NEW DELHI: India and Israel are expected to sign an agreement to create a $40 million research and development fund for joint innovation in areas of agriculture, water, energy and technology during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to the West Asian country starting Tuesday.The two countries will contribute $20 million, or about Rs 130 crore, each over five years to the fund called India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund, said a top official aware of the development.“This is going to be a good platform for both the countries to come together and is expected to be signed between Israel’s Innovation Authority and India’s department of science and technology during the PM’s visit,” said the official who requested anonymity.His counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu will receive Modi, the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. The Israel prime minister is expected to accompany Modi through most of the visit, which marks 25 years of full diplomatic relations between the two countries. The two leaders are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the proposed R&D fund.According to the official quoted earlier, the fund will be used by industry in both the countries for developing collaborative R&D practices and joint product development in areas such as agriculture, energy, water and ICT. Given Israel’s lead on Cybersecurity and startups, these areas could also be potential spots for collaboration.While from the Israel side, the Innovation Authority will be implementing it, from India the Global Innovation and Technology Alliance will take it forward. The Alliance is a not-forprofit entity incorporated jointly by industry body CII and the central government where industry holds 51% stake.“The Alliance is already implementing department of science and technology’s other bilateral industrial R&D programmes with countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Canada, Korea and Finland,” said the official.Last week, Netanyahu had said governments across the world are looking for cooperation with the country in the areas of high tech and cybersecurity, and that the upcoming visit of his “friend” Modi marks a change in the country’s status.He had said that because of continuous efforts in the field of cybersecurity, around 20% of all private investments are coming to Israel.Israel, which is developing itself as a technology and cyber powerhouse, is looking forward to increasing its exports to India, given the huge potential of the Indian market.Officials from Israel and representatives from CII held a discussion on potential areas of collaboration between the two countries last week. The two sides have identified three areas of partnership to start with. They are training of the workforce, sharing of information between cyber response teams (CERTs) of the two countries, and developing strategies especially around regulation.“Israel’s domestic market is relatively small and so their companies say that they have to go to the US to scale up, but we told them they don’t necessarily have to go to the US since India could also be a very big market for them,” said Ram Ganesh, founder of cybersecurity firm CyberEye, who was part of the CII delegation to Tel Aviv.Modi will visit the cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. He will be given a demonstration of technologies in the area of agriculture and water such as desalination techniques.