Almedalen Week 2021

Engaging India at Almedalen 2021: Future Urbanisms

Date: 5 July, 2021

Venue: Almedalen Week / Almedalsveckan

Theme: Innovation & Sustainability - What India and Sweden Can Learn From Each Other

H.E. Ambassador Tanmaya Lal is a 55-year-old Indian diplomat with nearly three decades of experience. He served as High Commissioner to Mauritius from 2019 to 2020 and as Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations Permanent Mission of India in New York from 2016 to 2018. As the Head of the UN Economic & Social (UNES) Division at headquarters and earlier in the Indian Missions in Vienna, Nairobi, and Bangkok, he worked extensively on multilateral aspects of India's engagement. Climate Change negotiations at the UNFCCC, Agenda 2030, the Human Rights Council, UN agencies, marine concerns, and the Arctic Council were among his responsibilities at the headquarters.

Opening Address

H.E. Tanmaya Lal

Ambassador of India

to Sweden

Closing Address

H.E. Klas Molin

Ambassador of Sweden

to India

Uday Shankar is president of India's oldest and largest apex business and industry, FICCI. He has three decades of experience in the media and entertainment industry and he has been the President, Asia Pacific of the Walt Disney Company and the Chairman of Star and Disney India.

Keynote Speaker

Uday Shankar

President, FICCI

Welcome to 'Engaging India at Almedalen 2021: Future Urbanisms'  on July 5, 2021.

Over the past 18 months, the world has witnessed an unprecedented situation. The Covid-19 pandemic has compelled us to rethink existing systems and explore collaborations and solutions for a changing world. This year the series of seminars deepen the focus on how collaboration between Swedish and Indian innovation ecosystems can foster approaches, frameworks, and solutions for sustainability that is available for everyone.

Accordingly, our theme for 2021 is Sustainability and Innovation: What India and Sweden Can Learn From Each Other.

Organised within the umbrella of Future Urbanisms – a multidisciplinary research programme of Uppsala University at Campus Gotland, Zerocity and Content People AB, the seminar series connects the urban needs, innovative spirit, and entrepreneurial energy of India with the ideas of sustainability and resilience, and the business models of Sweden and the Nordic world.  This year’s seminar series will also showcase and formally introduce Zerocity, which is a collaborative network-based platform that has emerged from Future Urbanisms to create sustainable solutions for cities and its communities.

The Perspectives

The seminars will focus on fostering cooperation, collaboration and connections between the Swedish and Indian Innovation and Sustainability Ecosystems and the various key stakeholders, particularly those from the research and thought leadership community. The seminars will showcase three perspectives of:

  • Innovations for Sustainable Solutions for Everyone
  • Start-Ups & the New Purpose Economy
  • Urban centres as Circular Economies of Equitable Growth

The Seminar Series

The seminar series' ‘India at Almedalen Week: Future Urbanisms 2021’ discusses the key messages of co-thinking, collaboration, co-development and co-impact, and focuses on how collaboration between Swedish and Indian innovation ecosystems can foster approaches, frameworks and solutions for sustainability that is available for everyone.

Seminar 1 - Co-thinking Urbanisation, Technology & Sustainability in a changing world

The seminar 1 focuses on how collaboration between Swedish and Indian innovation ecosystems can foster new approaches, frameworks and solutions for sustainability that are available for everyone.

Key question: In a changing post-Covid world, how can we co-think sustainability, urbanisation and technology?

Panel speakers:

  • Ambassador Tanmaya Lal, Ambassador of India to Sweden, (Opening Address)
  • Uday Shankar, President, FICCI, (Keynote Speaker)
  • Owe Ronström, Professor, Uppsala Universitet
  • Sujith Nair, CEO & Co-Founder, Beckn
  • Per-Arne Wikström, Head, Office of Science & Innovation, Embassy of Sweden in India
  • Satyanarayan Chakravarthy, Professor, IIT Madras & Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop
  • Neeraj Jain, Chief Innovation Officer & India Startup Leader, Deloitte India
  • Swaminathan Ramanathan, Researcher, Uppsala Universitet, Director, Deloitte India
  • Rupali Mehra, CEO, Content People AB (Moderator)

Key Findings:

  1. "From the deepest depths of the oceans to the farthest reaches of the biosphere".

According to Owe Ronström, Professor, Uppsala Universitet, sustainability is not about specific regions, cities, countries, islands, issues, or cultures. It is about the entire planet and encompasses everything on it.

  1. Visualising co-thinking towards collaborations

Neeraj Jain, Chief Innovation Officer & India Startup Leader, Deloitte India emphasised on the need to redraw and reengineer the cognitive maps and ideas to make an exponential change towards reducing our global carbon footprint.

  1. Triple helix cooperation model as a way forward

According to Per-Arne Wikström, Head, Office of Science & Innovation, Embassy of Sweden in India, the ‘Triple Helix' cooperation model is a way forward to instill co-thinking and achieve sustainability.

Since the 1990s, Sweden has been at the forefront of the triple-helix model and, similarly, India has begun implementing the triple-helix model in the development of start-ups. Dr Satyanarayan Chakravarthy, Professor, IIT Madras & Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop, shared that IIT Madras incubation cell manages about 240 start-ups, and along with the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development is developing 3-D printed rockets, ethane combustion fuel and more, with the help of the Government and industry.

  1. India’s transformation in Innovation and Technology.

From being a country with more than 100 million people without a document ID to a nation having the world's largest digital ID scheme in the cloud and clocking 2.8 billion transactions in a month via UPI (Unified Payments Interface), Sujith Nair, CEO & Co-Founder of Beckn says these rapid transformations are paving the way for open infrastructure innovation.

  1. Is ecology a key factor in achieving sustainability?

Swaminathan Ramanathan, Researcher at Uppsala Universitet, Director with Deloitte India is of the view that it is time to transform the "Triple-helix cooperation model" of academia-government.industry, into a  quadruple helix cooperation model, with the fourth being ecology.

Owe Ronström is a professor in the Department of Ethnology, Uppsala University. He's written extensively about music, dance, ethnicity, multiculturalism, age, heritage, and islands, among other topics. He's also produced hundreds of radio shows for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, featuring music from all around the world. He also performs as a member of the bands Orientexpressen and Gunnfjauns Kapell, as well as serving as the director of Gotlands Balalajkaorkester. He produced BelleSounds, the world's largest concert, in June 2013.

 Owe Ronström

Professor, Department of Ethnology

Uppsala University

Sujith is the CEO & Co-Founder of Beckn Foundation that has created the world's first and Made-in-India open protocol for digital commerce called the Beckn Protocol. Along with Nandan Nilekani and Dr. Pramod Varma, Sujith has set up this not-for-profit foundation to reimagine digital commerce the world over. The idea of Beckn originated from urban mobility, an area where Sujith brings in extensive experience from. Among many firsts, Sujith designed Asia’s first open-loop transit payment model that eventually led to the creation of India’s National Common Mobility Card program. As part of India's Aadhaar program the world's largest ID program, Sujith worked on unbundling the dependence of such a large-scale program on biometric technologies in order to make the program future-flexible. Beckn is another first, that today goes beyond mobility to a diverse set of domains of digital commerce making it a one-of-a-kind universal protocol.

Sujith Nair

Co-Founder & CEO

Beckn

Per-Arne Wikström is a business professor with a Ph.D. (he learned a lot about sustainability, communication, and digitalization based on the studies). The journey into the Land of Science taught him not to accept assertions of truth at face value but to keep a critical mindset and cultivate questions as a means of ongoing progress. Working in Australia, China, Egypt, Ukraine, Italy, and Belgium has piqued his interest in various cultures. Then there's India. This, combined with the fact that he grew up in an environment where variations between people were valued assets for advancement, has made him more accepting of diversity.

Per-Arne Wikström

Head, Office of Science & Innovation

        Embassy of Sweden in India

Satyanarayan Chakravarthy is coordinating the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) established by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, in 2011, and also the Centre for Propulsion Technologies being established with the support of the Defense Research and Development Organization, Government of India. He is also an accomplished rocket scientist, combustion expert with over 25 years of experience, and cofounder of 3 IIT Madras startups. He served as a colloquium co-chair on Solid Fuels Combustion at the 37th International Symposium on Combustion in Dublin, Ireland in July 2018.

Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy

Professor, IIT, Madras

Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop

Neeraj Jain is a partner in the Strategy and Operations practice of Deloitte Consulting. He has more than 17 years of expertise working with clients on market assessment, market entry strategy, organic growth strategy, and program management, among other things. His knowledge of technology transformation and wireless networks is extensive. In addition to assisting clients, he is also the consulting lead for Technology, Media, and Telecommunications in India. Neeraj graduated from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, with a Telecom Engineering degree and an MBA.

Neeraj Jain

Chief Innovation Officer,

Start-Up Ecosystem Leader & Partner

Deloitte India

 

Swaminathan Ramanathan is a researcher at Uppsala University and the co-anchor of Future Urbanisms. His study focuses on the future cities' sustainability and resilience. He also works with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in India as the Director of Social Impact.

Swaminathan Ramanathan

Researcher, Uppsala University

Curator, Zerocity

Director, Deloitte India

Rupali Mehra is a communications specialist and founder of Content People AB. Her company based in Visby in Gotland, Sweden, connects India and the Nordics through impact storytelling & events. She is also host of the show Firstpost Conversations, which focusses on pressing urban & sustainability issues, and writes on gender and urbanity for several publications including Conde Nast, The Mint and The Local.

Moderator

Rupali Mehra

CEO and Founder

Content People AB

Seminar 2 - New Energy Systems for the People - Lessons, Insights and Models from India & Sweden

Seminar 2 draws lessons, insights and models on new energy systems from India and Sweden. What are the learnings from Sweden and India on leveraging innovative technologies to create sustainable energy systems that are affordable for people and communities?

Key Question: How can we increase the per-person access to clean and affordable energy, while reducing the world’s carbon footprint?

Panel speakers:

  • Ram Divedi, Co-Founder, Pravaig Dynamics
  • Henrik Johansson, CEO and Founder, Spowdi AB
  • Tor Broström, Professor, Uppsala Universitet
  • Jonas Klevhag, COO, The Bridge by Altitude
  • Rupali Mehra, CEO, Content People AB (Moderator)

Key Findings:

  1. Future of small-scale farmers is uncertain

According to Henrik Johansson, CEO and Founder of Spowdi AB, approximately 500,000 small-scale farmers worldwide produce half of global food production. This group of farmers is struggling to stay in the market due to the impact of climate action, water scarcity, and rising prices of fossil fuel. It is time to enable small-scale farmers with zero-emission clean energy resources, so that they can reduce their depedendence on fossil fuel.

  1. Buying an electric car doesn’t make you greener

According to Ram Divedi, Co-Founder of Pravaig Dynamics, electric car companies are not green energy companies, and people who buy them are not living a green life; however, if the energy source is renewable, it is greener than conventional cars in the long run. Jonas Klevhag, COO of The Bridge by Altitude, agrees with this statement and sees hydrogen as a more promising future energy source than other renewable energies.

3. Climate change from building perspective

Tor Broström, Professor at Uppsala Universitet, believes that research on indoor climate and energy efficiency is critical to mitigating climate change. However, he also stated that the research challenge is to find a balance between societal demand and sustainability.

4. India is too big for Jugaadh

The term “Jugaadh” refers to a creative solution or a simple workaround, a solution that bends the rules, or a resource that can be used in this manner. It is also frequently used to denote creativity: making existing things work or creating new things with limited resources. Ram Divedi, Co-Founder of Pravaig Dynamics, stated that the 'jugaadh' idealogy might be gaining traction in Western countries, but he personally believes that India needs to go beyond the 'jugaadh' way of thinking. He add that India needs a top-down structural plan to achieve sustainability.

5. 'We could do with a bit of Jugaadh'

Jonas Klevhag, COO of The Bridge by Altitude, said he find the concept of 'jugaadh' extremely interesting and useful, and says that high structured nations could adopt a bit of jugaadh in their thought process.

Rama is a geopolitician, business angel, and professor. He entered the capital of Pravaig Dynamics at a very early stage. At that time, Pravaig was a deep tech lab located on the outskirt of Jaipur, specialized in car engineering and batteries. He is currently the CSO of Pravaig. Ram's influence as a CXO is to use his experience in Economic Warfare in Pravaig Dynamics’ battles. In less than a year, Pravaig will start to release the first batch of 2500 premium electric cars, passenger-oriented, with incredible specs, in the streets of Delhi and Bangalore, accessible only via the Pravaig app (just like Uber) Pravaig Dynamics is developing much more than a product - fighting car ownership, planned obsolescence, CO2 emissions, geo-strategic dependency on oil, status quo of the automobile industry, data collection. Pravaig also incarnates the new direction of India. A self-resilient civilization, able to make high-end solutions tailored for the local needs. It’s time to free our minds from Jugaad.

Ram Divedi

CSO

Pravaig Dynamics

Henrik Johansson is the inventor of Spowdi, the world’s first solar-powered, zero emission solution for water distribution for small hold farmers. He has a financial and marketing background within sales, marketing and distribution in several industries for over 25 years, and diverse experience working across cultures.

Henrik Johansson

CEO and Founder

Spowdi AB

Tor Broström's research is about indoor climate and energy efficiency in culturally and historically valuable buildings. It is interdisciplinary and applied study aimed at finding a sustainable balance between energy conservation and cultural preservation. His teaching focuses on the same topic as his research: moisture and heat in buildings, as well as interior environment and energy.

Tor Broström

Professor, Cultural Conservation

Uppsala University

Jonas Klevhag is a passionate business developer and entrepreneur for an improved world. His combined backgrounds with a M. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a freelance career as a scriptwriter for television, has been instrumental in developing the tools for collaboration, today summarized as The Bridge Method. He is a true believer that sustainability is achieved through collaboration by stakeholders that know their respective skills and incentives and mutually agree on the quantifiable values of a good enough solution.

Jonas Klevhag

Chief Operations Officer

The Bridge by Altitude

Seminar 3 - SDGs and Industry 4.0 – Creating a New Purpose Economy

Seminar 3 explores the question, What are the learnings from Sweden, The Nordics and India in creating an ecosystem that builds in and hard-codes equity from a perspective of a digital democracy, socioeconomic growth and sustainable development?

Panel Speakers

  • Venkatesh Hariharan, India Head, Open Invention Network
  • Ranjula Bali Swain, Visiting Professor & Research Director, Center for Sustainable Research (CSR), Stockholm School of Economics
  • Raine Isaksson, Docent och Universitetslektor i kvalitetsteknik, Uppsala Universitet
  • Jojo Mehra, Vice President, eGov Foundation

Key findings

  1. Stretching boundaries beyond sustainability – The New Purpose Economy

Economic development has taken prominence over environmental and social concerns during the transitional periods of industrialization from 1.0 to 4.0. According to Dr. Ranjula, Research Director, Center for Sustainable Research (CSR), Stockholm School of Economics, the new purpose economy is about moving beyond efficiency and productivity, and industries must rethink their role in society in terms of climate change and social stability.

  1. Administering the newly emerging era of digital society 

As India progresses toward digitization, the divide between the rich and the poor will widen if digital platforms turn into giant monopolies, views Venkatesh Hariharan, India Head, Open Invention Network. He addresses this issue and explains the need for digital public goods towards a fairer and just society, the significance of government policymaking, and its role in the process.

  1. Understanding Sustainable Development on common grounds

In different scenarios, the idea of sustainable development can mean different. Academia, industry, government, and society differ as to how sustainable development needs are addressed. But can Sustainable Development have a definition in common? The panelists from diverse backgrounds discuss sustainable development based on their disciplines and perspectives and look at ways to reach an agreement.

  1. Accessibility is a crucial parameter for development

India is one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, and development as a factor differs in such countries because there are an unspoken set of parameters such as literacy, language, geography, digital maturity, and so on that add to the list of issues that must be considered even before a developmental program is designed.

Considering accessibility as one of the key solutions in such cases, Jojo Mehra, Vice President, eGov Foundation, discusses how his organization partners with local government authorities to ensure that their programs reach even the last mile in three steps:

- Deepening the impact by simplifying

- Widening by increasing the geographic reach

- Extending by the number of customized products and services

  1. The world of academia – research and 'relevant' research 

Since the beginning, research has been the bedrock of development. Any developmental notion, as we all know, takes shape on paper. Are our studies, however, relevant to present global issues? Is our research on its way to being implemented? Professor Raine Isaksson discusses how academia responds to the changing environment and works to generate relevant research material.

  1. Samaj – Sarkar – Bazaar: Triple Helix Model

The panelists discuss how we must tap into the eco system's collective energy to have a long-term impact. By collective, they mean the synergy between society, economy, and government to ensure long-term sustainability. Working on the same principles, India's Samaj-Sarkar-Bazaar and Sweden's triple helix model aim to build a 'benefit all' platform.

The Open Invention Network's India representative, Venkatesh Hariharan, works to safeguard the open source community from patent litigation. Before taking on his current post, he established the Data Governance Network, a network of think tanks, as a Senior Fellow of the IDFC Institute. He was previously Director Fintech at the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSPIRT), which developed public digital infrastructure such as IndiaStack (www.indiastack.org). He assisted several of India's top banks in adopting India Stack and its components, such as eKYC and the Unified Payment Interface, in this role. He has worked on important policy issues such as Internet legislation, open standards, software patents, open source in government, and computers in Indian languages. Hariharan is fascinated by the convergence of technology, society, and policy, with a particular interest in democratizing information access.

Venkatesh Hariharan

India Head Representative

Open Invention Network

Ranjula Bali Swain is a visiting professor and research director at the Stockholm School of Economics' Center for Sustainability Research (CSR). She is an Economics Professor at Södertörn University. She is affiliated with Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management's Center for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi). She has worked at the Geneva headquarters of the International Labour Organization. Her research covers Microfinance, Sustainable Development, Circular Economy.

Ranjula Bali Swain

Visiting Professor & Research Director

Center for Sustainable Research (CSR)

Stockholm School of Economics

Raine Isaksson

Senior lecturer, Quality technology

 Uppsala University

Jojo is a digital innovations professional with experience in leading product development, business model innovation and digital strategy. He is an entrepreneur and a digital native and is passionate about the role that digital technologies and innovation can play in addressing pressing challenges we face as a people and society. He is currently the head of products at eGovernments Foundation who are on a mission to catalyse technology-driven transformations that impact the lives of people, at scale and with speed.

Jojo Mehra

Vice President

eGov Foundation

Seminar 4 - Towards a Zero City - what the world can learn from Swedish 'lagom' and Indian 'sunya'

Key Question: Can zero as an ethos bring about a new circular model and show the way towards a more sustainable world?

Gokce Mete is the head of Secretariat, Leadership Group for the Industry Transition hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). LeadIT explores how policy, finance and business practices in hard-to-abate industry sectors can be aligned to achieve climate neutrality consistent with Paris Agreement and the latest scientific evidence from the IPCC. At SEI, Dr Mete also project leads research and stakeholder engagement on oil and gas transitions in the North Sea, with specific focus on technology relatedness, hydrogen, CCUS and offshore wind. Dr Mete has a decade of regulatory analysis, project development and stakeholder management experience focused on energy and industry transitions. She is also Founding Member of the Women in Green Hydrogen and Co-founder of the Women in Energy, Climate and Sustainability Foundation.

Gökçe Mete

Head of Secretariat,

Leadership Group for

the Industry Transition

Stockholm Environment Institute

Owe Ronström is a professor in the Department of Ethnology, Uppsala University. He's written extensively about music, dance, ethnicity, multiculturalism, age, heritage, and islands, among other topics. He's also produced hundreds of radio shows for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, featuring music from all around the world. He also performs as a member of the bands Orientexpressen and Gunnfjauns Kapell, as well as serving as the director of Gotlands Balalajkaorkester. He produced BelleSounds, the world's largest concert, in June 2013.

 Owe Ronström

Professor, Department of Ethnology

Uppsala University

Shalin Tandon works for Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India's largest publicly traded corporation by market capitalization, as a Vice President in the Chairman's Office. Shalin's responsibilities include real-estate, infrastructure, and corporate affairs initiatives, as well as his pivotal role in the establishment of India's first global scale Convention & Exhibition Centre at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. Previously, Shalin was a key player in Reliance's telecommunications and life sciences companies. Shalin worked as an engineer for Bechtel in London, one of the world's top engineering and construction businesses, prior to joining Reliance Industries. Shalin graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in wireless and satellite systems from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. He is also an INSEAD graduate. From 2011 to 2019, Shalin served as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Maldives. He has continued to advocate for increased investment and tourism in the Maldives, as well as increased economic and diplomatic links between India and the Maldives, during his tenure.

Shalin Tandon

Vice President

Reliance Industries Limited

Swaminathan Ramanathan is a researcher at Uppsala University and the co-anchor of Future Urbanisms. His study focuses on the future cities' sustainability and resilience. He also works with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in India as the Director of Social Impact.

Swaminathan Ramanathan

Researcher, Uppsala University

Curator, Zerocity

Director, Deloitte, India

Lars Ericsson

 Lecturer & Director of Studies

Uppsala University

Organised by:

Future Urbanisms, Uppsala University

Content People AB

Organising Committee:

Prof. Owe Ronstrom, Professor, Uppsala University 

owe.ronstrom@etnologi.uu.se

Dr. Swaminathan Ramanathan, Researcher, Uppsala University, Director (Social Impact), Deloitte India & Curator, Zerocity Network 

swaminathan.ramanathan@etnologi.uu.se

Rupali Mehra, Founder & CEO, Content People AB 

rupali@contentpeople.se

Coordinating Team:

Hithaishi Dayananda, M.S. Sustainable Development, Uppsala University

Rahul Kishorekumar, M.S. Sustainable Development, Uppsala University

Communications@contentpeople.se

 

Engaging India at Almedalen 2021: Future Urbanisms

Date: 5 July, 2021

Venue: Almedalen Week / Almedalsveckan

Theme: Innovation & Sustainability - What India and Sweden Can Learn From Each Other

H.E. Ambassador Tanmaya Lal is a 55-year-old Indian diplomat with nearly three decades of experience. He served as High Commissioner to Mauritius from 2019 to 2020 and as Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations Permanent Mission of India in New York from 2016 to 2018. As the Head of the UN Economic & Social (UNES) Division at headquarters and earlier in the Indian Missions in Vienna, Nairobi, and Bangkok, he worked extensively on multilateral aspects of India's engagement. Climate Change negotiations at the UNFCCC, Agenda 2030, the Human Rights Council, UN agencies, marine concerns, and the Arctic Council were among his responsibilities at the headquarters.

Opening Address

H.E. Tanmaya Lal

Ambassador of India

to Sweden

Closing Address

H.E. Klas Molin

Ambassador of Sweden

to India

Uday Shankar is president of India's oldest and largest apex business and industry, FICCI. He has three decades of experience in the media and entertainment industry and he has been the President, Asia Pacific of the Walt Disney Company and the Chairman of Star and Disney India.

Keynote Speaker

Uday Shankar

President, FICCI

Welcome to 'Engaging India at Almedalen 2021: Future Urbanisms'  on July 5, 2021.

Over the past 18 months, the world has witnessed an unprecedented situation. The Covid-19 pandemic has compelled us to rethink existing systems and explore collaborations and solutions for a changing world. This year the series of seminars deepen the focus on how collaboration between Swedish and Indian innovation ecosystems can foster approaches, frameworks, and solutions for sustainability that is available for everyone.

Accordingly, our theme for 2021 is Sustainability and Innovation: What India and Sweden Can Learn From Each Other.

Organised within the umbrella of Future Urbanisms – a multidisciplinary research programme of Uppsala University at Campus Gotland, Zerocity and Content People AB, the seminar series connects the urban needs, innovative spirit, and entrepreneurial energy of India with the ideas of sustainability and resilience, and the business models of Sweden and the Nordic world.  This year’s seminar series will also showcase and formally introduce Zerocity, which is a collaborative network-based platform that has emerged from Future Urbanisms to create sustainable solutions for cities and its communities.

The Perspectives

The seminars will focus on fostering cooperation, collaboration and connections between the Swedish and Indian Innovation and Sustainability Ecosystems and the various key stakeholders, particularly those from the research and thought leadership community. The seminars will showcase three perspectives of:

  • Innovations for Sustainable Solutions for Everyone
  • Start-Ups & the New Purpose Economy
  • Urban centres as Circular Economies of Equitable Growth

The Seminar Series

The seminar series' ‘India at Almedalen Week: Future Urbanisms 2021’ discusses the key messages of co-thinking, collaboration, co-development and co-impact, and focuses on how collaboration between Swedish and Indian innovation ecosystems can foster approaches, frameworks and solutions for sustainability that is available for everyone.

Seminar 1 - Co-thinking Urbanisation, Technology & Sustainability in a changing world

The seminar 1 focuses on how collaboration between Swedish and Indian innovation ecosystems can foster new approaches, frameworks and solutions for sustainability that are available for everyone.

Key question: In a changing post-Covid world, how can we co-think sustainability, urbanisation and technology?

Panel speakers:

  • Ambassador Tanmaya Lal, Ambassador of India to Sweden, (Opening Address)
  • Uday Shankar, President, FICCI, (Keynote Speaker)
  • Owe Ronström, Professor, Uppsala Universitet
  • Sujith Nair, CEO & Co-Founder, Beckn
  • Per-Arne Wikström, Head, Office of Science & Innovation, Embassy of Sweden in India
  • Satyanarayan Chakravarthy, Professor, IIT Madras & Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop
  • Neeraj Jain, Chief Innovation Officer & India Startup Leader, Deloitte India
  • Swaminathan Ramanathan, Researcher, Uppsala Universitet, Director, Deloitte India
  • Rupali Mehra, CEO, Content People AB (Moderator)

Key Findings:

  1. "From the deepest depths of the oceans to the farthest reaches of the biosphere".

According to Owe Ronström, Professor, Uppsala Universitet, sustainability is not about specific regions, cities, countries, islands, issues, or cultures. It is about the entire planet and encompasses everything on it.

  1. Visualising co-thinking towards collaborations

As the people on the earth are bound by religious cognitive maps and ideas and live with geopolitical consequences. Neeraj Jain, Chief Innovation Officer & India Startup Leader, Deloitte India urges people to redraw and reengineer the cognitive maps and ideas to make an exponential change in terms of carbon footprint and sustainability.

  1. Triple helix cooperation model as a way forward

According to Per-Arne Wikström, Head, Office of Science & Innovation, Embassy of Sweden in India, the ‘Triple Helix' cooperation model is a way forward to instil co-thinking and achieve sustainability all over the world.

Since the 1990s, Sweden has been at the forefront of the triple-helix model and, similarly, India has begun implementing the triple-helix model in the development of start-ups. Dr Satyanarayan Chakravarthy, Professor, IIT Madras & Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop, shared that IIT Madras incubation cell is managing about 240 start-ups and the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development is developing 3-D printed rockets, ethane combustion fuel etc with the help of the Government and Industrial companies.

  1. India’s transformation in Innovation and Technology.

From being a country with more than 100 million people without a document ID to having a digital ID in the cloud and UPI (Unified Payments Interface) clocking 2.8 billion transactions last month. According to Sujith Nair, CEO & Co-Founder, Beckn, these rapid transformations are paving the way for Beckn, allowing innovation to happen in this open infrastructure and promoting small businesses in India.

  1. Is ecology a key factor in achieving sustainability?

Swaminathan Ramanathan, Researcher, Uppsala Universitet, Director, Deloitte India, insists that instead of the "Triple-helix cooperation model", adopt the quadruple cooperation model involving ecology along with academia, industry, and government to achieve sustainability.

Owe Ronström is a professor in the Department of Ethnology, Uppsala University. He's written extensively about music, dance, ethnicity, multiculturalism, age, heritage, and islands, among other topics. He's also produced hundreds of radio shows for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, featuring music from all around the world. He also performs as a member of the bands Orientexpressen and Gunnfjauns Kapell, as well as serving as the director of Gotlands Balalajkaorkester. He produced BelleSounds, the world's largest concert, in June 2013.

 Owe Ronström

Professor, Department of Ethnology

Uppsala University

Sujith is the CEO & Co-Founder of Beckn Foundation that has created the world's first and Made-in-India open protocol for digital commerce called the Beckn Protocol. Along with Nandan Nilekani and Dr. Pramod Varma, Sujith has set up this not-for-profit foundation to reimagine digital commerce the world over. The idea of Beckn originated from urban mobility, an area where Sujith brings in extensive experience from. Among many firsts, Sujith designed Asia’s first open-loop transit payment model that eventually led to the creation of India’s National Common Mobility Card program. As part of India's Aadhaar program the world's largest ID program, Sujith worked on unbundling the dependence of such a large-scale program on biometric technologies in order to make the program future-flexible. Beckn is another first, that today goes beyond mobility to a diverse set of domains of digital commerce making it a one-of-a-kind universal protocol.

Sujith Nair

Co-Founder & CEO

Beckn

Per-Arne Wikström is a business professor with a Ph.D. (he learned a lot about sustainability, communication, and digitalization based on the studies). The journey into the Land of Science taught him not to accept assertions of truth at face value but to keep a critical mindset and cultivate questions as a means of ongoing progress. Working in Australia, China, Egypt, Ukraine, Italy, and Belgium has piqued his interest in various cultures. Then there's India. This, combined with the fact that he grew up in an environment where variations between people were valued assets for advancement, has made him more accepting of diversity.

Per-Arne Wikström

Head, Office of Science & Innovation

        Embassy of Sweden in India

Satyanarayan Chakravarthy is coordinating the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) established by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, in 2011, and also the Centre for Propulsion Technologies being established with the support of the Defense Research and Development Organization, Government of India. He is also an accomplished rocket scientist, combustion expert with over 25 years of experience, and cofounder of 3 IIT Madras startups. He served as a colloquium co-chair on Solid Fuels Combustion at the 37th International Symposium on Combustion in Dublin, Ireland in July 2018.

Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy

Professor, IIT, Madras

Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop

Neeraj Jain is a partner in the Strategy and Operations practice of Deloitte Consulting. He has more than 17 years of expertise working with clients on market assessment, market entry strategy, organic growth strategy, and program management, among other things. His knowledge of technology transformation and wireless networks is extensive. In addition to assisting clients, he is also the consulting lead for Technology, Media, and Telecommunications in India. Neeraj graduated from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, with a Telecom Engineering degree and an MBA.

Neeraj Jain

Chief Innovation Officer,

Start-Up Ecosystem Leader & Partner

Deloitte India

 

Swaminathan Ramanathan is a researcher at Uppsala University and the co-anchor of Future Urbanisms. His study focuses on the future cities' sustainability and resilience. He also works with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in India as the Director of Social Impact.

Swaminathan Ramanathan

Researcher, Uppsala University

Curator, Zerocity

Director, Deloitte India

Rupali Mehra is a communications specialist and founder of Content People AB. Her company based in Visby in Gotland, Sweden, connects India and the Nordics through impact storytelling & events. She is also host of the show Firstpost Conversations, which focusses on pressing urban & sustainability issues, and writes on gender and urbanity for several publications including Conde Nast, The Mint and The Local.

Moderator

Rupali Mehra

CEO and Founder

Content People AB

Seminar 2 - New Energy Systems for the People - Lessons, Insights and Models from India & Sweden

Seminar 2 draws lessons, insights and models on new energy systems from India and Sweden. What are the learnings from Sweden and India on leveraging innovative technologies to create sustainable energy systems that are affordable for people and communities?

Key Question: How can we increase the per-person access to clean and affordable energy, while reducing the world’s carbon footprint?

Panel speakers:

  • Ram Divedi, Co-Founder, Pravaig Dynamics
  • Henrik Johansson, CEO and Founder, Spowdi AB
  • Tor Broström, Professor, Uppsala Universitet
  • Jonas Klevhag, COO, The Bridge by Altitude
  • Rupali Mehra, CEO, Content People AB (Moderator)

Key Findings:

  1. Future of small-scale farmers is uncertain

According to Henrik Johansson, CEO and Founder of Spowdi AB, approximately 500,000 small-scale farmers worldwide produce 70% of global food production. This group of farmers is struggling to stay in the market due to a lack of resources and water scarcity. Henrik believes that a Spowdi solar-powered water pump and a change in the existing business model can solve the ongoing crisis.

  1. Buying an electric car doesn’t make you greener

According to Ram Divedi, Co-Founder of Pravaig Dynamics, electric car companies are not green energy companies, and people who buy them are not living a green life; however, if the energy source is renewable, it will be greener than conventional cars in the long run. Jonas Klevhag, COO of The Bridge by Altitude, agrees with this statement and sees hydrogen as a more promising future energy source than other renewable energies.

  1. Equity, Access, and Affordability of clean energy

Henrik Johansson, CEO and Founder of Spowdi AB, believes that by reengineering a new business model and creating a new ecosystem by focusing on target groups, the transition from green to much greener and poverty to profitability will be made.

  1. Climate change from building perspective

Tor Broström, Professor at Uppsala Universitet, believes that research on indoor climate and energy efficiency in culturally and historically significant buildings is critical to mitigating climate change. However, he also stated that the research challenge is to find a balance between societal demand and sustainability.

  1. India is too big for Jugaadh

The term “Jugaadh” refers to a creative solution or a simple workaround, a solution that bends the rules, or a resource that can be used in this manner. It is also frequently used to denote creativity: making existing things work or creating new things with limited resources. Ram Divedi, Co-Founder of Pravaig Dynamics, stated that the idealogy is gaining traction in Western countries, but he personally dislikes the concept of Jugaadh and believes that India needs a top-down structural plan to achieve sustainability.

Rama is a geopolitician, business angel, and professor. He entered the capital of Pravaig Dynamics at a very early stage. At that time, Pravaig was a deep tech lab located on the outskirt of Jaipur, specialized in car engineering and batteries. He is currently the CSO of Pravaig. Ram's influence as a CXO is to use his experience in Economic Warfare in Pravaig Dynamics’ battles. In less than a year, Pravaig will start to release the first batch of 2500 premium electric cars, passenger-oriented, with incredible specs, in the streets of Delhi and Bangalore, accessible only via the Pravaig app (just like Uber) Pravaig Dynamics is developing much more than a product - fighting car ownership, planned obsolescence, CO2 emissions, geo-strategic dependency on oil, status quo of the automobile industry, data collection. Pravaig also incarnates the new direction of India. A self-resilient civilization, able to make high-end solutions tailored for the local needs. It’s time to free our minds from Jugaad.

Ram Divedi

CSO

Pravaig Dynamics

Henrik Johansson is the inventor of Spowdi, the world’s first solar-powered, zero emission solution for water distribution for small hold farmers. He has a financial and marketing background within sales, marketing and distribution in several industries for over 25 years, and diverse experience working across cultures.

Henrik Johansson

CEO and Founder

Spowdi AB

Tor Broström's research is about indoor climate and energy efficiency in culturally and historically valuable buildings. It is interdisciplinary and applied study aimed at finding a sustainable balance between energy conservation and cultural preservation. His teaching focuses on the same topic as his research: moisture and heat in buildings, as well as interior environment and energy.

Tor Broström

Professor, Cultural Conservation

Uppsala University

Jonas Klevhag is a passionate business developer and entrepreneur for an improved world. His combined backgrounds with a M. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a freelance career as a scriptwriter for television, has been instrumental in developing the tools for collaboration, today summarized as The Bridge Method. He is a true believer that sustainability is achieved through collaboration by stakeholders that know their respective skills and incentives and mutually agree on the quantifiable values of a good enough solution.

Jonas Klevhag

Chief Operations Officer

The Bridge by Altitude

Seminar 3 - SDGs and Industry 4.0 – Creating a New Purpose Economy

Seminar 3 will explore the question, What are the learnings from Sweden, The Nordics and India in creating an ecosystem that builds in and hard-codes equity from a perspective of a digital democracy, socioeconomic growth and sustainable development?

Panel Speakers

  • Venkatesh Hariharan, India Head, Open Invention Network
  • Ranjula Bali Swain, Visiting Professor & Research Director, Center for Sustainable Research (CSR), Stockholm School of Economics
  • Raine Isaksson, Docent och Universitetslektor i kvalitetsteknik, Uppsala Universitet
  • Jojo Mehra, Vice President, eGov Foundation

Key findings

  1. Stretching boundaries beyond sustainability – The New Purpose Economy

Economic development has taken prominence over environmental and social concerns during the transitional periods of industrialization from 1.0 to 4.0. According to Dr. Ranjula, Research Director, Center for Sustainable Research (CSR), Stockholm School of Economics, the new purpose economy is about moving beyond efficiency and productivity, and industries must rethink their role in society in terms of climate change and social stability.

  1. Administering the newly emerging era of digital society 

As India progresses toward digitization, the divide between the rich and the poor widens as digital platforms turn into giant monopolies. Mr. Venkatesh Hariharan, India Head, Open Invention Network, addresses this problem and explains how India works to create a countervailing force that will help build a fairer and just society, the significance of government policymaking, and its role in the process.

  1. Understanding Sustainable Development on common grounds

In different scenarios, the idea of sustainable development can mean different. Academia, industry, government, and society differ as to how sustainable development needs are addressed. But can Sustainable Development have a definition in common? The panelists from diverse backgrounds discuss sustainable development based on their disciplines and perspectives and look at ways to reach an agreement.

  1. Accessibility is a crucial parameter for development

India is one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, and development as a factor differs in such countries because there are an unspoken set of parameters such as literacy, language, geography, digital maturity, and so on that add to the list of issues that must be considered even before a developmental program is designed.

Considering accessibility as one of the key solutions in such cases, Jojo Mehra, Vice President, eGov Foundation, discusses how his organization partners with local government authorities to ensure that their programs reach even the last mile in three steps:

- Deepening the impact by simplifying

- Widening by increasing the geographic reach

- Extending by the number of customized products and services

  1. The world of academia – research and 'relevant' research 

Since the beginning, research has been the bedrock of development. Any developmental notion, as we all know, takes shape on paper. Are our studies, however, relevant to present global issues? Is our research on its way to being implemented? Professor Raine Isaksson discusses how academia responds to the changing environment and works to generate relevant research material.

  1. Samaj – Sarkar – Bazaar: Triple Helix Model

The panelists discuss how we must tap into the eco system's collective energy to have a long-term impact. By collective, they mean the synergy between society, economy, and government to ensure long-term sustainability. Working on the same principles, India's Samaj-Sarkar-Bazaar and Sweden's triple helix model aim to build a 'benefit all' platform.

The Open Invention Network's India representative, Venkatesh Hariharan, works to safeguard the open source community from patent litigation. Before taking on his current post, he established the Data Governance Network, a network of think tanks, as a Senior Fellow of the IDFC Institute. He was previously Director Fintech at the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSPIRT), which developed public digital infrastructure such as IndiaStack (www.indiastack.org). He assisted several of India's top banks in adopting India Stack and its components, such as eKYC and the Unified Payment Interface, in this role. He has worked on important policy issues such as Internet legislation, open standards, software patents, open source in government, and computers in Indian languages. Hariharan is fascinated by the convergence of technology, society, and policy, with a particular interest in democratizing information access.

Venkatesh Hariharan

India Head Representative

Open Invention Network

Ranjula Bali Swain is a visiting professor and research director at the Stockholm School of Economics' Center for Sustainability Research (CSR). She is an Economics Professor at Södertörn University. She is affiliated with Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management's Center for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi). She has worked at the Geneva headquarters of the International Labour Organization. Her research covers Microfinance, Sustainable Development, Circular Economy.

Ranjula Bali Swain

Visiting Professor & Research Director

Center for Sustainable Research (CSR)

Stockholm School of Economics

Raine Isaksson

Senior lecturer, Quality technology

 Uppsala University

Jojo is a digital innovations professional with experience in leading product development, business model innovation and digital strategy. He is an entrepreneur and a digital native and is passionate about the role that digital technologies and innovation can play in addressing pressing challenges we face as a people and society. He is currently the head of products at eGovernments Foundation who are on a mission to catalyse technology-driven transformations that impact the lives of people, at scale and with speed.

Jojo Mehra

Vice President

eGov Foundation

Seminar 4 - Towards a Zero City - what the world can learn from Swedish 'lagom' and Indian 'sunya'

Key Question: Can zero as an ethos bring about a new circular model and show the way towards a more sustainable world?

Gokce Mete is the head of Secretariat, Leadership Group for the Industry Transition hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). LeadIT explores how policy, finance and business practices in hard-to-abate industry sectors can be aligned to achieve climate neutrality consistent with Paris Agreement and the latest scientific evidence from the IPCC. At SEI, Dr Mete also project leads research and stakeholder engagement on oil and gas transitions in the North Sea, with specific focus on technology relatedness, hydrogen, CCUS and offshore wind. Dr Mete has a decade of regulatory analysis, project development and stakeholder management experience focused on energy and industry transitions. She is also Founding Member of the Women in Green Hydrogen and Co-founder of the Women in Energy, Climate and Sustainability Foundation.

Gökçe Mete

Head of Secretariat,

Leadership Group for

the Industry Transition

Stockholm Environment Institute

Owe Ronström is a professor in the Department of Ethnology, Uppsala University. He's written extensively about music, dance, ethnicity, multiculturalism, age, heritage, and islands, among other topics. He's also produced hundreds of radio shows for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, featuring music from all around the world. He also performs as a member of the bands Orientexpressen and Gunnfjauns Kapell, as well as serving as the director of Gotlands Balalajkaorkester. He produced BelleSounds, the world's largest concert, in June 2013.

 Owe Ronström

Professor, Department of Ethnology

Uppsala University

Shalin Tandon works for Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India's largest publicly traded corporation by market capitalization, as a Vice President in the Chairman's Office. Shalin's responsibilities include real-estate, infrastructure, and corporate affairs initiatives, as well as his pivotal role in the establishment of India's first global scale Convention & Exhibition Centre at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. Previously, Shalin was a key player in Reliance's telecommunications and life sciences companies. Shalin worked as an engineer for Bechtel in London, one of the world's top engineering and construction businesses, prior to joining Reliance Industries. Shalin graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in wireless and satellite systems from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. He is also an INSEAD graduate. From 2011 to 2019, Shalin served as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Maldives. He has continued to advocate for increased investment and tourism in the Maldives, as well as increased economic and diplomatic links between India and the Maldives, during his tenure.

Shalin Tandon

Vice President

Reliance Industries Limited

Swaminathan Ramanathan is a researcher at Uppsala University and the co-anchor of Future Urbanisms. His study focuses on the future cities' sustainability and resilience. He also works with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in India as the Director of Social Impact.

Swaminathan Ramanathan

Researcher, Uppsala University

Curator, Zerocity

Director, Deloitte, India

Lars Ericsson

 Lecturer & Director of Studies

Uppsala University

Organised by:

Future Urbanisms, Uppsala University

Content People AB

Organising Committee:

Prof. Owe Ronstrom, Professor, Uppsala University 

owe.ronstrom@etnologi.uu.se

Dr. Swaminathan Ramanathan, Researcher, Uppsala University, Director (Social Impact), Deloitte India & Curator, Zerocity Network 

swaminathan.ramanathan@etnologi.uu.se

Rupali Mehra, Founder & CEO, Content People AB 

rupali@contentpeople.se

Coordinating Team:

Hithaishi Dayananda, M.S. Sustainable Development, Uppsala University

Rahul Kishorekumar, M.S. Sustainable Development, Uppsala University

Communications@contentpeople.se