Sweden India Nobel Memorial Week starts on Saturday

The ninth edition of the Sweden India Nobel Memorial Week gets underway on Saturday across 10 Indian cities with the theme of "Sweden Make in India".

Held in memory of Swedish innovator and philanthropist Alfred Nobel to celebrate Indian Nobel laureates, the Week will take place across Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune during October 10-17, Swedish Ambassador to India Harald Sandberg told IANS.

"The Nobel Week is a nice platform that builds on the concept of innovation for a better life. A large number of Swedish companies are sponsoring this edition of the event.

"It is a platform for a number of activities," he said.

The week's highlight is the Nobel Memorial Quiz competition open to graduate and post-graduate students, with teams representing the various cities. Winners get an all-expense paid trip to Sweden where they will visit headquarters of global Swedish companies, Swedish universities and the Nobel Museum among other things.

Companies partnering this year's Nobel Week include ABB, Ericsson, IKEA, Munters, Oriflame, SAAB, Sandvik, Scania, SEB, Tetrapak, Volvo Cars, and Volvo India.

Sandberg said the Swedish Embassy in collaboration with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will on Saturday unveil an exhibition on Indian Nobel laureates at the Rajiv Chowk Metro station.

The previous edition of the event had a special focus on the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.

Sweden was among the countries that participated in the launch of the Make in India campaign, while Sandberg pointed out that there currently around 140 Swedish companies in India providing employment to nearly 150,000 people.

He also said Indians have emerged as the largest group of non-European students in Sweden, where they go mostly for engineering studies because the Scandinavian country offers masters level courses that are taught in English.