Sir Richard Branson’s second launch of his consumer finance business into Australia appears to have got a better reception than his first which stalled a couple of years ago. Business analysts say this time his backing is better so his Virgin credit card and home lending business have a reasonable chance of success.

For all those doom-sayers who are quick to claim our minerals boom cannot last due to its limitations with any future Chinese problems, is the news that the next Asian giant economy is coming on stream. KPMG’s latest research shows the rapidly expanding Indian economy has huge needs in many of our resources in addition to coal. The report insists the demand should deliver a long-running economic boost to Australia.

A little-publicised recent report by the International Labou Organisation points out that China will have a reduced number of new workers joining its workforce at just 15 million over the next decade. However, India is set to have over 100 million additional workers over the same period.