It’s a Friday morning. Michael Mirilashvili is busy in back-to-back meetings. The business center at Delhi’s Taj Palace hotel is buzzing. Baba Kalyani , promoter of Bharat Forge , has just met the Russian-Israeli entrepreneur. Vinay Rai, the dodgy entrepreneur-turned-educationist, is waiting for his turn. Wearing a light-colour patterned silk shirt and a similarly-hued jacket, Mirilashvili looks a lot younger than his 56 years. As he readies for an interview with this writer, Mirilashvili fetches a glass of water from a vending machine in the room. At first glance, it is an ordinary glass of water in a disposable plastic glass.Except it isn’t.The water has been produced by a vending machine of Water-Gen, an Israeli startup that has developed a revolutionary technology to make water from air, capturing humidity. The startup was on Fast Company’s list (ranked 21) of top 50 most innovative companies in 2014. Foreign Policy magazine called its founder Arye Kohavi among the top global thinkers and innovators. Initially developed for military use, Water-Gen now sells its products to militaries in seven countries including Israel, US, Korea and France. It can produce clean drinking water cheaply at a cost of Rs 1.6 per liter. And it is betting big on India. “A lot of people here do not have access to clean drinking water. I would like to help India. We have a special relationship,” says Mirilashvili, president of Water-Gen, who came on board the seven-year-old company in 2014 as an investor and early this year became its leading share holder.Mirilashvili is looking for a joint venture partner for the India business, which will target both military and civilian use. “I have met some very senior business leaders here. We have plenty of choice. But our partner must share our philosophy,” he says.With water sources contaminated by bio and chemical pollutants, 21% of India’s diseases are water borne. Only 33% of the country has access to sanitation and children in 100 million homes in India lack access to clean water.“I see tremendous potential for Water-Gen in India. If it can keep delivering quality potable water at the price it quotes across our diverse nation, it will have a lifesaving effect,” says RS Ramasubramaniam, cochairman, Feedback Infra, an infrastructure services firm.Mirilashvili points out that the pursuit of profit will not be the biggest driver for growth in India. “We want to improve the quality of people’s lives. Our partner here should share our vision and must have capabilities to fulfill that vision,” he says. As part of the government’s Make in India campaign, Water-Gen hopes to set up a manufacturing and R&D facility and envisages the India business to touch $1 billion in five to six years. “We want to move as fast as possible. Within a year we should be ready for mass production. We will speak to the government to hasten things,” he says.He is also scoping the market and scouting partners for another Israeli startup called Vertical Field — focused on vertical landscaping and agriculture — in which he holds a controlling stake.Mirilashvili’s India bet has an interesting political subtext. He was part of a delegation — of business honchos and heads of 15 Israeli universities — that accompanied Israeli president Reuven Rivlin on his India trip earlier this month, the first in nearly 20 years. “The two countries have always enjoyed a warm relationship. But Israel was the mistress India didn’t want to show to the world,” says Anat Bernstein-Reich, chairperson, Israel-India & Nepal Chamber of Commerce. She has been working on boosting bilateral trade ties for close to two decades now. India’s historical stand on the Palestinian issue and its ties with the Arab world demanded delicate handling. “India is now ready to come out and declare the relationship,” she says.Last year, President Pranab Mukherjee toured Israel, the first visit by an Indian head of state. That was followed by Rivlin’s eight-day trip, which prepared the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s likely visit to Israel next year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishment of full diplomatic bilateral ties.Since 2011, the two countries have been working on a range of areas, prominent being technology in areas like defence, water, energy, R&D, agriculture and education . In fact, since 2006 the two countries have worked closely in the agri-tech sector and Israel has set up hightech agricultural centers of excellence, six of which are in Haryana.Israel is India’s third largest defence supplier, after Russia and the US supplying defence hardware worth $12 billion over the last decade.And defence deals worth $3 billion have reportedly been cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security.Over 10% of foreign students in Israel are from India. In the past three years, 40 joint research projects have been supported by the two governments. On the recent trip, Israeli universities stitched up a range of alliances in areas like academics, research, faculty and student exchange programs with Indian educational institutions like IIM-Bengaluru, OP Jindal University, Amity University, Welingkar Institute of Management and SP Jain School of High Technology.Entrepreneurs like Mirilashvili are keen to tap into this warming up of bilateral ties. “I would like to think that I have the opportunity to be a part of India’s growth story. As part of Make in India, we are looking at manufacturing our products here within a year,” he says speaking in Russian, translated to English by Water-Gen board member Michael Rutman Born in Georgia in 1960, then part of Soviet Union , Mirilashvili moved to St Petersburg to study. He trained as a mathematician, qualified as a doctor (pediatrician) but joined his family business in the 1980s which spanned sectors like real estate, casino chains and malls in Russia.According to media reports, in 2000, his father was kidnapped on the highway by a group pretending to be traffic police, apparently unaware of who they had kidnapped. He was soon returned safely. Days later, the kidnappers, their girlfriends and driver were found dead. Mirilashvili was arrested and charged with the murders. He contested the charges and took them to the European Court of Human Rights in France where he won and was released in 2009. Since then, his ties with Israel have deepened. After his release, in his first interview he had said, he was “even more than before, a Jew”.Mirilashvili has a flourishing business presence in Israel. He owns a 5.2% stake in Israeli ILDC Energy. His firm Hoshen Argaman trades in diamonds. His Kitaim venture capital fund invests in startups. Refusing to divulge any details, he says he has invested in over 50 tech startups in Israel, US and Russia. This even as he and his fellow investor Pavel Durov (called Russia’s Zuckerberg) exited his investment in VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network platform, in 2013 for $1.12 billion.But he assures that his ties with Russia are warm and alive. “I believe in Russian people. Russia has a bright future. The East is to blame for all the tension between them and Russia,” he says. As a mark of his warm ties with Russia, Mirilashvili says he would soon be headed there to receive an award for being the most successful Russian tech entrepreneur of 2015.Many well-placed Russians — from Durov and Sergei Guriev (an economist) to Garry Kasparov (chess grandmaster) — who have had a political fallout with Kremlin , live in exile outside Russia. However, for a growing number of Jewish Russian oligarchs, like Mirilashvili, Israel has emerged as a good playground.Till the 1980s, Soviet Jews — often called Jewish Refuseniks — were barred from immigrating. Aliyah (immigration of Jews from diaspora to Israel) of Soviet Jews began only after the Soviet Union’s breakdown in early 1990s when Russia resumed diplomatic ties with Israel. Today, at an estimated 9,00,000, Israel has the largest number of Russian Jews, not Russia.Under Israel’s Law of Return, Jews are entitled to Israeli citizenship. To attract the moneyed class, Israel has had a high-tolerance, no-questionsasked approach to these oligarchs’ source of funds, offering a safe haven. For those who have fallen out with Russia and are fleeing hitmen and polonium poisoning, Israel’s tight physical security is a big plus.Israel — often called the Startup Nation — is also an ideal place in a world where startups are the flavour. Tel Aviv is among the top three startup hubs in the world, attracting a record $4.4 billion in venture capital in 2015, up 30% from 2014. Last year, Israeli startups made $9.5 billion in exits and 150 Israeli companies are listed on Nasdaq, ranked third after China and the US. With 300 R&D centers, most global technology giants like Google and Facebook are present here. Of its 8.5 million people, 40,000 work in high-tech industry which contributes 15% to its GDP. Of late, the hot-bed of tech innovation is losing some of its sizzle. Israel has fared poorly in producing unicorns. Shortage of workers is a constraint. But the bigger problem is that while Israelis are great innovators they have fared poorly in scaling and marketing.It is here that the likes of Mirilashvili hope to play a critical role. “In the last few years I have switched to a more tech-focused business. I have been more successful here,” he says. As a strategy, he invests in early-stage tech startups, taking controlling stakes and then getting involved personally. “They are talented people but poor in strategy. When I get involved, I totally change their strategy,” he says.Mirilashvili also represents well the special triangular relationship that the troika of India, Israel and Russia have historically shared. In 2004, the three countries signed a defence deal where Israel supplied a $1.1-billion radar to India which was fitted into the strategic airlifter Ilyushin Il-76 platform made by Russia. In 2014, amid anti-Russian sanctions from the US and the EU over the Ukrainian conflict, India and Israel began to export meat and other agriproducts to Russia.As Mirilashvili plots his India strategy, he says he has fond memories of India. He watched Bollywood movies and songs. Raj Kapoor was his favourite. “Indian films always had a happy ending and the good always won. I liked that,” he says. There was something he didn’t like, too. “I noticed that the rich were always shown as evil people with no morals. It bothers me. And it is not right. Jews embrace rich people and never see them as bad people. We take care of the less fortunate,” he says.He admits that India perhaps is changing. “The mentality has changed. It is good for the country.”Like Mirilashvili, many Russian oligarchs have an Israeli connection. They are mostly Jews who often maintain dual citizenship and straddle the two countries. Some shifted base to Israel to escape the wrath of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Living below the radar, they often live the high life, residing in mansions and building new businesses. Here are a few:A Russian Jewish billionaire, he is a businessman, investor and politician. He is on the Forbes billionaire list (2016) with a $8.8 billion net worth.Best known as the owner of Chelsea Football Club, he is close to Putin. A frequent visitor to Israel, in 2015 he acquired Versano Hotel which is being converted into his Israeli residence. He has built an impressive portfolio of startups in Israel including Spot.IM, DreaMed Diabetes, Music Messenger and AnyClip MediaA cofounder of the now defunct Russian oil giant Yukos, he is now an Israeli citizen, settled there since 2003. In 2003, when Russia began a campaign to persecute Yukos executives, Nevzlin too faced the brunt.He was tried in absentia in Russia, found guilty on several counts and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008. In 2014, he set a record for the most expensive apartment purchase ($10,000,000 for a 496 sq m flat) in JerusalemOwner of the chemicals firm Acron group, Kantor owns a mansion in Israel but mostly spends his time in Europe between Russia and Switzerland.One of the most prominent rivals of the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his philanthropic work focuses on promoting tolerance and reconciliation among people and nations. In 2016, Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.7 billionThe Russian billionaire co-owns Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and has reportedly invested over $128 million in Israeli real estate since 2009. He is building one of the most luxurious mansions (valued at 0.5 billion shekels, or $130 million) in Israel. Styled on the White House, the opulent castle will have seven houses, sports fields with a gold-plated fence and its own underground electric systemOften dubbed the Rupert Murdoch of Russia, the media tycoon is the founder of the Media-Most holding company and was once very close to the Boris Yeltsin government. By the early 2000s, he fell out with Kremlin and faced Putin’s wrath — he was imprisoned, accused of embezzlement and faced criminal charges. In the late 1990s, he bought a stake in Israeli newspaper Maariv and was among the most prominent Russian oligarchs in Israel but in 2008, he exited his business interests there. He holds dual citizenship of Spain and Israel and often resides in Spain.