Day 1 of the NICCI business delegation to India November 2025: Some of our delegates entered India through Chennai, where local NICCI members and Guidance Tamil Nadu co-organized a full day of valuable meetings and site visits.
IIT Madras Research Park – deep tech with purpose
We started inside the IIT Madras Research Park. This is where India’s deep-tech ecosystem shows its real strength: solve a real problem, define the end product, then build the technology backwards from that target. It is impressing to see the scale and value growth of the startups spinning out of IITM Incubation Cell.
Our delegates representing the municipalities, the university and the cyber security cluster in Innlandet, immediately spotted low-hanging opportunities for collaboration with the strong research-innovation-industry ecosystem built around IIT Madras.
Ringside with the future of space tech
The space-tech startup that recently successfully launched a rocket – 3D-printed the entire engine. Yes, we stood centimeters away from the ongoing printing of the next 1 meter high engine. A perfect display of the Indian frugal innovation mindset -or Jugaad innovation: move fast, experiment, keep costs down and focus on the mission.
Between visits, we sat down for a traditional South Indian thali lunch, a cultural experience in itself. A reminder that business trips in India always come with strong impressions.
Constructive meetings at Guidance Tamil Nadu (the governments business promotion agency)
After lunch, we moved to the GTN office, where government, academia and companies were brought into the same room. Two focused sessions anchored the day: co-creating reliable talent pipelines (TN has a huge talent pool) and business matchmaking TN-Norway. (The industries in TN matches good with Norwegian focus areas)
We had very good discussions with key clusters and institutions relevant for Norwegian companies. With such a strong engagement from the Tamil Nadu side, we see a huge potential in collaborations across academia and industry. Firm next steps are in planning – for all NICCI members to be part of.
Chennai gave us exactly what a first day should give: deep tech insights, real cultural impressions, strong government engagement and direct pathways for collaboration.
The meetings were so engaging that time simply slipped away – and we missed our flight to Bengaluru. A quick introduction to traffic in India’s giga-cities. But also a reminder of how fast and digital everything works here: a few taps on an app to rebook, a streamlined domestic terminal and before we knew it we were back in the air, heading towards our next chapter in Bengaluru.