India- Israel Sign Pact to Develop Drones and Robotics for Agriculture & Defence Sectors

On Tuesday India and Israel inked a deal to collaborate and jointly develop next-generation technologies and products such as drones, robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

This is surely a step in the right direction as it will help both countries to innovate and develop their economies together. India especially stands to gain a lot as the innovative technologies developed via this Bilateral Innovation Agreement could help India to stay true to the promises made during COP 26. As India needs holistic implementation of innovations in the field of agriculture and other industrial sectors to make sure it can keep up the crop yield to feed its citizens while also not compromising with nature.

Especially because India is a developing nation that actually can’t compromise with its future but also cant compromise with nature. Israel on the other hand is a country known all across the world for its innovative technology, related to agriculture, defense, etc.

According to a statement issued by the Indian Officials, the Bilateral Innovation Agreement will “promote innovation and accelerated R&D in startups and MSMEs of both countries for the development of dual-use technologies." and “Under the agreement, startups and industry of both countries will work together to bring out next-generation technologies and products in the areas such as drones, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, photonics, biosensing, brain-machine interface, energy storage, wearable devices and natural language processing. Products and technologies will be customised to meet unique requirements of both the countries,"

This Bilateral Innovation Agreement (BIA) was finalised between the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Israel's Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDRD) (DDR&D).

According to the authorities, the partnership would promote innovation as well as research and development in startups and MSMEs to develop dual-use technology. The BIA was regarded by the defence ministry as a "concrete demonstration" of increased Indo-Israeli technology collaboration.

The agreement was signed by DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy and Daniel Gold, Head of DDR&D