Posted on 05/30/2005 10:05:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
India and Israel have signed an agreement to set up a joint industrial Research and Development fund to encourage investment and joint ventures.
Minister of State for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, Ehud Olmert, signed the agreement under which each side will contribute USD one million each initially to provide risk-free grants to entrepreneurs from both sides.
The two ministers outlined cooperation in the areas of nano-technology, bio-technology, water management, non-conventional energy and space and aeronautics as five priority areas of "common interest" for enhanced collaboration.
"We have collaborated with each other in defence and strategic areas but we need to move on to areas in which we can affect the lives of the ordinary people," Sibal, the first UPA minister to visit Israel, said.
Claiming that the two countries were "IT superpowers" with the sector contributing a major chunk of the income, he said, "India can be the centre of joint Indo-Israel ventures to serve the rest of the world."
"If we can use some of your technology in the field of agriculture, we will leave far behind other countries in production," Sibal added.
India is the fifth country with which Israel is setting up such a fund.
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