Attractive Roof?
I was astounded to read an article, entitled 'Attractive Roof,' authored by guest columnist Mudar Patherya in Business Standard.
It's difficult to make out exactly what the guy is talking about, but I think he's advocating purchase of shares in a company called Visaka Industries, which is involved in the manufacture of asbestos sheeting. The company is apparently doing well and I suspect that's on the back of asbestos bans in the western world.
Nowhere in the article is mention made of asbestos health hazards and, having been immersed in writing about those for the past year, the whole tone of the article seemed wrong to me. The truth of the matter is that India is expanding the asbestos sector and constructing factories where asbestos material is produced 24 hours a day.
I don't suppose I should have been surprised to read that the Indian National Cancer Register does not document cases of mesothelioma, neither does the Indian Governmentrecord the incidence of occupational disease.
Or that on two occasions, the Indian Government has, with a handful of other national asbestos stakeholders, blocked United Nations efforts to add chrysotile to the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) list of the Rotterdam Convention.
Scandalous - but what is the solution?