It has been confirmed that affordable surgical devices and water, energy and cellular phone projects are the initiatives that are to receive funding from a $40 million (£30.6 million) joint Israel-India technology innovation fund set up by the two nations to boost collaboration between researchers and firms.
The governing board of the Israel-India Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) announced the first four recipients for grants from the fund, which was launched earlier this year following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israeli in July 2017.
Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry Eli Cohen said in a statement: “These grants constitute an important milestone in the continuation of the historic partnership between Israel and India”.
Agrosolar Irrigation Systems Ltd (Israel) and Vyoda Private Ltd (India) will jointly create solar energy-based water pump systems for irrigation that are cost-effective, efficient and suitable for any type of well, to increase electricity production and lower maintenance costs.
Sanoculis Ltd (Israel) and Appasamy Ocular Devices (P) Ltd. (India) will work together to develop affordable surgical devices to help ophthalmologists treat glaucoma in India at lower costs.
Bacsoft (Israel), a maker of Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring devices, and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (India), an energy service company of the Indian government, will work together on increasing the water and energy efficiency in villages in India through the creation and application of water and electricity management systems and IoT devices.
Ubiqam Ltd. (Israel) and Frog Cellsat Limited (India), a maker of radio frequency equipment, will work together to develop mobile solutions for the Indian cellular market to help mitigate the interference in cellular networks and improve network quality.
During Modi’s Israel visit, both countries signed and exchanged seven Memorandums of Understanding on cooperation in the areas of innovation, technology, water, agriculture, and space science. During the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit to India in January 2018, the two countries signed nine agreements in various sectors, including cyber-security, oil and gas, solar energy, space science, air transport, medicines, and film production.
