India, Finland to set up sustainability working group
India and Finland are planning to set up a governmental working group on sustainability, said Kimmo Siira, Counsellor (Trade and Investments) in the Embassy of Finland in New Delhi. The focus of the grouping is to be on energy, given that Finland is pushing investments in biofuels and renewable energy in India. Finland is also lending its expertise to India, since New Delhi is planning to study the Nordic power grid.
India, which proposed the creation of this group, will be represented by the Ministries of Environment, Power and Renewable Energy and Natural Gas. NITI Aayog may also be a part of the group. The grouping fits with the bilateral partnership’s larger focus on sustainability and innovation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland set this focus during their bilateral meeting in 2021. “The Prime Ministers discussed deepening bilateral relations in the fields of trade and investment, science, innovation and sustainable development. Finland and India have many partnerships that aim to promote sustainable development and digitalisation, among other objectives," reads a press statement from the Finnish government at the time.
Finland’s efforts, which Siira says will focus on the energy partnership, will build off earlier efforts. “In Assam, next year, we will finalise a bio-refinery which is going to make ethanol from bamboo. It is a joint venture of Numaligarh Oil Refinery Ltd and Chempolis, a Finnish company which has the technology to convert bamboo to ethanol," Siira said in an exclusive interview with Mint.
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