Israeli Embassy to have Northeast India Consul from 2021

News Desk

Israeli Ambassador in India Dr. Ron Malka said, an honorary Consul will soon be nominated in the Northeast Indian states with an aim to increase its presence and collaboration in that region. Israel was less present in the Northeast and now it is going to increase that presence as it feels it can bring a lot of added value to that region in various development sectors.
Besides the employment of a special consul in Northeast Indian states, Israel Embassy will have a separate ‘Water Attaché’ from January 2021 to help share their country’s best practices and technologies for advancements in India’s water management and agriculture sectors.

The Israeli envoy also said, as many as 29 such centres of excellence have already been established across India and nearly 1.5 lakh farmers have been trained at these centres in just one year.

“India and Israel have a strategic partnership in water management. This is one of the main pillars, we are collaborating on because we understand and realise that water is one of the biggest challenges in India post-COVID,” Malka said, adding that Israel is the perfect match to meet that challenge.

“We have so much to do together in this field. We just signed a flagship project on water in UP. We are advancing rapidly on this front,” he said.

“We are working very closely on water-related matters with both the federal government and the states. We congratulate India on reforms in the water sector and concentrating all the authority in the Jal Shakti Ministry,” he said. Malka also hailed the chemistry between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in deepening ties. “Besides, the place that we have now reached is much beyond any particular individual or any party or any political developments because now our relationship is people to people,” he said.

Malka said Israel’s efforts are to identify all possible areas where it can bring in value addition in sectors identified as important by the Indian government and these sectors range from agriculture, water, defence and security, innovation, healthcare and technology, among various others.

Defence and security might have been the main glue earlier, but it is just one of the many now as the partnership between the two countries has deepened and expanded to several sectors and several areas. He identified agriculture as one of the most diverse areas of cooperation at present and said there is so much scope to do in this area, including with the use of latest water technology solutions that Israel has created and can be tailor-made for the Indian context easily.