Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: While Indians are busy doing ‘Jugaad’ to beat currency demonetisation, the Israeli president found much in common with ‘Jugaad’, as he described formation of Israel is ‘Jugaad’.

Reuven Rivlin, president of Israel while speaking at the inaugural session of 12th edition of CII Agro Tech 2016 here today said, “During my visit to India, I learned a new Hindi word called Jugaad.

Jugaad means –"a clever solution born out of trouble." If you know Israel and Israelis, you can guess how quickly I fell in love with this word. Just imagine a small nation, spread across the world, suffering for being different, looking for a place to call home and building one for itself, almost from a scratch. The State of Israel is Jugaad! Jugaad is the way we think, the way we invent, the way we work,” he said.

He said,” We in Israel were concerned about homeland security, but India taught us to think about food security. And this is why we are all here today. India and Israel are both ‘old-new nations’. We both know that building a home means being able to provide food for your family, and that building a nation means to be able to produce and provide food for all: now, and for the next generations. It is about taking care of your home with your own two hands; it is about taking care of your people and your land.’’

“A few days ago I visited Karnal where Indians and Israelis are developing new kinds of cherry-tomato, which are an Israeli invention. When Indian experts and Israeli experts place solar panels on the roofs of trucks so that the solar energy will keep the food inside the trucks fresh and prevent food waste – they are doing magic together. When Israeli companies and Indian farmers create professional and financial networks to help the farmers keep growing their crops, they are doing magic together,” he said and making a special reference to the Central government’s Make in India programme, he added that, “Israel not only thinks that it can Make in India, but also Make with India.”

Pranab Mukherjee, President of India said, “I’m happy to share the platform with the president of Israel, a country that has made a mark in agriculture through innovation, technology solutions and converting its knowledge into value addition. Israel has created water and food surplus by successfully using technology.’’

“There is much to learn from Israel, a country which has converted its disadvantages to advantages with courage, conviction and fortitude. I was a part of the decision making team in 1992 that entered into a partnership for defence equipment with Israel, and I am happy we can do so in the field of agriculture as well,’’ Mukherjee said.

The union minister for agriculture Radha Mohan Singh said,” It is appreciable as how CII is bringing digital krishi to farmers. When we talk about India’s agricultural production, the states of Punjab and Haryana get a supreme mention because it was here that the Green Revolution started off. However, in the last few years, water levels in these states have depleted and we need to develop ways to use water more judiciously.”

Barak Granot, head of Economic and Trade Mission, Embassy of Israel said, “As a step towards promoting the cooperation between India and Israel in the agricultural sector, Israel seeks to increase the number of Centres of Excellence across India. There are currently 15 such centres that enable rapid transfer of Israeli agricultural technology to farmers, including those in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, and going ahead, these would be increased to 29.”