Is Slovenia looking at engaging with India on any of the country’s Mission Mode projects, like Make in India, Clean India, Smart Cities, Clean India, Digital India, Startup India?

Yes and no. Yes means that, of course, India is an interesting market, a new market, and so on. But Slovenian companies are small, so we need to start small. The automotive company making alternators invested or make joint venture in Coimbatore, so this is engagement in Make in India model. As for Smart Cities, we do not have companies that can take up for entire cities. Instead, we could look at segments, for instance on how to harmonize traffic lights, how to reduce their dependence on electricity and make them work on solar energy. We could look at making the lighting in smart offices automatic, like the lights switch on when it’s dark and turn off when there is enough natural light, so this is kind of smart. We have smaller companies with the top world expertise for mentioned solutions.

What is the presence of Indian businesses in Slovenia, and likewise Slovenian businesses in India?

Not many. There are four or five Indian restaurants owned by different Indian nationals. There is indirect investment with the presence of Arcelor-Mittal Steel in Slovenia. There is some investment in niche tourism, like shooting movies. I believe the Tatas have a plan to invest in the automotive sector.

For travelling Indians, what are the major tourism attractions in Slovenia and what are the visa protocols that must be complied with?

We do not have visa on arrival. Slovenia is Schengen visa member state. So a Schengen visa allows you to freely travel to Slovenia and other EU or Schengen nations. Slovenia is an undiscovered jewel. We have the second largest underground cave in the world, but the most beautiful. We have picturesque alpine beauty, the pristine white mountains contrasting beautifully with the green forest cover. Everything is very green in Slovenia. We have plenty of rivers, a little piece of coast, and small cities. The idea is that people visit Slovenia as part of a wider area tourist package. We doubt if anyone will travel to Slovenia only, they would like to club the trip with other destinations in Europe.

On the cultural front several exchanges have taken place between India and Slovenia in recent times. Please let us know about them…

Last year, we had the largest ever exhibition of art from Slovenia. There were 17 painters from Slovenia displaying their work at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. Another thing is that lot of Slovenian authors have been translated into various Indian languages, mainly Hindi and Bengali. As we speak, Slovenian author Evald Flisar’s two plays have been performed last year in two theatres in Kolkata, and one of them received all India award as the best theatre performance of the year. Likewise, Rabindranath Tagore’s works have been translated and published in Slovenia. For Slovenians, culture is of great importance, and we take a lot of interest in Indian culture.