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Part of Indian conglomerate to be lead investor in planned $20 million fund at Tel Aviv University’s technology transfer company Ramot, says it sees university as its Israeli R&D center

Tata Industries will invest $5 million in a new Tel Aviv University (TAU) technology fund, saying it saw the university as its Israeli research and development center.

Tata, part of Indian conglomerate Tata Group, will be the lead investor in a planned $20 million fund at TAU’s technology transfer company Ramot aimed at commercializing their research.

“For Tata, we … see innovation and R&D as an area of focus and a source of competitive advantage going forward,” Rameshwar Jamwal, executive director at Tata Industries, told reporters last week.

Jamwal said it was Tata’s first major investment in Israel and that it would likely invest further.

“This is our attempt to scout Israeli technology more deeply,” he said. “This allows us over a period of time to show our commitment to Israel but we are interested in doing more.”

Tata will work with TAU’s scientists to help steer them towards applying commercial uses for their research.

“It’s someone to test your ideas and say what’s a mistake,” said Shlomo Nimrodi, Ramot’s chief executive. “Tata knows the market better.”

He noted that TAU invests $150 million a year in R&D. Among Ramot’s big successes is flash memory, which was licensed by an Israeli company before it was sold to Sandisk, which still pays millions of dollars of royalties to the university.

Nimrodi said the new fund will invest in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, cleantech, food security, the environment, engineering and software.

He noted that in some cases, Tata will get the right of first opportunity in a particular research project.

Many large global companies have R&D facilities in Israel, including Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Google, HP and Yahoo.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Professory Yoram Oren, an expert on water desaliniation from Ben Gurion University, spent his sabbatical year in India. He set up a water research laboratoy at Karunya University in Tamil Nadu India to help rehabilitate the polluted river.

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Gashash Deshe created Bharati, a song and dance extravaganza about India, after falling in love with Bollywood music on an Israeli TV ad.

Who would have guessed that a TV commercial broadcast in Israel was the seed for a spectacular, international hit stage show celebrating the rich and diverse culture of today’s India?
As Bharati, the beguiling song-and-dance extravaganza, returns to Sony Centre for three performances this weekend, we can only be grateful that Gashash Deshe, sitting in front of his television in Tel Aviv a decade or so ago, didn’t hit the mute button on his remote when the ads came on.

“I remember this catchy tune,” recalls Deshe. It turned out to be Bollywood-style music and was enough to stir Deshe’s curiosity about a land and culture he knew precious little about. The result was akin to falling in love.

Continue reading via Toronto Star

Bharati is on at the Sony Centre Feb. 9 and 10.

See http://www.sonycentre.ca/Performances/Event-Detail.aspx?evtID=865&long=78.96288&lat=20.59368&showInMap=Truewww.sonycentre.caEND for details.

After five-year struggle, 53 Jews who claim to be descendants of lost biblical tribe make aliyah from village in northeastern India. ‘We’ve been waiting for this moment for hundreds of years,’ one of them says

Fifty-three Jews who claim to be the descendants of a lost biblical Jewish tribe immigrated to Israel on Monday from their village in northeastern India, celebrating their arrival in a special operation after a five-year struggle to get in.

The Bnei Menashe say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century B.C.

Israel’s Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar recognized them as a lost tribe in 2005, and about 1,700 moved to Israel over the next two years before the government stopped giving them visas.

Israel recently reversed that policy, agreeing to let the remaining 7,200 Bnei Menashe immigrate.

After a conversion and citizenship acquiring process at the Givat Haviva absorption center, the new immigrants will unite with the 1,700 community members already living in Israel.

“I have fulfilled my dream,” 20-year-old Zimra Danapa, who made aliyah on Monday with her mother and sister, told Ynet. “After many years of hoping to arrive in Israel, I am very excited to be here.

“We plan to build our life here and bring more family members here,” she added.

Continue reading Via Ynetnews

Mission of top Israeli experts travels to Raipur, New Delhi to further advance two nations’ collaboration on urban water management

“There is a an almost uncanny fit between India’s needs in the urban water arena, and what Israeli companies are able to offer,” Abraham Tenne, VP Desalination at Israel’s Water Authority said recently, following a visit to India.

The visit was held as part of an agreement signed in February between Jerusalem and New Delhi, aimed at fostering cooperation, with a focus on urban water management.

The Israeli delegation included, in addition to Tenne, Oded Distel, head of Israel NewTech, Zohar Yinon of the Jerusalem Water Authority and Elisha Arad of the Standards Institute of Israel.

The mission toured the Raipur water system, as guests of Taran Prakash Sinha, commissioner of the Raipur Municipal Corporation.

Raipur is the capital city of Chhattisgarh, in central India, which has a population of over one million. The Indian officials taking part in the Raipur visit were very interested in learning from Israel’s expertise in the field.

The delegation followed its visit to Raipur with one to New Delhi, where they attended a seminar sponsored by the Indian Ministry of Urban Planning.

“India presents huge challenges in urban water planning. First and foremost, a change in concept is needed, one in which people begin to perceive water as the precious resource that it is.” Distel said.

“Once this change in perception occurs, then changes can be achieved in urban water supply, management, measurement, pricing and collection. This is a very dramatic change, but the community of Indian urban water professionals appears poised to make it.”

“India today is roughly in the situation in which Israel was 10 or so years ago, with 12 different government ministries responsible for urban water,” Tenne added.

“This created a lot of confusion and inefficiency, which was solved when water treatment was placed under the leadership of the Water Authority. The Indian water community looks to Israel as a sort of guru, they know the Israeli water industry very well and hold it in very high regard.”

Yoni Ben Zaken, Israel’s Economic Attaché to India, concluded, “Raipur is a starting point, but there are 600 more cities in India with a similar urban water situation and needs, so the market potential is very significant.”

Source: Israel NewTech

Video footage of a Diwali celebration in Tel Aviv.

Deepawali or Diwali is certainly the biggest and the brightest of all Hindu festivals. It’s the festival of lights (deep = light and avali = a row i.e., a row of lights) that’s marked by four days of celebration, which literally illumines the country with its brilliance, and dazzles all with its joy. Each of the four days in the festival of Diwali is separated by a different tradition, but what remains true and constant is the celebration of life, its enjoyment and goodness. (Source: About.com)

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