India, Sweden to cooperate in Smart Cities, energy

India and Sweden on Tuesday agreed to further deepen their cooperation in the Smart Cities initiative, transport and energy sectors.

The two countries will exchange knowledge and explore cooperation on smart cities, including transit-oriented urban development, air pollution control, waste management, waste-to-energy, waste-water treatment, district cooling and circular economy, including through dialogue and capacity building.

Both sides will exchange know-how and explore cooperation in the areas of electro-mobility as well as renewable fuels and exchange know-how and explore cooperation in the area of railways, such as railway policy development, safety, training and operation and maintenance of railways.

In energy, India and Sweden will engage and seek mutual collaboration on the demonstration and development of smart grid technologies such as smart metering, demand response, power quality management, distribution automation, electric vehicle/charging infrastructure as well as renewable integration, through research, capacity building,policy cooperation and learning on market design prerequisites including business models.

The two countries will expand research, innovation and business cooperation on new innovative energy technologies through the India-Sweden Innovations' Accelerator, focusing on technologies to utilise renewable energy and energy efficiency.

In an effort to bolster women empowerment and skill development, India and Sweden will encourage joint efforts towards women's empowerment by skilling employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women through projects such as "Kraftsamla"- a project undertaken by Swedish and Indian actors in Pune in Maharashtra, which provides skills training for women in jobs suitable for industry such as forklift drivers, warehouse managers, assembly operators and so on.