August 20, 2020
India-Sweden commercial relations are rooted in innovation and new technologies. The two countries recorded bilateral trade worth around US$1.9 billion during 2019-20
Atal Innovation Mission has been set up as part of efforts to build a sustainable future-ready economy wherein the youth can become job creators instead of staying job seekers
India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is a collaboration between AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur and Business Sweden with a strong network of ecosystem partners
Such synergies will enable a vibrant growth of world-class Indian startups addressing both Indian and global opportunities leveraging partnerships and networks of Swedish firms
The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) programme of NITI Aayog and Business Sweden on behalf of the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre are collaborating to promote entrepreneurship in India. The entities said on August 20 that the partnership will focus on supporting the startup ecosystem in the country. Indo-Sweden relations have been characterized by partnerships in several domains, including science and technology, micro, small and medium enterprises, space, energy, intellectual property, and sustainable urban development. The nations have also entered a collaborative industrial research and development programme that focuses on the domains of space and aeronautics, transportation and e-mobility, smart cities, IPR issues, circular economy, including biomaterials and the startup economy.
AIM is the Government of India’s initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. AIM’s objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, and a platform to oversee the innovation ecosystem of the country. AIM has been set up as part of efforts to build a sustainable future-ready economy wherein the youth can become job creators instead of staying job seekers. In line with this agenda, various programmes are being run under AIM such as Atal New India Challenge (ANIC), Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACIC), Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) and Atal Research & Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE).
Meanwhile, India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is a collaboration between AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur, and Business Sweden. The Innovation Centre aims to create an ecosystem of open innovation and is built under strategic guidance from the Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of Sweden’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Embassy of Sweden in India. It also has a strong network of ecosystem partners – Invest India, AGNII, Startup India, and knowledge partners – AstraZeneca, NASSCOM, and VINNOVA. The Innovation Centre had recently launched its first healthcare innovation challenge to collaborate with partners to help solve some of the leading problems in the healthcare delivery landscape of India.
Through this collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation centre ecosystem will be further strengthened to provide all the required support to the innovators for faster scale-up of their solutions. “We are proud that India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is partnering with us in our endeavours to nourish the existing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India while also enabling innovation collaborations with counterparts in Sweden. Such synergies will enable a vibrant growth of world-class Indian startups addressing both Indian and global opportunities leveraging global partnerships and networks of Swedish firms,” Mission Director AIM, NITI Aayog R Ramanan said.
The partnership will provide Innovation Challenges, Incubation, Mentorship, access to funding networks, innovation showcase, and conference events. The India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre has also agreed to support the goals of AIM by enabling synergies towards creating a sustainable ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship between the two countries. This will also include building a seamless experience for the startups onboarded at India-Sweden Innovation Centre. India-Sweden commercial relations are deeply rooted in innovation and new technologies. The two countries recorded bilateral trade worth around US$1.9 billion during 2019-20 with promises of steady growth in the future.