India needs to imbibe best practices, policies from Israel to accelerate innovation: NASSCOM

PTI, Jan 22, 2020, 9:49 AM IST

Jerusalem: India needs to imbibe best practices and policies from countries like Israel in order to accelerate innovation, a high-level delegation of India’s apex software industry lobby NASSCOM has said.

The delegation which was on a three-day “Innovation Discovery” tour to Israel from January 19-21 on Tuesday said that India and Israel can collaborate in several vital areas such as agriculture and mobility.

“Innovation and Israel are synonymous. During the three days, we have met with key stakeholders across Israel and believe there are numerous opportunities for collaboration between India and Israel such as cybersecurity, health, agriculture and mobility among others,” Debjani Ghosh, the president of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), told PTI.

Ghosh said NASSCOM will continue to build innovation partnerships between companies in both markets.

Keshav Murugesh, the Chairman of NASSCOM Group & CEO, WNS Global Services, said that he is impressed by the right ecosystem for startups in Israel.

“Ecosystems are key for startups to scale and innovate. The visit to Israel has helped us to understand and appreciate the interconnected ecosystem that the country offers across government, VCs, accelerators and startups,” Murugesh told PTI.

He said India should imbibe the best practices and policies from Israel to boost innovation.

“To accelerate innovation in India we need to imbibe best practices and policies from countries like Israel,” he added.

Murugesh also said that NASSCOM delegation after returning to India will make relevant recommendations from the visit to the policymakers and other stakeholders.

The eight-member high-level delegation held extensive discussions with researchers at leading institutes, Israeli CEOs and entrepreneurs, VCs, hi-tech industry leaders, non-profit organisations, officials at Israel Innovation Authority and Israel’s Chief Scientist, Alexander Bligh.