Indian Nobel quiz winners visit Sandvik
Every year the Embassy of Sweden in India, along with major Swedish businesses, hosts the Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week. The purpose is to strengthen relations between the two nations.
One activity during the week is the renowned Nobel Quiz. It is a collegiate quiz bowl in which one team comprised of three students from each university in India can compete. The winners receive an all-inclusive week to Sweden to learn more about the country and visit several different Swedish businesses.
In 2012, the winners of the Nobel Quiz were Abhijeet Balakrishnan, Ashok S. Menon and Bharath Ravikumar, students at the Government Engineering College in Thrissur, India. During their week in Sweden the trio visited Atlas Copco, Scania and Sandvik. We had the pleasure of hosting them during June 4-5.
Yvonne Strandberg (Sandvik), Abhijeet Balakrishnan, Raveendra Siriki (Sandvik), Ashok Menon, Lars Hallberg (guide), Bharath Ravikumar and Ashwin Devotta (Sandvik).
"For Sandvik, the visit was very valuable," explains Yvonne Strandberg, global employer branding manager at Sandvik. "We got the opportunity to tell the students about Sandvik, and I took the chance to find out what young Indian engineers find important when choosing a future employer."
Flexibility and the possibility to influence decisions and bring up ideas were among the important factors that they mentioned. Work-life balance and travel possibilities were others.
"India is known to be a very hospitable country, but it's nothing compared to Sweden," says Abhijeet. "Everything except the weather has been perfect!"