In September 2026, this year’s World Circular Economy Forum WCEF Economy Forum (WCEF) took place in Gandhinagar, India. One question that concerns all of us is how circular economy principles can be embedded in business models at scale and for the long term. This is why, last Thursday, we focused on the question of how good circular economy ideas can be turned into viable business models that can scale. Together with GIZ India and the Agency for Business and Economic Development Agentur fur Wirtschaft und Entwicklung(AWE), we at the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) had the opportunity to host an official Accelerator Session as part of the forum.
For the panel discussion, we were joined by a fantastic group of speakers: Charlotte D. from the The World Bank Group, Dr. Susanne Bodach from International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sanghamitra Biswas Jayant from Siemens Energy, and Dr. Jitendra N. kapadia from Henkel. Together, we explored where concrete business opportunities lie, what makes circular partnerships successful, and which enabling conditions are needed to scale solutions and mobilise investment. The session was moderated by Martha Scheifel from the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and AWE
The panel discussion was preceded by insightful opening contributions from Jitendra Singh Rajput from NID Gandhinagar Shivani Chaturvedi from(IGCC) Katja Suhr from Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Verena Klinger-Dering from The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Mr. Davor Percan from the European Commission and Rachna Arora from GIZ India.
Across these discussions, a few points became particularly clear: Circular economy solutions need a strong business case and cannot remain limited to individual pilot projects. Scaling requires companies, policymakers, financial institutions and other actors along the value chain to work together. And there is significant potential for India and Germany to combine their complementary strengths - from technology and circular design to manufacturing capabilities, local value chains and dynamic markets.