India-Israel Join Hands To Clean Ganga Together And Conserve Water

PM Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu have "visualised" that the two countries would become close partners in development, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, defence and security, foreign secretary S Jaishankar told reporters here on Wednesday.

AP

"It is in this context that we felt it was important to have a separately designated strategic partnership on agriculture and water," Jaishankar said. A joint statement said the cooperation would focus on water conservation, waste water treatment and its reuse for agriculture, desalination, water utility reforms and cleaning of the Ganga. Similar alliance in post-harvest technical knowhow and market linkages will be seen in agriculture sector. Jaishankar said this partnership would feed into India's goal of doubling farm income.

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"India admires the success of your people in overcoming adversity to advance, innovate and flourish against all odds," Modi said. Defence and security found sufficient emphasis ¡ª the statement reflected a new paradigm in stating the countries "agreed that future developments in this sphere should focus on joint development of defence products, including transfer of technology from Israel" encompassing not only "Make in India" but a new concept of 'Make with India'.

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The business and economic relationship will get fresh energy on Thursday when both sides sit down for the first CEOs forum, with 16 companies on either side, where water, pharma and defence industries will find pre-eminence. There will also be a presentation on start-up opportunities.