9DECEMBER, 2025INDIAREVIEWINDIA-ISRAEL BUSINESS TIES STRENGTHEN WITH NEW OPPORTUNITIESThe economic partnership between India and Israel is beginning to accelerate again, as leaders across a number of sectors including manufacturing, food, water technology, and cyber security all stated that there is a very good atmosphere between the countries and that new investments, business and collaborations are being created.India Israel business ties continue to strengthen, boosting bilateral trade, investment, industry cooperation, and creating new economic opportunities.Avi Balashnikov, Chairman of the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, said high-level visits in the past month are an explicit sign of increasing confidence. "This is actually, we just came back from India... and the impression is very, very big," he said, adding that "friendship, pure friendship... give the right formula for good businesses," which leads to jobs and economic opportunities for both countries.Ron Tomer, President of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, also echoed that a good political and business atmosphere is critical to growth. "If there is a good atmosphere, it's good for business," he said. There is a lot of opportunity with cooperation in different industries.In the food sector, Ms. Inderjeet Kaur from LT Foods noted the astounding growth of India in the high-end rice market in Israel, with the company's Daawat brand now accounting for about 40% of the market share and over 15 years presence in Israel, and looking to expand further.The CEO Nadav Zafrir noted the impetus of India for strategic reasons mentioning the company protects critical infrastructure and the location of its largest R&D team outside of Israel is in Bengaluru; and intends to increase talent recruitment efforts in the areas of deep tech and network engineering.Another water-tech company, IDE Technologies, reiterated its 25-year relationship with India. CEO Alon Tavor noted the great leadership of India, and their plans to establish a new Centre of Excellence (COE) in Mumbai in 2026 focused on desalination, industrial water solutions and municipal water reuse and tackling one of India's most important problems.These events reflect a robust and growing Indo-Israeli economic collaboration across a number of strategic sectors. IMRRecently, the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and France's Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) signed a significant technical agreement to enhance collaboration on defence R&D efforts. Sources clarified that this agreement does not pertain to a particular program, like co-development on fighter engines, but provides a general framework for addressing joint R&D projects.The agreement, signed by DRDO Chairman Dr. Samir V. Kamat and France's National Armaments Director Lt. Gen. Gael Diaz de Tuesta, allows joint research and development, sharing of knowledge, joint training, and co-ownership of intellectual property for any innovations created jointly.According to the Ministry of Defence, the agreement serves to leverage the combined skills and resources of both governments to meet future defence challenges.The collaboration lets research to be done together, share tools, skills, and technologies through training, testing, workshops, and seminars, and hold direct exchanges between the two parties. Areas of major importance are aircraft, drones, and advanced materials for defence along with modern security, artificial intelligence, space, and navigation, and even underwater systems.The two countries have put forward the idea of naming the year 2026 'The Year of Innovation for India and France', which is an invitation to share all technology and strategical matters not only in defence.With the strong strategic partnership that India and France have established since 1998, they are now cooperating in the fields of digital technologies, climate change, and even the blue economy and sustainable development in addition to defence, nuclear, and Indo-Pacific security.The Indian Armed Forces are already using some of the French systems for defence, which includes combat aircraft, submarines, and missiles, as well as helicopters. Among the plans for the future is the co-development of a next-generation fighter engine and the local production of Rafale combat aircraft which would solidify the long-term partnership between India and France in defence collaboration. IMRTOP STORIESINDIA, FRANCE SIGN PACT FOR JOINT DEFENCE R&D
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