In a bid to expand globally, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the country’s top-selling defense group, is jointly looking for start-ups in India for cutting-edge technologies in areas such as big data, signal and image processing, green energy and more.
IAI launched the NeuSPHERE Innovation Accelerator Programme in the South Asian country at the end of November.
Avital Schrift, IAI’s vice president of core technologies, told Nikkei Asia in New Delhi that the aim of the programme is to “reach out to innovative startups in the deep technology space and work with this community to take their ideas and … turn immature ideas from the world’s technologies into products”.
In addition to big data, image processing and green energy, the IAI will also focus on advanced navigation systems, artificial intelligence, and autonomy, XR (augmented reality) care and training, advanced manufacturing, quantum, edge computing, human-machine interfaces, and wearable technology.
The company works with many Indian government organizations and private companies in various fields, such as Hindustan Aeronautics and Larsen & Toubro. In September, it signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s state-owned defense company Bharat Electronics to work together to meet the short-range air defense needs of the South Asian country’s armed forces.
We are working with all the giants [in India] and … [we are also] trying to create a lot of joint ventures … We believe in cooperation with Indian companies,’ Schrift said in the interview.
IAI said the NeuSPHERE programme will provide participating Indian startups with access to advanced resources and technologies, including global mentorship and guidance, networking, and funding to accelerate their market-ready solutions.
“We have our own innovation center in Israel that has been operating for the past four years,” said Schrift, adding that when they decided to go global, they focused on only two giants: The U.S. and India. The Israeli company launched an innovation programme called IAI CATALYST in the U.S. earlier this year.
“We value Indian culture, talent and technological capabilities,” said Schrift, who has been working with Indians for 40 years.
Israeli Ambassador to New Delhi Reuven Azar told Nikkei that the IAI’s NeuSPHERE programme is ‘a very important programme because innovation plays a key role in creating the value chain in the economy’.
“Everything starts with innovation and then flows down,” he added. IAI also inaugurated its latest facility in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Thursday, specializing in the maintenance and repair of radar modules and subsystems such as power systems, cooling systems, information technology integration, radar testing and calibration.
The strategic center marks an important milestone in IAI’s commitment to strengthen India’s defense infrastructure under the Make in India initiative, which aims to transform the South Asian country into a manufacturing hub, IAI said in a statement.
Founded in 1953, IAI is the largest technology employer in Israel with revenues of $5 billion and 15,000 employees. It is one of the world’s top 10 aircraft design and manufacturing companies and one of the world’s top 11 satellite companies.
