India, Sweden join forces for a sustainable future through innovation
New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS) The ninth annual India Sweden Innovation Day 2022 concluded successfully on 27 October. The day-long event was organized in collaboration with the Embassy of India in Sweden & Latvia, the Sweden-India Business Council (SIBC), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The event was a great success with over 1,000 participants from all over the world. Around 350 estimated delegates attended Innovation Day 2022 in person while more than 700 marked their presence online.
The main highlight of the event was the implementation of the partnership, principles of co-financing, co-development, co-creation for mutual benefit and making full use of complementary strengths.
The 9th India Sweden Innovation Day also included comprehensive sessions with relevant stakeholders in areas such as sustainable urban development and safe transport, life sciences, energy, environment, health and science and technology.
As Industry 4.0 is at the forefront of driving sustainable industrial growth across the globe, the event placed great emphasis on exploring its potential in the development and adoption of smart technologies for increased efficiency and socio-environmental sustainability.
The main speakers during the inauguration were Tanmaya Lal, India’s ambassador to Sweden; Martin Lundstedt CEO, Volvo Group; Jitendra Singh, India’s Minister of Science and Technology; Peter Carlsson Founder and CEO, Northvolt; Anna Kinberg Batra Chairman, Swedish Space Corporation & Senior Executive Advisor, Sweden-India Business Council and Jan Thesleff, Sweden’s Ambassador to India.
On the occasion, Sweden’s new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Business and Industry Ebba Busch said: “It is an honor to inaugurate the ninth India & Sweden Innovation Day and as Minister for Energy Companies and Industry. I will look forward to future discussions on how to can deepen the cooperation between our countries. The relationship between India & Sweden is stronger than ever and innovation partnership has truly become a cornerstone of our bilateral cooperation. This cooperation aims to solve larger challenges in areas such as green transition, clean energy, health and transport.”
“India is fast becoming an innovation powerhouse, climbing from ranking 81 to 40 in the global innovation index in just a few years. In addition, Swedish companies have been active in India for many decades and employ over 200 thousand people directly and 2.2 million indirectly. Swedish companies continues to invest and collaborate with the Indian research and innovation ecosystem,” Busch added.
Tanmaya Lal, India’s ambassador to Sweden and Latvia, commented on strengthening ties between the two nations: “Innovation is key not only to growth and sustainability but also to addressing global challenges such as pandemics to climate change. Sweden is a leader in innovation and sustainability and India is also rapidly climbing the global innovation rankings. India is the reservoir of engineering, R&D and entrepreneurial talent. The scale and speed of innovative technological solutions for sustainable development now emerging from India offers tremendous opportunities for collaborations. In this context, this annual day series brought together researchers , businesses and investors and governments. We thank all participants for joining this discussion and accelerating an inclusive green transition for our collective sustainable future.”
The association India Sweden will not only help analyze and develop technology and solutions that sustainably affect humanity in the greatest way, but will also address health and safe transport to safety and better quality of life through acceleration, innovation and solutions between the countries with the power of technology .
Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology, said, “The continuation of this event for the last 8 years reflects an effective partnership between India and Sweden. Both the governments and industry of the two nations are developing a technology-oriented ecosystem for a win-win situation .
“I am happy that innovation cooperation is the fastest growing element in the world today along with bilateral relations between India and Sweden. In 2018, the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi visited Sweden to deepen the cooperation through joint declaration on innovation partnership for a This partnership aims to increase the impact of bilateral cooperation in innovation science and technology.
“The partnership highlights several areas including smart cities, e-mobility for transport, energy, green technology, new materials, space, circular economy, bio-waste economy, health and life sciences. India Sweden innovation partnership bridges institutions, R&D industry and also creates entrepreneurs to address with global challenges in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” he further added.
Speaking about lowering carbon footprints, Hakan Kingstedt Chairman, Sweden-India Business Council said: “Accelerating green transition and driving innovation partnerships to the next level is the most important agenda for this association. We are here today to tie the knot, taking the friendship between India and Sweden ahead. Also, Sweden is a leader in innovation in Europe. We are in a transition to lower the carbon footprint and it is quite interesting to see that our industries are developing all over Sweden. From green steel technology, hydrogen storage, electrical battery systems for electric buses, cars and new traffic systems, Sweden is an exciting place to be in right now. Finally, I want to take the opportunity to wish both countries in this association.”
Jan Thesleff, Sweden’s ambassador to India, commented on the successful implementation of the ninth edition of the Innovation Day 2022: “The large and powerful political administrations, agencies, the corporate sector and the academic sector in today’s event were excellent examples of Swedish-Indian cooperation. We are moving towards a relationship that will be driven by both parties.We evaluated our achievements and now, with the help of Indian organizations and the Indian government, we are exploring the possibilities of the built-up areas for future cooperation.Our goal is to put a lot of emphasis on innovation and sustainability.The goal of this event is to create forecasts on how we can connect these alliances and facilitate cooperation between Indian partners and Swedish investors.
Martin Lundstedt, CEO, Volvo Group, emphasized the importance of sustainable solutions: “With innovation in transport as a long-term goal for both Sweden and India, we are moving in the direction of becoming significantly more sustainable. It is an important factor in prosperity Infrastructure, transport and logistics are critical to the effective implementation of the plan.
“We are aware that a developing society’s GDP, per capita and economic growth are closely related to these factors. Our goal is to provide long-term solutions to development problems, such as more efficient transport and infrastructure logistics. The two nations also agreed to fund the joint the innovation projects in AI, Health, Clean Tech, Smart Cities and Safe Mobility,” added Lundstedt.
Robin Sukhia, Chairman, Sweden-India Business Council SIBC commented on the strengthened ties between India and Sweden: “India Sweden Innovation Day 2022 is a testament to the commitment of both nations to promote sustainable industrial development and green transition through technological excellence. With the world grappling with climate change today, it is imperative for governments and industry to strategically collaborate and promote innovation and technology adoption to ensure green economic development. India Sweden Innovation Day serves as a step in this direction to strengthen government and industry collaboration for green transition.”
Ludvig Lindström, Head of Innovation Accelerator, elaborated more on the importance of green transition and the importance of strategic events such as India Sweden Innovation Day: “Innovation Accelerator India Sweden has existed for 10 years and reflects our commitment to sustainability and green. This is constantly reinforced by the flow of new companies, industries and academic partners joining our initiative. We at Sweden Business center are constantly working with organizations like CII to deliver high impact value to reflect our commitment to green transition and sustainable economic development.”
Per-Olof Marklund, CTO, SAAB, Business Area Aeronautics comments on the collaboration with Index: “The defense industry has been a bit conservative, but the technology needed today in a fighter aircraft is more available on the open market in the defense industry. To collaborate with a start-up company and find ideas that can be used in the defense industry and applying them to our industry is the key to succeeding in the future. Index itself is about collaborating with three other companies that are hugely different from our industry. We have a logistics industry, an agricultural company and a defense company .
“We don’t have much in common on paper, but if you look at the idea that comes in, we have a lot in common and we always get new ideas from each other and boost each other in this process,” added Per-Olof Marklund.
The one-day event recognized the importance of the different aspects of climate change, and both countries put forward specific measures to accelerate the transition to a greener economy by using cutting-edge digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, both countries had extensive discussions and used technology to develop climate-friendly solutions. The summit also concentrated on promoting rapid economic expansion and addressing the remaining consequences of the pandemic.
This year, the summit provided an opportunity to discuss the international situation and response to the challenges to sustainability as well as regional and global issues of mutual importance, including climate action, technological development and economic growth.
The event also addressed the need to work rigorously towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals with innovation, radically improved technology, business models and working methods to bring about the transformative change.
Sanjoo Malhotra, Managing Director of India Unlimited, provided additional information on the 9th India Sweden Day Innovation Day 2022, saying, “The 9th Innovation Day brought together prominent industry leaders from various verticals to connect and co-create ideas and solutions for driving green transition through digital transformation, green-oriented technology, supportive government policies and comprehensive studies on the benefits of a sustainable and green future for the industry.”
The event had the theme of ”Accelerating India Sweden’s Green Transition”, where both countries discussed the possibilities of accelerating green transition via innovation and by harnessing the power of climate-positive technology, the next generation of digitalization. India Sweden Innovation Day 2022 was hosted by India Unlimited.
— IANS
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