Israel is keen to offer rural development solutions to India and is working with some State Governments, said Eli Belotsercovsky, Director Economic Relations with India and China in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem.

Interacting with reporters here, Belotsercovsky said “As cities in India are saturated, many State Governments are focusing on rural development. We have solutions to offer in this segment and are working with some State Governments.”

“As Israel is a global leader in water technologies, especially in water conservation and water reclamation, we are in talks with the Government of India on how to take it forward,” he said.

On Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Belotsercovsky said “India is in talks with many countries for FTAs, similarly Israel is also in talks for the last one year.”

Israel is keen to work with India in the field of agriculture, medical equipment, information technology especially in microchips and aerospace.

Bilateral trade between India and Israel has grown substantially in the last three years. “When Israel resumed diplomatic ties with India in 1992, trade was only $200 million and mainly in diamonds. Now, it has grown to $5 billion covering a variety of sectors,” said Menahem Kanafi, Consul General of Israel in Bangalore.

Israel, which plans to give importance to its economic relations with South India, formally opened its resident Consulate-General office in Bangalore.

Kanafi said “ Bangalore is important to us in two ways. One, it helps us to build platform for small and medium companies from Israel, and second, it helps us pursue and nurture the joint Karnataka-Israel Research and Development fund.”

“The fund is open for proposals by Indian-Israeli partnerships and also offer grants for post doctoral fellowship. Here the potential combination of Israeli innovation and Indian capacities are practically limitless,” he added.

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