So that’s what is the latest update. But it remains a top priority for the two governments.

Have you identified any specific projects?

I can give you one example. Those of us who are living in Delhi, we are often being choked with bad polluted air from the neighbouring states. We have introduced a new sort of technology, spoilers, that will be running different bio-based power plants.

There are a number of these projects coming up. Last couple of days, we have been negotiating with India. We have been negotiating as a big project to the tune of close to one billion euros.

We are looking into how we can use accurate store and so forth in a kind of gasification and then generate electricity, but also help in reducing the pollution. One such pilot power plant came up in Haryana recently. It takes out close to 75,000 tons of CO.

It generates jobs for 1,500 people. It generates power 16 to 70 megawatt 24×7. So, it’s a very good way of handling some issues that we have to deal with. But in a larger context, we also need to think big. We are trying to define a scale to some of the projects that we are looking into.

Have you made any assessment on the investment that is likely to take place or which is needed in this segment?

I can tell you that we just decided last year to set up a special facility through our government agency for international funding. This facility is really geared to secure even more investments in India.

It’s an India-specific facility. We are also these days discussing with the Ministry of Finance of India how to build up a pipeline. These investments will come, but it’s only for the government to set the direction, find the conditions, and then we will leave it to the private sector to do the actual investments and bring in whatever technology they find necessary and so forth.

So, we are on the track. We are also doing a lot in water, but I think that’s a different context here. But on energy, I mean, we are also looking into offshore wind, which is hopefully being tendered very, very soon. If that comes out, we will see a huge number of jobs being created in India.

Which are the segments that you’re looking at in India?

We have brought the energy supply chain… global energy supply chain for the wind industry to Chennai and Tamil Nadu. There are many ways of doing things. And we are also looking into how to produce green fuel for the shipping industry.

Shipping industry is a global business, but they also need to be green. We need to find ways of producing methanol that can be used to fuel the vessels. The Danish shipping major, APM Maersk have commissioned 19 vessels, container vessels, and they will have to run on green fuel.

Are you negotiating with Indian firms on green energy?

We are in talks with many stakeholders in India. But I have also said many times that the way forward is really to invest in something really low-hanging fruit, namely energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is so important.

How is the trade between the two countries progressing?

In fact, it’s going quite well in the sense that we have seen a significant increase in the overall trade. But the overall trade is not only about goods but also about services. Of course, Covid also impacted the bilateral trade. But however, it’s important to keep in mind that bilateral trade does not really make too much sense these days due to globalization.

We have many Danish companies who are investing, selling and trading out of Singapore, as an example, with India. So, if they’re trading out of Singapore with India, that would not be part of the bilateral trade between Denmark and India because it comes through Singapore and so forth.

The best thing we can do is to secure that the free trade agreement between the EU and India… (hope it) takes shape and will be concluded as soon as possible. A substantial agreement should be really helping all of us, our companies on both sides, but also securing India, the European Union and Denmark. Of course, we can grow our ties economically and commercially in the years ahead. I think last year we came close to 19 billion Danish kroner in trade. The big increase came from services, meaning in this context, shipping.