, safer and more fuel-efficient.

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  • German Excellence in Technology and Indo-German Partnership

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Managing Director, LANXESS India
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    Some of the world’s most famous brands (such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche) originate in Germany, making it the largest economy in Europe and the second largest exporter in the world.

    A lot of this economic and export strength comes from Germany’s excellence in technology, and the overwhelming focus that German companies put on product leadership and quality control.

    India and Germany have long enjoyed close ties. Germany opened two consulates in British India as long ago as 1854.

    In the 19th century, the German scholar Max Mueller was instrumental in popularizing Indian culture and Sanskrit in the West; today, the Goethe Institutes in India are named after him.

    In recent times, India and Germany have collaborated closely on business. Many German companies have strong Indian operations; and many Indians live and work in Germany, particularly in technical fields. Germany, with its industrial leadership, is a natural partner in India’s economic growth.

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  • Getting India on the Move through Synthetic Rubber

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger - Managing Director, LANXESS India
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    I am excited to write to you after our very successful and recently concluded Rubber Day in New Delhi. During the event, we had a number of prominent speakers and panelists.

    Many of our key customers attended and, later on, they were very positive about the day. The speech of German Ambassador to India, Thomas Matussek, reinforced the tremendous support of the German leadership for LANXESS, as well as stressing the partnership with India.

    In the evening, we had a gala dinner which was attended by more than 400 guests, customers, members of the government and other influencers.  Part of the program included a fusion jazz and Indian classical music performance that was enthusiastically received by the audience.

    As part of the follow-up to the first Rubber Day in India, our CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, Dr.

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  • The chemical industry and road safety

    Posted By: Prasanth B, Business Unit - Technical Rubber Products
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    We would like to pick up on road safety and rubber again, which was the topic of our last post, since it is so important to a growing economy like India. We saw that Professor Horst Wildemann of the Technical University of Munich has found that higher-performance tires can help reduce the road accident rate by 5 percent. This is not a trivial number in a country that saw close to 120,000 road deaths. If one takes Professor Wildemann’s number, that’s 6,000 deaths prevented annually for India, which translates to about 16 fewer road deaths per day.

    We think the chemical industry can help, both with safety and fuel efficiency. Better tires not help with reducing accidents; they are more fuel efficient. This can translate to a large savings over the lifetime of a tire, as up to 20 percent of the energy required to run a car is expended through tires.

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  • How Synthetic Rubber Can Contribute to Road Safety

    Posted By: Dr. Joerg Strassburger, Managing Director - LANXESS India
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    Did you know that India has the world’s highest number of deaths due to road accidents?

    LANXESS has sponsored a study by Professor Horst Wildemann of the Technical University of Munich and Bridge to India, a technical consultancy. According to Professor Wildemann, approximately 120,000 people died in road accidents in India in 2008.

    India has one of the world’s fastest growing automobile markets, thanks to its growing and increasingly prosperous middle class.

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  • Can Polluted water be recycled?

    Posted By: Prakash Shanmugam, Business Unit Head - ION Exchange Resins
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    Recycling is an old concept, practiced in some form or the other through the ages, but wasn’t typically applied to water. Yet, clean water today is one of our most precious resources. As the population of the world increases in coming years, the demand for clean water will increase correspondingly. However, there are few new natural sources of clean water. The problem will be particularly acute in countries like India and China. By 2050, the United Nations estimates that at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of freshwater.

    So water recycling is important because many human activities require water but not water that is drinkable quality. Take, for instance, the washing of clothes or cars or homes or the irrigation of crops. These require water, often copious amounts, but does it have to be potable water? No.

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  • Plastic is replacing metal in automobiles

    Posted By: Shailendra Singh, Deputy Manager - Functional Chemicals
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    Is plastic a better material for cars than metal? This is a question many in the auto industry have been asking themselves for the past few years. Today, we thought we’d discuss this in some detail, and show you why plastic is increasing replacing metal in today’s automobiles.

    When auto engineers design cars today, they are looking for a couple of key attributes in addition to attractive looks and functionality. These are fuel-efficiency and safety. Plastics win over metals in both of these attributes. Carbon-fiber reinforced plastics and other innovative plastics are strong and light and can be molded into virtually any shape. Since they are light, they increase fuel efficiency as well as range of the vehicles.

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  • The peculiar challenges of supply chain logistics in India

    Posted By: Dilip Gokhale, GM, Head - Logistics & Supply Chain
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    We hear continually that the world has become a global village, with barriers falling because of global movement of goods and labor. In today’s global economy, a computer chip may be designed in America, fabricated in Europe, and finally assembled and packaged in Asia, to be sold again in America. The Indian consumer today has access to fruit grown in Australia and China, which was unheard of even two decades ago. Even within individual countries there is far more extensive movement of goods and labor than before.

    The modern chemical industry also has a global “supply chain,” which brings along a new set of challenges, particularly in India. For example, every day, a chemical company operating here has to deal with volatile fuel prices, increasing raw material costs, and mounting price pressure, and ensuring that materials are delivered to the factory for production and then products are sent to the customers on time.

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  • Chemical industry and sustainable development:future scenario

    Posted By: Namitesh Roychoudhary, Vice President- IEA & Capital Investment
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    To foster sustainable growth of the chemical industry, there is a need for uniform standards in environmental management across the globe. Every organization should be equipped with tools to monitor, measure and evaluate the implications on the environment and risks at its areas of operation. This should be audited regularly by the organizations themselves and then reviewed by certified authorities.

    Environmental guidelines need to be developed on the basis of industrial work practices to sustain consumption of natural resources.  An organization needs to make continuous efforts to reduce consumption of renewable resources, and develop productive ways of reusing and recycling the used/waste resources.

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  • Radial tires are the way to go for Indian vehicles

    Posted By: Samar Roy
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    We recently commented on the burgeoning growth of the Indian auto market, and the consequent growth in the market for tires. With the growth in the tire market, there is a chance for large-scale introduction of radial tires, which currently are not that widespread in the Indian market, particularly for large vehicles. (Estimates say only 12-15 per cent of truck and bus tires in India are radial tires.)


    Traditionally, tires are reinforced with cords of steel or polyester or other textiles to give them strength. The cords are typically criss-crossed at about 60 degrees to the direction of travel, and these tires (common in India) are called cross-ply or bias-ply tires (or sometimes just bias tires).


    A new type of tire, called the radial tire, was pioneered by Michelin after the Second World War. (An American inventor, Arthur Savage, had also patented a form of radial tire in 1915, but his patent expired in the 1940s.)  In radial tires, the plies lie at 90 degrees to the direction of travel. Unlike bias tires, where the plies often rub against one another as the car rolls, the plies in radial tires don’t rub against one another. This reduces the friction, and improves fuel efficiency of the tire significantly.

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  • LANXESS is gearing up for growth in India’s automotive industry

    Posted By: Rhituparna Mitra
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    If you drive on India’s roads, you have no doubt noticed the exponential rise in the number of cars. With affordable innovations such as the Tata Nano, more and more Indians are opting to buy their own cars. This is also driving up the market for automotive tyres. Estimates by industry groups say that growth in the domestic automotive industry will be 12-14 per cent in the next couple of years, which will translate into an equivalent growth in the tyre market.


    With that in mind, we at LANXESS are gearing up to support this huge demand.more

  • Is increasing water storage the answer to India’s water problem?

    Posted By: Nikesh Bhanti, Manager - Ion Exchange Resins
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    This year, the monsoon seems unsatisfactory again in parts of the country. Whether it is global warming or just plain unpredictability, so far the monsoon has not produced the amount of rainfall usual by this date in most parts of the country. The situation is particularly noticeable in the North and East, where rainfall has comparatively meager. Farmers are worried, and the Working Group on Water Resources of the 11th Five Year Plan has just called for India to increase live water storage. (See accompanying news article.)


    Increasing live water storage is no doubt going to be helpful. Yet doing so by the usual means –  reservoirs and dams – is probably approaching the challenge with an old-fashioned and conservative mindset that India’s planners should recognize.

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  • CSR and the Clean Drinking Water Issue

    Posted By: Harshal Makasare, LANXESS India
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    If you travel across India, you will often see roadside shacks that provide the weary traveler with drinking water. Set up by individual and charitable trusts, these shacks embody a tradition of water-related philanthropy that has existed for years. (One can even point to the wells dug by the side of the Grand Trunk Road on the orders of the 15th century Indian emperor Sher Shah Suri to show a historical precedent.)

    These days, a few multinationals and large private companies have also embraced the challenge of providing clean drinking water in their corporate social responsibility campaigns. It is a welcome trend, as the availability of clean water is a perennial challenge in a hot and dusty country like India.

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  • India’s Unpredictable Monsoon

    Posted By: Disha Parekh, LANXESS India
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    Farmers all over India are anxious because the monsoon has stalled. In parts of north and northwestern India, the monsoon is already a fortnight late. Last month’s figures were 16 percent below normal.

    See the Economic Times article for more details

    India relies on the rains the monsoon brings. It is estimated that only 40 percent or so of farmland is irrigated. The remaining 60 percent depends on the monsoon for crops. As all of India’s 235 million farmers know, an unsatisfactory monsoon means financial disaster, particularly for the smallest farmers.

    Last year, 2009, was a record drought – the worst in 30 years.more

  • Why are we starting a blog on water?

    Posted By: Kedar Oke – Sr. Manager, Marketing of Ion Exchange Resins
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    As everyone knows, water is essential to life. Throughout history, wars have been fought over rights to water, and cities have been abandoned when water sources such as rivers have changed course. Entire civilizations – for instance, the Indus Valley civilization of Harrappa and Mohenjodaro and the Khmer civilization that built Angkor Wat – are believed to have perished because access to water suddenly changed.

    Although approximately 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, most of that is seawater and unfit for drinking.  Groundwater in aquifers, rivers and lakes make up the principal sources available for human, but all the freshwater adds up to about one percent of terrestrial water.

    That said, access to safe drinking water has improved steadily and substantially over the last few decades in almost every part of the world.

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