According to some news reports, the Israeli ambassador to India, Alon Ushpiz, has stated that the Israeli Consulate General office in Bangalore will soon start providing visa services. According to him, this measure and facility would be of great benefit to the people of Karnataka and also the other southern states.
According to Mr. Alon Ushpiz, India and his country, Israel, have been working/cooperating/collaborating in multiple sectors, including in science and technology, agriculture, defence and horticulture. He also stated about 45,000 Indians travel to Israel each year and an equivalent number of Israelis visit India.
He stated that three centres of excellence in Kolar, Belgaum and Bagalkot would soon be started to explore and further cooperation and collaboration in the fields of horticulture and agriculture.
The ambassador revealed that during his visit to Bangalore, he visited the IISc (Indian Institute of Science) and discussed different research and development initiatives. He also disclosed that Israel’s universities are effective in taking technology from the laboratory to the field. He added that it was a fact that much of the budget of the Israeli universities is derived from such efforts and initiatives. But, he stated that he had not discussed whether Israel would help India in this area.
As regards security for Israel’s diplomatic missions and offices in India, he stated that they felt very safe and that in fact the security for their missions was being managed by the Indian agencies.
He also stated that Israel is collaborating with the Karnataka state government in agriculture, horticulture and many other fields. It was also revealed that a delegation from Karnataka led by Mr. S.R. Patil, the minister for IT and BT would be visiting Israel soon.
