The Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week background

The Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week was instituted in year 2007, by the Ambassador of Sweden to India, H.E. Mr. Lars-Olof Lindgren, in cooperation with a number of selected representatives of Swedish industry in India. The week celebrates innovations, creativity and entrepreneurship, Swedish contributions to the development of the world and the fruitful Indian-Swedish relations.

The week also celebrates the legacy of Swedish inventor and philantropist Alfred Nobel, who at his death in 1896 donated the majority of his personal wealth to a trust, from which annual prizes were to be given to those who had made the greatest contribution to mankind during the proceding year. So has happened since 1901.

Over the century that has passed, the importance of innovations and scientific as well as cultural strides has increased rather than declined. Innovations have become key to solving challenges that the world faces, as well as instruments to enhance the chances of a global development that benefits all and does so in a sustainable manner. It is therefore little surprise that Ambassador Lindgren, and his colleagues from the business community felt it was time to make Sweden's contributions to the development of the world known in India. Also, as curiosity is at heart of all innovations, the ideas was not only to share with the Indian society the Swedish experience, but also to learn from the Indian society about solutions for the future.

To date, there are over 33 500 patented Swedish innovations, and the development is spurred by a national innovation system. Products like the steam turbine, the ball bearing, the gas powered beacon and the adjustable wrench all helped transform the country from an agrarian to an industrialized society in the absolute technological forefront.

Today, the urgency of protecting the environment has boosted many new products and services and many of the recent innovations are in the fields of renewable energy, waste management and sustainable transports. There are also innumerable innovations in the field of communications and mobile services, aimed at the needs of people in the computer age. One of these is Skype, the free Internet calling service.

During the Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week, the focus is to capture the importance of innovations to a sustainable development of the world. And the communication from the organizers is that creativity and culture are key elements in innovations. We hope you will follow us on an exciting Sweden-India focused innovation week in the end of October!