India, Israel ink sign 7 pacts, Wipro and Israeli varsity to conduct joint research

India and Israel have signed seven agreements, including three on space cooperation, following delegation-level talks headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart.

Oil-to-software major Wipro announced it has entered into a couple of partnerships with Israeli entities on the sidelines of the official level interaction between the two countries.

A Plan of Cooperation was signed between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Israel Space Agency (ISA) regarding cooperation in atomic clocks.

Both ISRO and ISA signed an MoU on cooperation in GEO-LEO Optical Link. ISRO and ISA signed another MoU on cooperation in electric propulsion for small satellites.

An MoU was signed between the Department of Science and Technology, India, and the National Technological Innovation Authority, Israel, for setting up an India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F).

India's Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation signed an MoU with Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources on a national campaign for water conservation in India.

An MoU on state water utility reform was signed between the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam and the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources of Israel.

The two sides also signed the India-Israel Development Cooperation on a three-year work programme in agriculture from 2018 to 2020.

Wipro to make aerostructures with Israel Aerospace

Wipro Infrastructure Engineering announced a strategic alliance with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to make composite aerostructure parts and assemblies in India for the global market.

"We will set up a manufacturing facility in Bengaluru with IAI to make composite structures for global aircraft makers and tier-1 suppliers as per the defence offset guidelines of the Indian government," Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, a subsidiary of Wipro Enterprises, said in a statement.

Wipro Enterprises is a global hydraulic solutions provider and a separate entity of Wipro. The new facility would also supply the parts to IAI for meeting its compliance requirements. In 2016, it acquired HR Givon, an Israel-based maker of metallic parts and assemblies for the aerospace industry.

"The partnership with IAI will strengthen our presence in the aerospace sector and standing for global OEMs and help us explore opportunities in key markets," said Wipro Engineering Chief Executive Pratik Kumar in a statement.

IAI's commercial aircraft group General Manager Shlomi Karako said the partnership with Wipro arm was important as India was a major strategic customer of the Israeli aerospace and defence company.

"We will assist Wipro in building its composite facility with our know-how and technologies as part of the Indian government's 'Make in India' initiative and expand it later," said Karako in the statement.

Wipro tie-up with Israeli varsity

The software major said it has inked a deal with Israel's Tel Aviv University to conduct joint research in emerging technologies.

"The partnership with the Business Engagement Centre (Ramot) of the Israeli university envisages joint research with our support to pursue core and applied research in fast-developing technologies in the Artificial Intelligence (IA) area," said the IT major in a statement.

"We are partnering with the Israeli university to jointly develop innovative IP (intellectual property) in core AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies and build solutions and services for our customers," said Wipro Chief Technology Officer KR Sanjiv in the statement.

As Israel's largest institution of higher learning, the Tel Aviv University has a whopping 30,000 students in nine faculties, 125 schools, and departments across Sciences, Engineering, Humanities and Arts.

"As we are keen to collaborate with Indian firms for research and innovation, Wipro is a right fit with our areas of excellence, including, machine learning, deep learning and sparse representation techniques for developing platform solutions," said Ramot Business Development Vice President Oren Calfon.