In 2018, Sweden and India signed an innovation agreement. Sweden-India Transport Innovation and Safety Partnership (SITIS) is a strong and concrete example of how innovation cooperation between the countries actually happens, and can create global values in the security area.
SITIS was launched in Stockholm, in the presence of Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Transport & Highways, Government of India & Thomas Eneroth, Minister for Infrastructure, Government of Sweden in the presence of CEOs and Senior Management of various Swedish & Indian companies, Academia and Research Institutes from the partnership as well as state representatives.
Leading Indian companies and institutes with expertise in safety have come together to form the SITIS as a long-term platform for innovation and a center for excellence on traffic safety research. The SITIS partnership will build deeper understanding of traffic safety in India, and provide insights into the core challenges facing many fast-growing economies with similar challenges and their potential solutions. This will provide a unique ability to inform and evaluate policy and technology priorities.
“We know that road safety is crucial to driving prosperity and development in the world, and it is a crucial part of our business model. But the biggest gain, and the reason why I am so delighted that SITIS is now in place, is that we can now entwine deeper into India’s ambition to reduce fatalities on road and thus positively touch a key aspect of progress in the lives of people in India – Safer Mobility. We can all use these learnings to support our safety efforts across other parts of the world, as well as Sweden. India’s strengths in the digital arena and getting leading companies and premier research & academic institutes of the both countries to work together – we have the combined potential to accelerate safety progress through new & innovative solutions” says Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, one of the initiators of SITIS.
The WHO estimates that while there are more than 150 000 deaths per year on roads in India, progress has stagnated in Sweden. At the same time there is great potential provided by the new technology paradigms: connectivity, electro-mobility, automation, digitization and AI – where India stands to leap frog in implementing effective technology and system-level measures to improve traffic safety.
Vikram Nair, President, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Tech Mahindra, said, “The establishment of SITIS is a testimony of how the industry and academia can successfully come together to create value for citizens. Through this platform, our aim is to address the current traffic safety challenges in India and suggest potential solutions be recommending policy reforms to reduce traffic fatalities.”
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