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India, Sweden join hands for a sustainable future through innovation
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IANS | 30 Oct, 2022
The 9th annual India Sweden Innovation Day 2022 concluded successfully
on October 27. The day-long event was organised in association with the
Embassy of India to Sweden & Latvia, Sweden-India Business Council
(SIBC), and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The
event was a massive success with over 1,000 participants from across the
globe. About 350 esteemed delegates attended the 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-funding, co-development, co-creation towards mutual
benefits, and making full use of complementary strengths.
The 9th
India Sweden Innovation Day also encompassed comprehensive sessions
with relevant stakeholders in domains such as sustainable urban
development and safe transportation, life science, energy, environment,
health, and science and technology.
Since industry 4.0 is at the
forefront of driving sustainable industrial growth across the globe,
the event laid considerable emphasis on exploring its potential in the
development and adoption of smart technologies for enhanced efficiency
and socio-environmental sustainability.
The keynote speakers
during the inauguration included Tanmaya Lal, India's Ambassador to
Sweden; Martin Lundstedt CEO, Volvo Group; Jitendra Singh, Indian
Minister for 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, Ambassador of Sweden to India.
Speaking on the occasion
the new Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Energy,
Business and Industry, Ebba Busch, said: "It's an honour to inaugurate
the 9th India & Sweden innovation day & as a minister for energy
business & Industry. I will look forward to future discussions on
how to deepen the collaboration between our countries. The relationship
between India & Sweden is stronger than ever and innovation
partnership has really become a cornerstone of our bilateral
collaboration. This collaboration aims to solve bigger challenges in
areas such as green transition, clean energy, health &
transportation."
"India is rapidly becoming an innovation
powerhouse climbing from rank 81 to 40 global innovation index in just a
few years. Also, Swedish companies have been operating in India for
many decades employing over 200 thousand people directly and 2.2 million
indirectly. Swedish companies continue to invest and partner with the
Indian research and innovation ecosystem," added Busch.
Commenting
on strengthening the ties between the two nations, Tanmaya Lal,
Ambassador of India to Sweden and Latvia said, "Innovation is the key
for not only growth and sustainability but also to manage global
challenges such as pandemics to climate change. Sweden is the leader of
innovation and sustainability and India too is climbing rapidly in the
global innovation ratings. India is the reservoir of engineering,
Research and development and entrepreneurial talent. The scale and speed
of innovative technological solutions for sustainable development that
are now coming out of India offers huge possibilities of collaborations.
In this context this annual day series brought together the
researchers, businesses and investors and government agencies. We thank
all the participants for joining this discussion and accelerating an
inclusive green transition for our collective sustainable future."
The
India Sweden association will not only help analyse and develop
technology and solutions that sustainably impact humanity in the
greatest way, but will also address health, and safe transport to
security and better quality of life through acceleration, innovation,
and solutions between the countries with the power of technology.
Jitendra
Singh, Minister for Science and Technology, said: "The continuation of
this event for the last 8 years itself reflects an effective partnership
between India and Sweden. Both the governments and industries in the
two nations are developing a technology-oriented ecosystem for a win-win
situation.
"I am delighted that innovation cooperation is the
fastest growing element in the world today along with bi-lateral
relationship between India and Sweden. In 2018, Indian Prime Minister
Shri Narendra Modi visited Sweden to deepen the collaboration through
joint declaration on innovation partnership for a sustainable future.
This partnership aims to increase the impact of bilateral collaboration
in innovation science and technology.
"The partnership highlights
several areas including smart cities, transportation e-mobility 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 global challenges in line with the UN sustainable development
goals," he further added.
Speaking on lowering down the carbon
footprints, Hakan Kingstedt Chairman, Sweden-India Business Council
stated: "Accelerating green transitioning and driving innovation
partnership to the next level is the most important agenda of this
association. We are here today to tie one more knot, taking the
friendship of India and Sweden ahead. Furthermore, Sweden is a leader in
innovation in Europe. We are in a transition mode to lower the carbon
footprints and it is quite interesting to see that our industries are
redeveloping all over Sweden. From green steel technology, hydrogen
storage, electric battery systems to electric buses, cars and new
traffic systems, Sweden is an exciting place to be in right now. At
last, I would like to take an opportunity to wish both the countries in
this association."
Commenting on the successful completion of the
9th edition of the Innovation Day, 2022, Jan Thesleff, Sweden
Ambassador to India said: "The vast and powerful political
administrations, agencies, corporate sector, and academic sector in the
event today were excellent examples of the Swedish Indian collaboration.
We are moving towards a relationship that will be driven by both
parties. We assessed our accomplishments, and now, with assistance from
Indian organisations and the Indian government, we are examining the
possibilities of the built-up areas for future collaboration. Our
objective places a strong emphasis on innovation and sustainability.
This event's goal is to create projections on how we can connect these
alliances and facilitate cooperation between Indian partners and Swedish
investors.
Pressing on the importance on sustainable solutions,
Martin Lundstedt, CEO, Volvo Group stated: "With innovation in
transportation being a long-term goal of both Sweden and India, we are
moving in the direction of being considerably more sustainable. It is an
important factor in prosperity. Infrastructure, transportation, and
logistics are essential to the plan's effective execution.
"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
transportation and infrastructure logistics. The two nations also agreed
to fund the joint innovation projects within AI, Health, Clean Tech,
Smart Cities and Safe Mobility," added Lundstedt.
Commenting on
the strengthening ties between India and Sweden, Robin Sukhia,
President, Sweden-India Business Council SIBC said: "India Sweden
Innovation Day 2022 is a testament to the commitment of both the nations
to promote sustainable industrial development and green transition via
technological excellence. With the world grappling with climate change
today, it is imperative for governments and industry to strategically
collaborate and foster innovation and technology adoption to ensure
green economic development. The India Sweden Innovation Day serves as
the stepping stone in this direction to strengthen government and
industry collaboration for green transition."
Elaborating more on
the importance of green transition and the importance of strategic
events like India Sweden Innovation Day, Ludvig Lindstrom, Head of
Innovation Accelerator, said: "The India Sweden innovation accelerator
has been in existence for 10 years reflecting our commitment to
sustainability and green transition. This is constantly being
strengthened through the flow of new companies, industries and academic
partners joining our initiative. We at Sweden Business center are
working constantly with organisations like CII to deliver high impact
value to reflect our commitment towards green transition and sustainable
economic development."
Commenting on the collaboration of Index,
Per-Olof Marklund, CTO, SAAB, Business Area Aeronautics said: "The
defence industry has been a bit conservative, but the technology which
is needed today in a fighter jet is more available in the open market
within the defence industry. Collaborating with a start-up and finding
ideas that may be used in the defence industry and applying them in our
industry is the key to be successful in the future. Index in itself is
about cooperating with three other companies that are vastly different
from our industry. We have a logistics industry, an agricultural
company, and a defence company.
"We don't have that much in
common on paper but if you look at the idea that come in then 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 acknowledged the importance of the various facets of climate
change, and both countries laid out specific actions to quicken the
transition to a greener economy by putting cutting-edge digital
technology and artificial intelligence to use.
Furthermore, both
countries had extensive discussions and used technology to develop
climate-friendly solutions. The summit also concentrated on fostering
rapid economic expansion and addressing the pandemic's residual
consequences.
This year the summit provided an opportunity to
discuss the international situation and response to the challenges
towards 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 of rigorous
work towards the UN sustainable development goals with innovation,
radically improved technology, business models and work practices to
bring the transformative change.
Sanjoo Malhotra, Chief Executive
Director of India Unlimited, provided additional information about the
9th India Sweden Day Innovation Day 2022, stating: "The 9th Innovation
Day brought together the prominent industry leaders from different
verticals to connect and co-create ideas and solutions on driving green
transition via digital transformation, green-oriented technologies,
supportive government policies, and extensive studies on benefits of a
sustainable and green future for the industry".
The event was
themed ''Accelerating India Sweden's Green Transition'', under which
both the countries discussed the prospects of accelerating green
transition via innovation and by harnessing the power of
climate-positive technology, next-generation digitalization. India
Sweden Innovation Day 2022 was hosted by India Unlimited.
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