On 9th November 2021, India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) signed a Bilateral innovation agreement (BIA) with Directorate of Defence Research & Development (DDR&D), Ministry of Defence, Israel to promote innovation and research in development of dual-use technologies by startups and Micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of both countries .
- The BIA was signed by G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence, R&D and Chairman DRDO and Daniel Gold, Head of DDR&D.
Highlights
i.The agreement brings out development in new generation technologies like drones, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, quantum technology, photonics, biosensing, brain-machine interface, energy storage, wearable devices and natural language processing.
ii.The development efforts are jointly funded by India’s DRDO and Israel’s DDR&D.
Background
i.The diplomatic ties between India and Israel started in 1992.
ii.The Bilateral trade between two countries is around $5billion annually and Defence trade is around $1 billion annually.
iii.India is Israel’s 3rd largest partner in Asia and 7th largest globally.
iv.Major exports from India to Israel includes Precious stones, Machineries, chemicals, electronics, food products.
v.Major exports from Israel to India includes defence and transport equipment, chemicals, machineries, Precious stones.
Recent Related News
India & Israel have signed a three-year 5th Indo-Israel Agriculture Action Plan (IIAP) 2021-23 agreement for development in agriculture cooperation.
Two initiatives such as ‘Indo-Israel Agricultural Project Center of Excellence’ & ‘ Indo-Israel villages of Excellence’ implemented under the programme to benefit farmers.
About Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
Established – 1958
Headquarters – DRDO Bhavan, New Delhi
Chairman – G. Satheesh Reddy
Aircraft Designed – DRDO Lakshya, Avatar, DRDO Nishant
About Israel
Prime minister – Naftali Bennett
Capital – Jerusalem
Currency – Israel Shekel
