Growing Israeli passion for business with India

December 10, 2012
Anat-Bernstein-Reich

Bilateral trade between India and Israel has gone up from a mere $120 million to $5 billion since the two nations formally established relations in 1992, but as president of the Israel-India Friendship Association (IIFA) she sees a much higher potential.

"I want to show the beauty of India to the world," says Bernstein-Reich, who serves as co-producer of the "Bharati Show - The Wonder that is India", a Bollywood style show that has gone all around the world over the last several years.

She also runs a five-session course on doing business with India with a Hindi class and bits of history, politics and culture thrown in.

There Israeli business people learn to say phrases like "Kya haal hai?" (How are you?), "Phir milenge" (See you later), the meaning of things like "Diwali, Ganesh and Bindi" and even the Indian craze about the game of cricket.

"Once they understand culture they can do business," Bernstein-Reich tells a group of visiting Indian and Indian-American journalists and policy leaders as she lists a wide range of areas that can take Israeli-Indian trade to a projected $15 billion in a few years.

Dan Catarivas, director of the division of foreign trade and international relations at the Manufacturers Association of Israel and a former government official, agrees seeing "much more potential" in the India-Israel-US trade relationship, particularly in the area of high technology.

Noting that Israel was in the process of negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with India, Catarivas said while transfer of technology to China was fraught with risks because of US restrictions, there was no such danger in working with India in hi-tech and IT areas.

Eitan Yudilevich, executive director of the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), which promotes strategic partnerships between Israeli and American companies in various technological fields, concurs.

Yudilevich, a former head of the missiles division at Rafael Advanced Defence systems, the Israeli authority for development of weapons and military technology, who played a key role in the development of Israel's famous Iron dome, suggests the Singapore model for hi-tech trade with India.

This would have military cooperation spilling over or providing a spin-off in civilian areas, he says, noting that the Israelis were keen on going to India, shopping for partners there as long as the Americans don't mind.

Currently India is the largest customer of Israeli military equipment and Israel is the second-largest military partner of India after the Russian Federation. The military business between the two nations is worth around $9 billion.

Diamonds are another area of major trade between the two nations, but there is great scope for expansion in areas of agriculture, solar energy, energy, water treatment, desalination, clean technology and much more.

The only problem is their business culture, says Bernstein-Reich. While Israelis come straight to the point, Indians like to negotiate endlessly and reopen settled issues, she says and thus advises her clients: "Leave some room for bargaining."




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News Network
January 27,2020

Mumbai, Jan 27: The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Monday said it has increased prices of select models by up to Rs 10,000 with immediate effect to offset the impact of rising input costs.

The price change varies across models and ranges up to 4.7 per cent (ex-showroom Delhi) and are effective from January, 27 2020, MSI said in a statement.

The price of entry level model Alto range has gone up in the range of Rs 9,000-6,000, S-Presso between Rs 1,500 to 8,000, WagonR between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000.

The company has also increased the price of its multi purpose vehicle Ertiga between Rs 4,000-10,000, Baleno by Rs 3,000 to 8,000 and XL6 by up to Rs 5,000 (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

Currently, the company sells a range of vehicles starting from entry-level small car Alto to premium multi purpose vehicle XL6 with price ranging from Rs 2.89 lakh to Rs 11.47 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

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News Network
March 13,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 13: In the wake of fresh cases of Covid-19 reported in Karnataka, Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty has urged the Karnataka government to take steps to shut malls and theatres, saying the coronavirus multiplies in air-conditioned areas.

In a letter to the government, she said preventive measures should be taken to control the spread of coronovirus before it gets worse.

Murty, who also leads the State government-constituted Karnataka Tourism Task Force, said she has discussed the current situation with Chairman and Executive Director of Narayana Health, Devi Prasad Shetty.

She suggested closure of all schools and colleges with immediate effect, malls, theatres and “all air-conditioned areas where the virus multiplies”, and allow only essential services like pharmacy, grocery and petrol bunks.

“It is not scientifically proven that the virus dies in high temperature,” she said pointing to spread of the virus -- despite heat -- in peak summer in Australia and Singapore, which have “summer all 12 months”.

“I request you to vacate one government hospital with at least 500 - 700 beds for this purpose (to deal with coronavirus cases), which requires oxygen lines and pipes,” she said.

“Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of software major Infosys, would do the civil work and Devi Shetty has agreed to share resources like medical equipment,” she added.

“We would like to work with the government proactively so that we can prevent this as early as possible,” Sudha Murty said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus positive cases in Karnataka is five, including the 76-year old man from Kalaburagi who died on Tuesday night.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

New Delhi, Jul 13: The Income Tax Department has facilitated a new functionality for banks and post offices to ascertain TDS applicability rates on cash withdrawal of above Rs 20 lakh in case of a non-filer of the income-tax return and that of above Rs 1 crore in case of a filer of the income-tax return.

In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that now banks and post offices have to only enter the PAN of the person who is withdrawing cash for ascertaining the applicable rate of TDS.

So far, more than 53,000 verification requests have been executed successfully on this facility, a statement by the CBDT said.

"CBDT today said that this functionality available as 'Verification of applicability u/s 194N' on www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in since 1st July 2020, is also made available to the Banks through web-services so that the entire process can be automated and be linked to the Bank's internal core banking solution," it said.

On entering PAN by the bank or the post office, a message will be instantly displayed on the departmental utility: "TDS is deductible at the rate of 2 per cent if cash withdrawal exceeds Rs 1 crore", in case the person withdrawing cash is a filer of the income-tax return.

In case the person withdrawing cash is a non-filer of income tax return, the message shown would be: "TDS is deductible at the rate of 2 per cent if cash withdrawal exceeds Rs 20 lakh and at the rate of 5 per cent if it exceeds Rs 1 crore."

The CBDT said that the data on cash withdrawal indicated that huge amount of cash is withdrawn by the persons who have never filed income-tax returns.

To ensure filing of return by these persons and to keep track on cash withdrawals by the non-filers, and to curb black money, the Finance Act, 2020 with effect from July 1, 2020 further amended IT Act to lower threshold of cash withdrawal to Rs 20 lakh for the applicability of this TDS for the non-filers and also mandated TDS at the higher rate of 5 per cent on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore by the non-filers.

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