8 October 2017

Comparison Israel and India in Technology Space

In 2017, Israel's population was an estimated approximately 87 lakh people. In 2017 population of Delhi is estimated to be over 1.9 crores. Population of National Capital Region  is estimated to be over 2.7 crores as of January, 2017.

Some comparisons are stark.

GDP per Capita of Israel is US$37,262, 24th rank. India's GDP per capita is US$ 1,723 , 142 rank. World average is US$10,038.

Israel's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development,

It has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States,and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China, Israel was also ranked 4th in the world by share of people in high-skilled employment. Leading exports include machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, and textiles and apparel; in 2016, Israeli exports reached $51.61 billion. Israel has an impressive record for creating profit driven technologies making the country a top choice for many business leaders and high technology industry giants. Intel and Microsoft built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel, and other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Apple, HP, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened R&D centres in the country.

Israel's development of cutting-edge technologies in software, communications and the life sciences have evoked comparisons with Silicon Va world average . Israel ranks 10th in the Bloomberg Innovation Index, and is 2nd in the world in expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP. Israel boasts 140 scientists, technicians, and engineers per 10,000 employees, the highest number in the world (in comparison, the same is 85 for the U.S.). Israel has produced six Nobel Prize-winning scientists since 2004 and has been frequently ranked as one of the countries with the highest ratios of scientific papers per capita in the world. Israel has led the world in stem-cell research papers per capita since 2000. Israeli universities are ranked among the top 50 world universities in computer science (Technion and Tel Aviv University), mathematics (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and chemistry (Weizmann Institute of Science).

The ongoing shortage of water in the country has spurred innovation in water conservation techniques, and a substantial agricultural modernization, drip irrigation, was invented in Israel. Israel is also at the technological forefront of desalination and water recycling. Israel is set to become a net exporter of water in the coming years.Israel has embraced solar energy; its engineers are on the cutting edge of solar energy technology and its solar companies work on projects around the world. Over 90% of Israeli homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest per capita in the world.

Israel's military relies heavily on high-tech weapons systems designed and manufactured in Israel as well as some foreign imports. The Arrow missile is one of the world's few operational anti-ballistic missile systems. The Python air-to-air missile series is often considered one of the most crucial weapons in its military history. Israel's Spike missile is one of the most widely exported ATGMs in the world. Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile air defense system gained worldwide acclaim after intercepting hundreds of Qassam, 122 mm Grad and Fajr-5 artillery rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip. Since the Yom Kippur War, Israel has developed a network of reconnaissance satellites. The success of the Ofeq program has made Israel one of seven countries capable of launching such satellites.Israel ranked 7th globally for arms exports in 2016. The majority of Israel's arms exports are unreported for security reasons. 

Israel's exports are also similar to India's . The top exports of Israel are gems, electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, machinary, medical technical equipment, other chemical goods, aircraft and spacecrafts, plastics, fertilizers and organic chemicals.

In recent years, India has become one of the biggest refined product exporters in Asia with petroleum accounting for around 20 percent of total exports. The country also exports: engineering goods (19 percent of the total shipments), chemical and pharmaceutical products (14 percent), gems and jewellery (14 percent), agricultural and allied products (10 percent) and textiles and clothing (10 percent).

However, there are lot of similarities with India. Like us Israel has fought major wars in 48, 67 and 73. 82 Bekka Valley, July 2006 Second Lebanon War , The 2008–09 Gaza War in recent times. Continuous trouble with Hezbollah and Hamas exists.

One wonders what is it that takes Israel with less than half the population of Delhi has taken them far above us. The top IT companies of USA has also opened their offices in India and employs substantial people. We are acknowledged to be software giant. Nowadays there is lot of talk about start ups, innovations etc. By sheer number if we select properly from these numbers we can have world class people, process and technology. I was once told by the cyber czar of India that private sector, all the big behemoths, only talk big, interested in orders, do not carry out any research, use available applications from the market whereas our requirement is indigenous technology. By their performance it seems to be true.

Lets have a look at the defence electronics and cyber space.

The story of how Israel has become a factory for producing new technologies is familiar to most people in the space: take the best and the brightest out of high school, assign them to Unit 8200 for their obligatory military service, give them a few years in computer science finishing school, and then fund their startup.What it cannot explain is how so many young Israeli entrepreneurs have could tackle problem sets like industrial control systems, telecommunications, and automobile security.Beyond 8200, what Israel has is a top to bottom organization for cybersecurity that starts with the National Cyber Bureau, which oversees the national computer emergency response team (CERT) that coordinates with private sectorled collaboration centers.Israel is now in the process of building out a series of sectorbased CERTs.They then add to this operational activity close collaboration between academia and the venture capital community through a series of Cyber Innovation and Research Centers. The result is that an alum of 8200 is able to build a startup that addresses problems inside sectors that few people even understand. But the collaborative model between government, industry, finance and academia in Israel can and should be replicated

If our claims are correct, we have extremely capable people in our armed forces, DRDO, academia and industry in a field like cyber space. We are struggling due to lack of indigenous technology. The Government had announced availability of funds to the tune of 900 crores, fund is not an issue. Then why cannot we go ahead?

Any takers?
 

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