India weighs Norway funds decision to sell Bel shares

Norway's sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management, one of the world's largest, has divested its shares in Bharat Electronics Limited (Bel) for selling weapon systems to the Myanmar junta. The Indian government is studying the move made by the Fund as Norway is emerging as a key economic partner from northern Europe.

The fund said it had divested from Bel due to the "unacceptable risk" that the companies posed by selling weapons to a state that uses them "in ways that constitute serious and systematic violations of international humanitarian law". Bel had delivered a remote-controlled weapons station to Myanmar in July 2021, the fund said. According to the fund, Bel system was "developed to remotely control weapons from inside an armoured vehicle."

Myanmar continues to be a critical partner for India as a neighbour and gateway to southeast Asia. The Pakistan-China military axis has good ties with the junta, which increasingly depends on the axis for military hardware. However, India remains a security partner and New Delhi has adopted a pragmatic approach in dealing with the junta in national interest. Sources told ET that as a next door neighbour, Myanmar has huge strategic significance for India.

A Norwegian government insider told ET the fund was autonomous and took independent decisions. The fund's Indian investments were spread across 375 companies at the end of 2021, and had a market value of about $15.8 billion, a 27% increase from $12.4 billion the previous year. The fund had invested in 320 Indian firms in 2020. Norway's pension fund, whose equity portfolio tops $1 trillion and is spread across 9,338 companies, has been pushing for more sustainable investments in recent years. The new Norwegian Climate Investment Fund, managed by Norfund, recently invested about ₹500 crore in equity in SAEL, an Indian solar and agro-waste-to-energy company.

India's economic and commercial ties with Norway are on the upswing. There has been a spurt in trade, investments, transfer-of-technology and other contacts. The growth in Indo-Norwegian eco-commercial ties have been fueled by common interest in sectors such as deep off-shore, shipping, hydro power, information technology, biotech and light consumer goods. Norwegian IT companies are also looking at offshoring their business to India or investing in Indian start-ups. Another booming industry in Norway, the maritime and shipping industry has also grown through its many business partnerships in India.