Innovation topmost agenda of Israeli PM's visit

Research and innovation is one of the topmost agendas of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India. He arrived in the country on Sunday and is on a six-day long visit here.

Israeli Ambassador Danial Carmon described innovation as a "cross-cutting issue" and said this would be reflected in the discussions between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Netanyahu. Israel is also referred to as a 'start-up nation'. "But I would say the most important element of what we want to put together on the joint table is innovation," said Israeli Ambassador Danial Carmon.

During the last visit of the two leaders, Modi gave a clarion call that India should also 'start up and stand up'. He said "innovation is the biggest goal towards the route of development. Israel has always promoted innovation and technology".

In one of their talks in the past, both leaders underlined the need to boost bilateral cooperation in innovation and entrepreneurship and called for greater collaboration in the field of start-ups.

Among other things, the Israeli Prime Minister will visit the iCreate Innovation Campus in Ahmedabad, the International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology. iCreate and T hub were chosen by the Indian Government's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to execute a joint programme with the Israeli Innovation Authority called the India-Israel Innovation Challenge, which invites 36 startups from India and Israel to facilitate some of India's most pressing innovation challenges in agriculture, water and digital health.

The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, in collaboration with Israel's National Technological Innovation Authority, will launch the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F). I4F is a 40M$ fund for joint research between Indian and Israeli tech companies.

The bilateral partnership between India and Israel has evolved into the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP), initiated in 2009 after signing a bilateral agreement in 2006.

In continuation of the India-Israel growing partnership, a "three-year work plan in Agriculture 2018-2020" was signed in July 2017 when Modi visited Israel.

The two will also be jointly visiting the Indo-Israel CoE for Vegetables, Vadrad, Gujarat on January 17. The centre demonstrates nursery management providing high quality planting material to the farmers, the nursery itself present modern agro-technology, climate control components, irrigation and fertigation.

Education is another area, where ties are growing between the two countries. Israel has been emerging as a favourite destination for Indian students who want to pursue higher studies and research in the field of Science. According to Israel's Council for Higher Education, from 2014, till now 400 Indian students have been awarded post-doctoral fellowship under the joint research programme. Research in core science subjects is an area that a number of Indian students pursue in Israel. When Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited India in the year 2016, a number of MoUs were signed between Indian and Israeli universities in the field of research and promoting exchange of faculty between the two countries.