For Israeli firms, India new ops hub

Apart from meeting corporates and other senior officials, including his Israeli counterpart E Olmert who visited India last December, Nath’s visit will also mark the release of a joint study group report on boosting trade ties, sources said.

Besides, during Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal’s visit to Israel in May, both governments had agreed to set up a joint fund to provide seed capital to Indian and Israeli companies, the sources added.

The corpus—initially $ 1 million each—will be increased to $ 25 million, they said. This fund is aimed at promoting technological collaboration and R&D through joint ventures.

Statistics show that around $ 1.3 billion of FDI from Israel has been cleared by India. Starting from around $200 million in the early 90s, bilateral trade is pegged at $ 2.8 billion in 2005—a 14-fold increase. In fact, the State Bank of India and software major TCS are opening facilities in Tel Aviv next month.

Sources said that another key area to be tapped is building data security systems for India. So far, Israel was a favoured destination for Indian companies in the diamond business—apart from defence, of course.

As many as 40 Indian companies have a presence on Israel’s diamond bourses that has accounted for 60 per cent of trade between the two countries.