The Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi

May-Elin Stener is currently Ambassador of Norway to India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Prior to taking up this position, from 2020-2023, she was the Deputy Director General of the Regional department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, covering Africa, Asia, Latin -America and the Middle East, as well as peace and reconciliation issues. May-Elin headed the section for Horn of Africa and West-Africa between 2018-2020. She was Norway’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations headquarter in New York (2014-2018) as well as Deputy Head of the Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa (2007-2011). She has worked for the Norwegian Foreign Service since 1995, and has extensive diplomatic experience multilaterally, with a focus on humanitarian affairs. She has also been posted to the UN offices in Geneva and has headed the Section for Humanitarian Affairs in the Ministry.

Stener is married with one adult daughter and two adult stepchildren. She is a lawyer by training.

Ambassador May-Elin Stener CV

Our priority areas in India follow the Norway India 2030 strategy and cover democracy and rule-based world order, oceans, energy, climate and environment as well as higher education and global health.

Norway and India enjoy long-standing relations in institutional cooperations and research. The aim of Norway’s support is to contribute to India’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Through all our five main cooperation areas, Norway promotes human rights, women’s rights and gender equality, climate and environment and anti-corruption.

The official cooperation relations with India began in 1952 with the fishery projects in Kerala. From 2004 the cooperation has focused on technical cooperation and knowledge transfer with good results. Norway also gives support through multilateral partners and global programs.

Transparency and open data

Norway MFA Grants Portal (regjeringen.no) gives an overview of all the grants from the Ministry and Norad to India.

Bistandsresultater (norad.no): Norwegian Aid Statistics will give access to all the official statistics about Norwegian development assistance from 1960 until today. There are several options for choosing content and scope of the report, which can be presented in maps, graphs or tables. 

 

 

Public Holidays 2025

1 January             New Year’s Day

26 February          Maha Shivaratri

14 March              Holi

18 April                Good Friday

1 May                   Labour Day

12 May                 Buddha Purnima

17 May                 Constitution Day Norway

6 June                  Eid-al-Zuha

15 August             Independence Day India

2 October             Gandhi Jayanti/Dussehra

21 October           Diwali

5 November         Guru Nanak Jayanti

25 December       Christmas Day

26 December       Boxing Day

 

Public Holidays 2026

1 January             New Year’s Day

26 January           Republic Day

4 March                Holi

3 April                  Good Friday

1 May                   Labour Day/Buddha Purnima

17 May                 Constitution Day Norway

27 May                 Eid-al-Zuha

15 August             Independence Day India

28 August             Raksha Bandhan

4 September         Janmashtami

2 October             Gandhi Jayanti

20 October           Dussehra

8 November          Diwali

24 November        Guru Nanak Jayanti

25 December        Christmas Day

26 December        Boxing Day