The trip starts in Hyderabad. Photo: Hari Om Prakash, CC-BY-SA-3.0
To India on clean business
Around a dozen innovative Swedish clean technology companies are about to set off on a week-long trip to India, along with representatives from the Swedish Energy Agency, Business Sweden and others.
“A new component of the programme is that we have started working more closely with a number of India’s State Energy Development Agencies. They deal at state level with energy issues related to waste and transport, among other things,” says Ludvig Lindström, senior advisor at the Swedish Energy Agency.
Just a handful of state agencies have been chosen for closer cooperation and network-building. One of these states is Telangana, in whose capital Hyderabad the trip begins. There will be a whole-day workshop hosted by the Innovations’ Accelerator collaborators; the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Swedish Energy Agency and Business Sweden. The focus of the workshop is renewable energy and energy efficiency in various areas, including property construction and power distribution.
Another interesting state is Maharashtra, with cities such as Mumbai and Pune, which will be visited towards the end of the trip.
“Working more closely with particular states is a way of developing the programme by looking for new ways and points of contact,” says Lindström.
The programme started in 2013, and each phase includes three trips to India by each of the participating companies. New companies taking part in the current trip are Aili Innovation Scandinavia AB, which has patented a highly effective solar-operated water pump, and the consulting company Solvina, which specialises in energy efficiency.
On a previous trip in May 2017, Swedish company FOV Biogas signed a research and testing agreement with an Indian university and an Indian private operator. To the left is Swedish State Secretary Nils Vikmång.