Swedish space delegation bets on industry meet to propel ties with India

Bengaluru: Sweden is keen to leverage its standing as an innovation seedbed to accelerate collaborations with India in the space sector, a top Swedish government official said after meeting leaders of India’s space establishment here on Wednesday.

Hakan Jevrell, Sweden’s State Secretary for Foreign Trade, said the first Sweden-India Space Industry Day held at ISRO could provide impetus to these efforts. Jevrell is leading a space delegation over three days in Bengaluru.

Cooperation in space between India and the Nordic country started in 1986 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. The State Secretary said “many dots get reconnected” during meetings like the one on Wednesday. The time appears right for a reassertion of the ties, considering that India is betting big on space exploration and has set in motion important policy reforms that open the space industry up for the private sector.

”Working with the private sector, where the majority of innovation originates, will open up solutions that would not materialise otherwise. India has had a very impressive last decade, leading up to the Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon, which shows how focused the government is on this area. We have opened a spaceport (in Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Centre) that makes us the only orbital launch location in mainland Europe. These new collaborations can be timely in many ways,” Jevrell told DH in an exclusive interaction.

The delegation had representation from eight Swedish companies engaged in the design and production of diverse applications relevant to space robotics missions, rocket engines and propulsion systems, small satellites, thermal vacuum chambers designed to simulate harsh conditions of space, and conversion of geospatial data for analytics.

Sweden has been punching above its weight as an innovation leader, Jevrell said. He underlined the country’s “difficult” geopolitical position and its need to work with formidable friends like India. Finding more areas of mutual interest can formalise these alliances.

“Sweden and India have needs within the space sector, to not only establish our relevance in the area but also to make the best use of space which will be an integral part across domains. We have seen that (the use of space as a strategic enabler) in Ukraine,” Jevrell said.

Hyderabad-headquartered space tech company Dhruva Space has an agreement in place with the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) to use SSC’s ground station network for LEAP-1, an upcoming payload satellite mission.

The Swedish delegation also visited the Indian Institute of Science. Per-Arne Wikstrom, counsellor at the Office of Science and Innovation in the Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi, said the interest of Swedish universities in interacting with Indian universities has “increased significantly”. Last year, a delegation of 17 universities covering STEM disciplines visited India. Another university delegation, with social sciences and humanities as core areas, is scheduled for a visit later this year.