Foreign national works to improve trade links between Sweden and Punjab

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, March 15

Lalitha M Doverud, a middle-aged Swedish woman, is working on opening new vistas of trade between her native country and the states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in her own imitable style. This has made her station herself at Madhopur, and she has already succeeded in establishing links with leading industrialists of the neighbouring states of J&K and HP.

So successful has been her endeavours that she has already been granted an audience with the Indian Ambassador to Sweden, Banashri Bose Harrison, in Stockholm on April 23. She will be informing the ambassador about the latest business initiatives she has undertaken during her India tour.

Enchanted by India and its culture, she has changed her name from Monika to Lalitha M Doverud. As a guest of Pathankot businessman Dinesh Mahajan, she has been visiting India since 1992 to promote business between the two countries. She has even been instrumental in establishing the ‘Intact Special School’ in Trichy-a school, which houses differently-abled children.

Lalitha has already met leading businessmen of Kathua (J&K) and, in return, they have evinced a keen interest in exporting goods to Sweden. Her next stop is some industrial towns of Punjab, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, before she flies back to Stockholm to prepare for her meeting with the ambassador.

Talking to TNS, Madhopur, Lalitha said that Sweden was the 20th most important market for Indian exports. “Swedish imports from India constitute 0.5 per cent of the country’s total imports. The greatest share of Swedish imports from India is of machinery which is pegged at 32 per cent. Clothing is the second most important imported item amounting for 28 per cent of the total imports. Other imports are yarn and chemicals.” I see a high potential of growth in J&K and HP. Even in Punjab there have been many business houses which have come forward to export their goods to Sweden. I am just a facilitator between Indian and Sweden-based entrepreneurs,” she claimed.

“My country has a long history of investments in India; both Ericsson and Swedish Match established their presence in India in the early 20th century. Today there are numerous Swedish-multinational companies established here. Some of the well-known names include ABB, Volvo Trucks and Buses, Astra Zeneca, Ericsson, Atlas Copco, Sandvik and SKF.