Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on April 10, 2008 – 12:50 pm | by FICA |

Industries from India and Israel will collaborate, with the support of their respective governments, in mutually beneficial projects involving renewable energy technologies. Leading Israeli companies involved in solar power, wind energy and others were in India to exchange views with their Indian counterparts as part of a seminar on “Renewable Energy Technologies: Opportunities for Collaboration with Israel”, organised by the Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, the Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA) promoted by DST and CII, MATIMOP( Israeli Industry Centre for R&D) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), at New Delhi.

This meeting was important, according to Mr Y.P. Kumar, CEO, GITA, and Head, International Cooperation, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, because it allowed companies from the two countries to get to learn about each other. Providing a background to the seminar, he said that the initiative began with a high-level delegation led by Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences in 2005.

It was subsequently decided that there should be dedicated arrangements and funds to involve industry in R&D cooperation between the two countries. The initial focus was to be in five areas of mutual strength and interest: environmental technology, water management, space technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology. The projects are being managed by MATMOP in the Israeli side and GITA from the Indian side. GITA, a joint venture by the Indian Department of Science and Technology, and CII, was established to promote and facilitate international technology programmes for the benefit of Indian industry and institutions.

Dr. T Ramaswami, Secretary, Department Science & Technology, indicated in his address that Renewabale Energy is one of the priority area of the Govt of India. Dr. Ramaswami also said that strength of the Indian and Israel in this sector are complimentary and there is great potential for Joint R & D activity which can be supported under India Israel initiative for industrial R & D (I4RD Programme).

Mr. Mark Sofer, Israeli Ambassador to India, said that in the 16 years since diplomatic ties between the two countries were established, the relationship between India and Israel and taken off to a great extent. “Indian admiration for Israel’s advances in technology is matched by Israel’s admiration for India’s knowledge base, culture and mentality,” he said. There was a harmony of capabilities between the two countries, he said, pointing out that Israel published more scientific papers per capital than any other country in the world.

Mr. Y.S. Rajan, Principal Advisor, CII, spoke about India’s ‘incredible growth’ of 8.7% that has been sustained with growth of energy of only 3.7%. Israel, too, has multiple sources of energy, he said. Because of India’s large population, he urged Israeli companies to invest here for ‘demographic amplification’ of their business.

Mr. Raul Goldemann, Director, Asia and Pacific International Cooperation programme, MATIMOP, said that there would be an increase in renewable energy usage in Israel due to a new government mandate that says a minimum quota of 10% electricity should be from renewable energy by 2020. At present, only 0.1% of electricity is generated from such sources. He said India and Israel had the ‘unbeatable duo of synergies and complementarities’ in the field.

Mr. Anjan Das, Senior Director CII and head-Technology, GITA, spoke of the focused approach of the Israeli delegates and hope that some good proposals would lead to collaborations which would prosper.