President Pranab Mukherjee promises e-visa facility for Swedish nationals

Stockholm: India will soon extend e-Visa facility to Swedish nationals, President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said as he invited the Nordic country to be a part of government’s flagship programmes like the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Addressing a seminar on “India and Sweden: Co-creating a brighter future”, Mr Mukherjee said, “If India and Sweden pooled their innovative energies to address the challenges that India faces, the solutions that they come up with may benefit not just the two countries, but the whole world.”

Ahead of the seminar, the President met the CEOs of the Swedish companies where he asked them to invest in India.

The CEOs told the President that they were eagerly awaiting the outcome of government's decision on Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The GST Bill was introduced in Parliament and is at present pending before the standing committee. The CEOs also told the President that they wanted to expand manufacturing base in India and make use of the programmes like ‘Make in India’ and also export to a third country from India.

During the seminar, Mr Mukherjee spoke about the changed political atmosphere in India and said “an atmosphere has been created, which is business friendly”. He reminded India and Sweden always had cordial relationships.