Israeli innovators in energy, agritech? Now is your chance to reach India
Wednesday is the last day to sign up for the Israeli Innovative Authority (IIA) application process to be among the 15 companies invited to take part at GITA Foundation Day and sell to India.
By HAGAY HACOHENA MAN climbs a pole during Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India in January 2018(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israeli companies interested in breaking into the Indian market should know that Wednesday marks the last day they can sign up for the Israeli Innovative Authority (IIA) application process to possibly get a spot among the 15 companies selected to participate at GITA Foundation Day. Global Innovation & Technology Alliance is an NGO created by the Indian Government and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CI) to promote India’s role as an innovative economy. This year, the event will be held online at the end of the month. The IIA is calling on Israeli startups in the water, agriculture, energy and health sectors who wish to team up with Indian partners to file their online submissions.“GITA is our India-side counterpart,” Avi Luvton of the IIA told The Jerusalem Post, “and this is not the only thing we have going on in that department.” Following the 2017 visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Israel, both nations set up the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) which offers two submission rounds per year, this year being its sixth.One project to gain such funding was a solution to the issue of how to pump groundwater in conditions where the power supply might be interrupted. The solution? A solar-powered pump, Luvton explains. He added that Israeli companies who take part in GITA Foundation Day will get to rub shoulders with like-minded innovators from Canada, the UK, South Korea and Sweden. India launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat program (Self Reliant India) half a year ago as part of its larger policy of "Make in India," intended to achieve maximum autarky and encourage foreign companies to move their production centers to the subcontinent. Natasha Zangin, head of the Economy Ministry’s Economic and Commercial Mission to India told the Post on Tuesday. “India is used to showing an annual GDP growth rate of 6% and 8%,” she remarked, “because of COVID-19, it is expected to show a decline of 10.3% this year and to bounce back with an 8% growth rate in 2021.”This places India as a leading economy in the developing world and perhaps one of the fastest growing markets in the world. “The health sector and pharmaceutical companies are huge here,” she said, adding that “India will increase investments by 2.5% in this $350 billion sector by 2025. It is the fourth largest market in the world for medical devices and there is an ever-growing Indian middle class that wants, and is able to afford, tele-medicine and 3D-printed implants.” “India is expected to bypass China according to the IMF 2021 prediction,” she pointed out. “It has many opportunities at the moment for Israeli innovation.”
