"Israel Looking to Collaborate with TN in Water Innovation & Agri Research": Says Tammy Ben-Haim

Tammy Ben-Haim, Consul General of Israel to South India - posted in Bengaluru - spoke to 'The Week' about the consulate's future goal of bringing Israeli companies to build business collaborations between Israel and Tamil Nadu after participating in a panel discussion about TN's potential to act as a global collaboration centre for tech and Israel's interests in India, particularly South India.

"Israel and our consulates in South India want to conduct greater cooperation, have deeper relationships, and do even more in terms of research and technology investment than we are doing now in TN," she said.

"We already have a great working relationship with the Tennessee government. We are accomplishing this by cultivating excellent relationships with the IT department here, the Guidance Bureau in Chennai, and numerous government departments, as well as organizations such as Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), which conducts agricultural research. TNAU is a leader in agriculture and agritech innovation. We are also collaborating with IIT (Madras). We are interested in joining the IIT (Madras) research park and working on ground water research and innovation," she added.

Tammy stated, "Israel is eager to work with TN in technology and research at Umagine, Asia's largest tech summit. The TN government has succeeded to bring in various stakeholders in the sectors of technology and research, including government officials, entrepreneurs from India and abroad, commercial investors, and like-minded individuals. It's a good place for us to be because we get to meet all of these stakeholders; we get to meet all of the folks that want to accomplish something in Tennessee. As a result, there are a lot of names and ideas."

"At the research level, we want to collaborate with entrepreneurs to have them perfectly. If you stated we have this, you know, we only need more time to share our success stories. We can also discuss our failures and, at times, what not to do. We can do that because we have the necessary know-how and knowledge. We're working on creating the technology. Yet, as I indicated in the panel, I believe India is a terrific partner for Israel since it supplies and has a large database," she added further.

"Indians, particularly in South India, must learn to save water. As a result, the more we conserve, the more we have. So, as I mentioned, we're dealing with water concerns and attempting to reuse it for agriculture, and the second step is experimenting with protected agriculture to increase yield because the less acreage you use, the less water you use. If you receive a higher," she said.

(Source: The Week)