Samfundet i Trondheim inviterte til møte om India.

India er et av verdens mest mangfoldige og multietniske land. Når du tenker på India, tenker du kanskje på Tikka Masala og Butter Chicken. Det er kanskje ikke så rart, for vi hører generelt lite om India i media. Men visste du at India blir omtalt som verdens største demokrati? At India har passert Kina i befolkningstall? Og at landet har vært styrt av samme parti og statsminister siden 2014?

Lørdag 7. september inviterte Samfundet til et dypdykk inn i indisk politikk, hvor vi tar for oss alt fra sosial ulikhet, til økende hindunasjonalisme og anti-muslimsk retorikk, til et demokrati, en religionsfrihet og en ytringsfrihet under press. For hva er det egentlig som rokker seg innad i verdens mest folkerike land? For å svare på dette inviterte de professor emeritus i samfunnsøkonomi og India-entusiast, Karl “Kalle” Moene, samt forfatter, grunnlegger av Det Moderne India, og tidligere ISFiT president, Rina Sunder.

Lytt til debatten her:

India Votes: A Celebration of Democracy

India's general elections, which spanned across seven phases from April 19th to June 1st, 2024, aimed to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha. The results were announced on June 4, 2024.

This historic election, lasting 44 days, broke previous records and stands as the largest in history.

Key highlights of this monumental event include:

• 970 million registered voters
• 1.05 million polling stations
• 15 million polling officials and security staff
• 5.5 million Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
• 400,000 vehicles for logistics

The Lok Sabha elections symbolize the essence of democracy and represent the collective voice of India’s diverse population. It is celebrated as a cherished festival of democracy.

At our event, "India Votes: A Celebration of Democracy," our speakers

• Abhishek Thepade, Portfolio Manager, DNB Emerging Markets
• Trym Sonstad, Deputy Director, Section for South Asia and Afghanistan, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Jwalith Desu, Strategy and Business Developer, Nordpool AS

delved into India's global impact. The interactive session was moderated by Dilek Ayhan, CEO, The Conduit.

Since April 19th, marking the onset of the election season, DMI founder, Rina Sunder has been regularly featured as a commentator on the Indian election on both NRK and TV2. 

Additionally, she has been a guest for the Nyhetskompaniet episodes. Nyhetskompaniet is a news-driven panel show featuring current topics and good company. Three guests and a host delve into today's news landscape, trending topics, and matters of public interest. 

Sunder was invited alongside former CEO of Innovation Norway, Anita K. Traaseth, as well as editor Erik Stephansen from Nettavisen, amongst others. 

India has taken steps into the global landscape throughout the past decades. We see contours of an emerging superpower taking form in multiple economic arenas. With its giant ocean, the blue economy is among the motors of the modern India. Is there any space for the ocean nation of Norway and its blue companies to play a role in this mix? There are indications of this, which is why we invite you into our world of collaboration and opportunities within the intersection of large & small and ocean & land. 

Our conference - which was in collaboration with DNB - offered valuable insights and inspiring conversations into the investment possibilities in India. Many companies used this occasion to meet business leaders in Norway’s largest companies and other decision makers to better your understanding of the possibilities within the blue economy and India interconnection. We were happy that more than 40 people had signed up for the conference.

The moderator was Audun Wickstrand Iversen, Portfolio Manager, DNB Asset Management. He addressed:

Panelists were:

• Success in Indian Business 
• India's Evolving Role as a Global Power 
• Economy and Ecology 

• Stine Horn, Deputy Director, Oceans and Private Sector Development, Norwegian Foreign Ministry
• Lasse. K. Hansen, Global Head of Marine HR, Wilhelmsen.
• Rina Sunder, Founder, The Modern India
• H.E Ambassador Vimal Acquino

Sharing glimpses below:

Orkla was present

A packed crowd gathered for the debate on India’s politihus and economy - why should we care? 

While India is undergoing rapid development, the level of knowledge about the country here in Norway is relatively low. Therefore, Kåkånomics invited Erik Solheim and Rina Sunder from DMI, together with Elisabeth Eie and Kalle Mallone to a debate about:

India's Politics and Economy - Why Should We Care?

The aim of the debate was to give a bird's eye overview of today's India and to look a bit ahead into the future.

The participants:
 

• Elisabeth Eide has brought a lot of knowledge in through her book "India – på vei mot hindunasjonalisme", which she wrote together with Terje Skaufjord last year. She has traveled a lot around India and has gained all-round knowledge of the country, and especially the Hindu nationalist movement.

• Rina Sunder has a lot of insight into trade, business, economics, and about India-Norway relations here. She has written the book "Det moderne India", about culture and business in India. Together with others, she founded DMI to give young and contemporary voices a platform to share their knowledge and thoughts about India-Norway relations.

• Erik Solheim is a diplomat with a lot of international experience, especially in South Asia. From 2000 to 2005, he led the Sri Lankan peace process. In recent years, he has been concerned with Indian politics and has written positively about Modi and the modern India.

• Kalle Moene is a pioneer in the economics discipline in Norway, and a frequent guest of Kåkånomics, since its inception seven years ago. This spring, he stood against Erik Solheim's perspective and what he believed was a glorification of India and Indian politics under Modi.

All in all, it was a varied and solid panel discussion that covered the domains of politics, economics, and culture/society.


Topics covered in the debate:

• How have Modi and BJP shaped India in your opinion?
• Economically - what is the big picture, what are the areas of focus?
• India is a global economic player with a strong stock market. But is the economic growth as big as you hear?
• Modi is very popular - but the support is different among different social groups and regions/states. Why?
• What is the so-called Hindutva ideology? In what way is there a change or continuity from earlier nation-building/nationalism in India? Cultural changes? The relationship with Islam/religious minorities? Ideological history writing?
• Is it a paradox that Hinduism, which has traditionally been very inclusive, now appears more exclusionary?
• India is decreasing on the democracy index - what is the problem?
• The great linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity - is it a strength or weakness?

We get a lot of requests about the streaming of events. Streaming did not occur for this debate nor for the Blue Economy and India seminar. However, we have uploaded the debate recordings on the podcast. 

About KÅKÅ|nomics: The point of KÅKÅ|nomics is to have economists explain to a broad audience how they see the world develop. Joining economists are psychologists, technologists, philosophers, historians, journalists, artists, politicians and comedians. The final product is enjoyed by laymen and professors alike. KÅKÅ|nomics is both a platform and a meeting place.

Please note the episode is in Norwegian.

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The Indo-Nordic Cooperation session focused on Clean Energy and Renewables. The aim was to foster collaboration between India and the Nordic countries in the fields of clean energy, sustainability, and renewable technologies. This session within the summit focused on two key aspects: cities and the unique offerings of individual Nordic countries towards the Indian market. The session provided a platform for knowledge sharing, idea exchange, and identifying potential areas of cooperation.

Moderators:

-  Ms. Rina Sunder, Founder, Det Moderne India

-  Mr. Umesh Sahdev, Exec. Chairman, Hydrogenium, Resources, India

-  Mr. Knut Linnerud, SBD International, Greenstat ASA

Mr. Ola Elvestuen, Ms. Arati Davis, and Mr. Mads Schlosser held opening remarks, pointing out the need for global collaboration to achieve climate action and the opportunities for collaboration between the Nordic countries and India.

We have uploaded the first part of the seminar on The Modern India Podcast. You can listen to it here:

Did you miss our Save soil debate at Arendalsuka? 

We are happy that 250+ enjoyed the Save Soil debate onat Arendalsuka. 

For this debate we had with us:

• Heidi Bade from Norad
• Torleiv Ness Ugland, CEO, Terramarine AS
• Ashish Sahu, Marketing Manager, Cambi AS
• Kathrine Sund-Henriksen, CEO, Forum for Utvikling og Miljø

Feel free to view the stream here. Please note that this debate is in Norwegian. 

We asked our guests the following questions:

Heidi:

• How does Norad work with soil?
• Which experiences and success stories do you have to share for the audience? 

Kathrine:

• How does it work internationally at the intersection between food, climate, and nature? 
• How can the food system be changed to strengthen food security and biological diversity, and reduce climate emissions?

Torleiv:

• What do you understand as "fertile soil"?
• Let us look towards Asia again, I have read that you operate in Vietnam. Why do you sell fertilizer to Vietnam?

Ashish:

• How do technologies like Cambi contribute to Save Soils / soil globally? Can you share some sustainable technologies to achieve Save Soils?
• How can individuals who live in cities contribute to the Save Soils initiative?

This episode is the speech by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the International Climate Summit 2022 held in Bergen on 30-31st August.

International Climate Summit 2022 is an initiative of the Indo-Norwegian partnership with a special focus on exploring ‘Opportunities for Green Hydrogen in India’. It aimed to present the next-generation opportunities for Bi-Lateral Trade, Joint Ventures, Technology Transfer, and International funding across the green hydrogen industry value chain in India.

Greenstat, Arena H2Cluster, Det Moderne India and the Norwegian Hydrogen Forum represented the Norwegian Partnership, together with the Indian side represented by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Invest India.