Tamil Nadu, which contributes more than 10 percent to the country’s overall technology sector, is hosting Umagine, Asia’s largest tech summit, with an aim to become India’s tech capital. After taking part in a panel discussion around TN’s potential to act as global collaboration centre for tech and Israel’s interests in India, particularly South India, Consul General of Israel to South India - posted in Bengaluru- Tammy Ben-Haim spoke to THE WEEK on the consulate’s aim to bring Israeli companies to build business collaborations between Israel and Tamil Nadu in the future.
Excerpts from the interview:
What is Israel actually looking for from Umagine? What would be the outcome for Israel through this tech summit?
Israel and our consulates to South India want to do more cooperation and have closer ties and do even more than we're doing today in TN in terms of more research and investment in technology.
We already have a very good relationship with the TN government. We are doing this by fostering a very good relationship with the IT department here, with the Guidance bureau in Chennai and with many departments in the government and also with the institutions like Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), which is into agriculture research. TNAU does a lot of innovative things in Agriculture and Agri tech. We are also working with IIT (Madras). We are looking to be part of the research park at IIT (Madras) and looking to work in areas of research and innovation in ground water.
At Umagine, the largest tech summit in Asia, Israel is looking to collaborate with TN in technology and research. At Umagine, the TN government has managed to get in different stakeholders in the fields of technology and research; government officials; entrepreneurs from inside and outside India; business investors and like minded people.
You know, it's a good place for us to be because we get to meet all these stakeholders; we get to meet all the people who are interested in doing something in TN. So the result is to get lots of names and ideas.
I just met a PhD research student who wants to figure out how to cooperate with Israeli researchers who are doing maybe the same thing she is doing. Companies who are here can have a discussion with Israeli companies. And then of course the government to government can think of new or more things to do with the TN government. Lastly is just to mention the five companies who came here from Israel looking forward to find actual business dealings that we can do together. Whether it's manufacturing here in Tamil Nadu. We're doing a joint venture with Indian companies. So I hope you know many of these things work out.
What are the companies from Israel that have already set up facilities in South India?
One I want to say this is not a new thing, but Mobileye which of course does the safety driving is working in India already. It was bought by Intel. You can look at it as an American Israeli Indian cooperation, which is amazing.
Another good thing is Ola. It just signed a huge MoU with the TN government and last year they brought another Israeli electric battery storage company. The storage company StoreDots signed a MoU for 80 million dollars. So those are two huge examples of good cooperation.
But again, these examples don't always have to be so huge. I think building good success stories, even if they're smaller, is the way to save the road. So to speak for definitely cooperation and smart Mobility, but also in general, technology between Israel and India.
You are talking about technology. Israel is technologically advanced and there's a lot of research that has been happening in various sectors in Israel. How do you think, the innovations and research can get into South India.
As I said we are looking for academic and academic collaboration. At the research level we're looking to work with entrepreneurs to have them exactly. If you said we have this, you know, we just for a longer period of time so we can share our success stories.
We can also share our failures and sometimes may be what not to do. We can do it because we have the know-how and we have the knowledge. We're developing the technology. But I think India is a great partner for Israel because it provides and as I mentioned also in the panel it provides a huge database.
There is space for actually trying out our technology in a very small protected area and then when you try to do it on a bigger scale like in India, you might find out that, you need to change this and you need to adapt here and you need to develop. So I think it's a great way to work together with the Indian brain and mind of the researchers and entrepreneurs and the Israeli working together first to develop something and then to see if it actually works in the real world.
With regard to research in the agriculture sector, where do you stand in terms of collaboration with South India?
We’re doing quite a few things, especially in water and trying to reuse water, clean it up and use it in agriculture. This is because sometimes, when we are using water for agriculture, you don't need to bring it to the level of potable water or household water. So it's an easier process at times.
Indian especially in South India areas you need to learn to conserve water. So the more we conserve the more we have in addition. So as I said, we're dealing issues with water trying to reuse it for agriculture and the second level is trying ways of protected agriculture in order to get a higher yield because the less land you use the less water. If you get a higher yield you can still feed all the people that you need to feed. You can still provide sustenance. So those are the three issues we're working on.
