Roundtable Meeting In Indian Embassy at Stockholm , Sweden

A round table meeting was arranged by the Indian Embassy of Sweden in Stockholm with the Business community of Sweden. Under the banner of Indian Business council the meeting was attended by some of the important leaders in water and sanitation solutions of not just Sweden but also of the world. The meeting amongst other was attended by Robin Sukhia, the general secretary and president of the council, experts from the KTH research institute of Stockholm, Stefan, Cristopher, Karsen Bhattacharya all of them representing different water solution companies in their respective field.   Parmeshwaran Iyer the Union Secretary of Water was also present. City government of Shimla was represented by Tikender the deputy Mayor of the city.

The discussion was quite informative with the keenness shown by the group to invest in providing water solutions to the country and the cities in particular. While explaining the scale of investment in India there is a huge demand for such solutions which can be a win - win situation for  both the countries. Water becoming an integral part of the sustainable development goals(SDGS) of the United Nations and global vision of 2030 of providing safe and potable water to all also the  national governments commitment to achieve it provides an unambiguous direction to steer the roadmap for sanitation and the ability to provide clean and safe drinking water . Quite impressed with the slogan of‘water is life and sanitation is dignity’ the direction for work and intervention is clear.

While being apprehensive about the security of the investment, the delegation was keen to know the efforts made in this direction. Learning about the experience of the initiative of Shimla city in forming the Greater Shimla water supply and sewerage circle a body meant to treat the last drop of sewerage and drinking water was a surprise for the delegation as this was unheard of in India. In fact this was the discussion that the Shimla model should be replicated throughout the country providing end to end solution. The Sweden India Business council has assured to send a delegation and help the city in framing not only hardware but also software solutions for water and other sectors related to urbanisation. The delegation apprised that they are even prepared to invest more than 2 billion dollars ( about Rs 1500 crores) to help in finding water solutions. The solutions offered did not just confined to bacteria , virus and pathogens as we have in Shimla but also clearing water of heavy metals and arsenic.

One of the lessons that we have to learn from our competitors ie China is about the integrity and fairness in providing solution and not building crony capitalism as is experienced in our country and the state . In fact this was the biggest fear amongst the delegation.

Tikender Singh Panwar