India and Sweden’s diplomatic relations were formally established in 1948. But trade relations between both countries can be traced back to the 8th Century CE. However, in recent times, economic activities between both countries have seen an unsteady rise (some years have seen dips). This trend can be found in investments as well.
To understand what Sweden looks for while investing in India, Free Press Journal and SIES in association with Invest India have organised a webinar series ‘Financing India’. After focussing on many other countries in the recent past, we now focus on Sweden. The webinar will be held on November 26, from 3 pm onwards.
The session will be moderated by R N Bhaskar, Consulting Editor, Free Press Journal. The panellists for the session are (in alphabetical order) Anurag Bhagania, CFO, SKF India Ltd; Anna Lekvall, Consul General of Sweden in Mumbai; and Anantha Padmanabhan, Managing Director India, Alfa Laval.
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SKF, which is represented in the panel, is one of the many Swedish companies like Ericsson, Swedish Match (WIMCO) and ASEA (later to become ABB) that entered India even before Independence. These companies have a long history of investments and growth in the country.
For the period April 2000 to May 2015, FDI inflow into India from Sweden is USD 1.1 billion. According to DIPP data, it accounted for 0.43 per cent of total FDI inflows in the country.
Sweden is one of the world's largest investors, whereas it is the 19th largest investor in India from April 2000 to May 2015. According to UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2020, FDI outflows of Sweden reached USD 23 billion in 2019 alone.
The sectors which received largest shares of Swedish investments in India are Automobile Industry (33%), Industrial Machinery (15%), Miscellaneous Mechanical & Engineering Industries (10%), Electrical Equipment (7%) and Metallurgical Industries (5%), according to MEA data.
In April 2018, India and Sweden agreed on a joint action plan (JAP) in Stockholm. This is in addition to the Joint Innovation Partnership.
Both countries are looking at growing with each other by cross-sectoral, cross-ministerial and cross- agency cooperation, to discuss innovation from a system perspective.
Under the Joint Innovation Partnership, areas covered are smart cities, transportation and eMobility, energy, clean technologies, new materials, space, circular and bio-based economy, and health and life sciences.