This article was written by the InnoMag editorial team and was first published in Norwegian on InnoMag.no.
Read the original article: InnoMag – “India is calling – wants to teach Norway how to scale faster!”
INNOVATION DAY 2026 asked the question. In November, over 25 Norwegian innovators will go to India to search for the answers.
Photo: InnoMag
Trond Skundberg , CEO of the Norway India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI), has worked full-time with India since 1999. He is clear about what makes India relevant right now:
“India is a Masterclass in commercialization and scaling,” he says, explaining further; –
While we in Norway ask: “Can this work?” they in India ask: “How big can this get?”
-I had the pleasure of attending INNOVATION DAY 2026 last week and there was a common thread running through the day at Epicenter; Norway has both innovative power, research resources, technology and good ideas, but we get too little business out the other end. As was said; We are better at innovation input than innovation output, and there is an urgent need to improve on commercialization, speed and scaling.
India is extremely interesting precisely because they think about market and scale early. And in November, Norwegian innovators and leaders will have a chance to experience it for themselves.
When Reliance Jio entered Indian telecom as recently as 2016, they had an ambition that would have seemed crazy: They wanted to become India’s dominant telecom provider. Today, they have over 533 million subscribers. More than 90 times the population of Norway. And it happened in six years.
The Innovation Day featured Chris Yeh, co-author of Blitzscaling , on stage. He confirmed that Jio is a textbook example of blitzscaling – precisely this way of thinking about scaling from day one. This is the kind of insight Norwegian leaders need.
From question to action
For Skundberg, Innovation Day was almost the perfect run-up. “Innovation Day 2026 asked the right questions, but now Norwegian businesses should follow up and join where the answers lie,” he says.
He reminds us that Norway and India have entered into a free trade agreement. The ambition is USD 100 billion – close to NOK 1,000 billion – in increased investments from Norway and the other EFTA countries to India over 15 years.
“When the ambition is close to NOK 1,000 billion in increased investments, it is not enough to talk about India,” says Skundberg. “Norwegian companies need to go out and explore the opportunities.”
He also points out that the agreement requires the authorities to also stand up:
-I also expect that the political initiative will be followed by stronger instruments and support for companies that actually want to explore India and one of the world’s largest markets. Otherwise, we risk that the agreement will not deliver as promised.
“You don’t understand Indian speed and scale from a meeting room in Oslo,” says Skundberg. “It’s not just about selling to India. It’s about understanding and learning from India while also unlocking the potential of a huge market.”
From dialogue to business – join us in November!
In November, NICCI, in collaboration with the Open Innovation Lab of Norway, is organizing a delegation trip to Mumbai and Goa and the call for Norwegian scaling companies is clear:
Join us!
The program is called “THINK BIG. SCALE SMART.” – and it is precisely about what is missing in Norwegian innovation culture: the ability to think in terms of volume, market and explosive growth from day one.
“NICCI connects Norwegian and Indian companies with knowledge, the right people and concrete business opportunities,” explains Skundberg. “Our job is to move the Norway-India cooperation from dialogue to business.”
It’s a simple but important distinction. The world is full of meeting places where people talk about opportunities. Fewer are designed to actually create them. You can read more about the study trip here;
16.–20. November 2026 | Mumbai & Goa
More information: nicci.no/nicci-business-delegation-2026