Reflections and ISBLRT 2019

2019 is coming to an end, and what a year it has been. The Council is constantly evolving and as a senior official at the Foreign Ministry said; “Never before have we had we had so much going on between two countries ahead of a state visit as between Sweden and India”. It has surely kept us and our member companies busy!

Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia have concluded their visit to India having had a rather active program. A large business delegation organised by Business Sweden with over 100 participants accompanied the state visit with business interactions and sessions covering various topics with Indian companies and officials. We at SIBC were responsible, together with CII, to organise the 4th India Sweden Business Leaders’ Roundtable – ISBLRT.

It is very clear that the companies are moving forward in their Joint Working Groups in the areas of Skilling, Digitization, Defense and in Smart Cities. The format was somewhat different this time given the presence of Their Majesties during part of the program. Recognised the signed deals between renowned educational institutions KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), EF Education and National Skill Development Corporation, the launch of SIBC’s and Swedish Smart Grid Forum’s Electromobility report, andSigning between Teknikföretagen, Urban Systems and Urban Tech Sweden on one side then individually with M3M one of Indians largest Real Estate Developer; Airtel, India’s largest private mobile operator, Maharishi Organisation for a sustainable health centre. It was also announced that the Swedish Energy Agency and the Department of Science and Technology engaged in a collaboration committing 25 MSEK each matched by industry. Finally, ABB Synerleap, which is ABB’s incubator/Accelerator company, also announced the collaboration with 3 Indian startups, who will now gain access to their R&D, market intelligence and global market reach. It was truly a wonderful occasion.

Innovation and Startup is another area which is part of every Joint Working Group, this means that they will interact under the Sweden India Tech Community (SITEC), which SIBC is a driving partner of at the moment, in partnership with Invest Stockholm and KTH.  This includes Startups, scale ups, university incubators, corporate incubators, investors and entrepreneurs. This initiative has taken a lot of effort in 2019 resulting in fewer roundtables for the year. The idea behind SITEC is to generate a foundation for more innovation, R&D and a deeper understanding on how companies in Sweden and in India, can benefit from our respective strengths and eco systems. Together with the larger companies represented in the India Sweden-Business Leaders’ Roundtable – ISBLRT, we trying to create stronger ties within the Startup eco system in the Sweden India corridor, thus benefitting our members innovation and R&D strategies.

We were also very proud to moderate a session in Gothenburg for a new initiative called Sweden India Traffic Safety Innovation Platform, driven by Volvo, but including the such of Saab, Ericsson, TechMahindra, Autoliv, Vinnova and other Swedish and Indian firms. A great initiative also given the joint working part of it.

Our regular programs such as Friday Breakfast Roundtables, and Executive Roundtables will resume during 2020 starting on 24 January in Stockholm and 31 in Gothenburg, then again on 24 and 31 March. We welcome the CEO of our member Chemotech, Mohan Frick as one of the Roundtable discussions on the establishment process in India.

Do keep us in mind as your advisor throughout your Sweden-India Journey.

Finally, we wish you a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from

Robin Sukhia | Arati Davis | Cecilia Oldne | Sanjoo Malhotra