Israel keen on IT, biotech tie-up with India

Friday, 22 October 2004, 19:30 IST   |    1 Comments
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TEL AVIV: Israel is keen to enhance bilateral ties with India in the fields of information technology and biotechnology, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told an Indian industry delegation. "Israel would offer full support for fostering collaboration between the Indian and Israeli companies, in hi-tech areas, in the field of IT and biotechnology," said Olmert, who is also minister of industry, trade, labour and communications, when a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation called on him Wednesday. The minister, who is scheduled to visit India in December, emphasised that the countries should look at each other as collaborators. "There is no exclusivity of knowledge and hence there should be a open knowledge sharing between India and Israel," he said. Olmert said his visit to India would seek to help business representatives identify avenues of cooperation and develop business linkages. Vinay Deshpande, leader of the CII IT delegation and CEO of Encore Software, said Indian companies would explore opportunities for collaborations and joint ventures in key areas and serve international markets. Deshpande pointed out that while India was rising fast on the value chain on hardware technology and had patented numerous IT products, Israel was the pioneer in some of the innovative technologies like voice over Internet and software testing processes. He said promoting joint ventures between India and Israel was a priority. B.M. Gandhi, adviser to the Indian Department of Biotechnology, revealed that the Indian and Israeli governments were in the process of working out an agreement on research and development. The CII delegation also had one-to-one meetings with Israeli companies and explored many areas of collaboration.
Source: IANS
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