AI Collaboration Across Borders_ India–Israel Innovation Roundtable
20 Feb 2026 10:00h - 11:00h
AI Collaboration Across Borders_ India–Israel Innovation Roundtable
Summary
The session opened with Erez Askal emphasizing the deep, values-based India-Israel partnership and declaring artificial intelligence the next frontier for joint growth, while thanking Indian hosts and noting that the summit is only the beginning of expanded cooperation [3-5][11-14][15]. Sanjay Kumar then described AI’s geopolitical impact and recalled seven-to-eight decades of bilateral collaboration in water, defense, agriculture and smart cities, positioning Telangana as a leading Indian AI hub with a state-backed AI centre, a dedicated fund-of-funds and a reputation for rapid IT development [20-24][26-29][30].
Victor Goselman argued that AI can speed every phase of the scientific research cycle and suggested two concrete partnership models: joint grant schemes for AI-enabled research and Indian-origin AI services that support researchers in both nations [45-51]. Complementing this, Sanjay Kadaveru outlined Action for India’s AI impact cohort, its focus on “true AI” startups with proprietary data and domain expertise, and cited a recent mentorship exchange with Israeli AI21 Labs co-founder Ori Goshen as a tangible example of cross-border knowledge transfer [82-88][92-104]. He also highlighted the Dristi programme that places Israeli deep-tech startups in Indian incubators such as T-Hub, arguing that India’s frugal-innovation testbed can scale solutions worldwide [106-112][113].
In education, Meirav Zerbib reported parallel efforts in personalized learning, stressing the shared challenge of teacher professional development and the need to move from sandbox pilots to nationwide scaling for India’s 250 million students [124-130][131-133]. Garima Ujjainia added that joint R&D sandboxes, the Atal Innovation Mission and India’s massive market position already create bridges for Israeli technologies to reach global users, but government coordination remains essential [139-148][149-155]. Nir Dagan warned that AI should augment, not replace, essential human interactions in schools and health services, urging a focus on preserving core relationships while digitizing [158-159]. Victor further described Israel’s “Scanning Horizon” AI-driven trend-monitoring mechanism and announced an emerging collaborative pilot with India to enhance strategic planning [164-170].
Across the panel, participants concurred that public trust and transparent governance-such as clear disclosure of AI bots-are prerequisites for any large-scale AI rollout [225-227][236-238]. The audience raised concerns about the existential risks of quantum and AI, prompting the panel to stress the need for international standards and safeguards as part of the bilateral agenda [217-223][224-226]. The discussion concluded that a coordinated India-Israel AI ecosystem-leveraging Israeli deep-tech, Indian scale and talent, and potential third-party capital-offers a pathway to globally relevant innovations, provided robust policy frameworks and trust mechanisms are put in place [186-191][202-205].
Keypoints
Major discussion points
– Joint AI-driven scientific research – Both sides see value in co-funded grants and leveraging India’s large pool of AI-trained researchers to build services that embed AI throughout the research cycle, while Israel contributes its strong R & D and senior expertise[48-51][56-58].
– AI for social impact and deep-tech entrepreneurship – Action for India’s new “AI impact cohort” targets “true AI” startups that combine proprietary data and domain expertise to accelerate climate, agriculture and health solutions[78-85]; the Drishti programme already pilots Israeli deep-tech startups in Indian incubators[106-109]; and the GRAIL (Green AI Learning Network) initiative aims to create a global ecosystem that couples Israeli deep-tech with India’s engineering talent and market scale for climate-AI solutions[174-188].
– Education, teacher empowerment and scalable learning solutions – Israel and India share a vision for personalized learning, teacher professional development and moving from sandbox pilots to nationwide scaling; examples include joint work on AI-enabled curricula and the need to up-skill teachers as change agents[128-133], while India’s NITI Aayog highlights existing sandbox and R & D collaborations that need formal bridges[139-144].
– Digital public infrastructure, governance and public trust – The panel stressed that AI deployment must be transparent and trustworthy, with citizens informed when interacting with bots and clear governance frameworks to protect against misuse[225-226]; this aligns with broader policy-to-action discussions about sandboxes, standards and coordinated government mechanisms[162-165].
– Strategic geopolitical alignment and broader partnership – AI is framed as a driver of political and economic realignment, positioning India as a key ally for Israel in the Indo-Pacific and beyond; Israel’s “Scanning Horizon” foresight tool and the upcoming India-Israel PAK-Silica peace-technology agreement illustrate the high-level strategic intent[20-23][236-242][250-251].
Overall purpose / goal
The discussion aimed to map and deepen Indo-Israeli cooperation in artificial intelligence across multiple domains-scientific research, social-impact entrepreneurship, education, digital infrastructure, and strategic geopolitics-by identifying concrete initiatives, sharing best-practice models, and outlining pathways for joint funding, pilot programs, and policy frameworks that can be scaled globally.
Tone of the discussion
The conversation began with a diplomatic, optimistic tone celebrating the long-standing friendship between the two nations[1-4][22-24]. As speakers entered, the tone shifted to a more detailed, collaborative focus on specific programs and opportunities[48-51][78-85]. Mid-session, the dialogue adopted a pragmatic and solution-oriented tone, emphasizing implementation challenges, the need for trust, and governance safeguards[158-159][225-226]. Throughout, the tone remained constructive and forward-looking, ending on a hopeful note about future high-level agreements and shared global impact[236-242][250-251].
Speakers
Speakers (from the provided list)
– Victor Gosalker – Head of Horizon Line Division, Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Israel [S3].
– Audience – Member of the audience (no specific role or title mentioned).
– Sanjay Kumar – Special Chief Secretary, IT, ENC, and Industries & Commerce, Government of Telangana; IT Secretary for the state [S7].
– Garima Ujjainia – Innovation Lead, NITI Aayog (Government of India) [S9][S10].
– Meirav Zerbib – Director, Research & Development Department, Ministry of Education, Israel [S11].
– Moderator – Session moderator (no specific title or affiliation mentioned).
– Sanjay Kadaveru – Founder and Chairman, Action for India; associated with the Sun Group family office [S16].
– Nir Dagan – Head of Innovation Data and Artificial Intelligence Department, Israel National Digital Agency [S19].
– Erez Askal – Speaker representing the Israeli delegation (specific role or title not specified in the transcript).
Additional speakers:
– None (all participants are accounted for in the list above).
Erez Askal opened the session by welcoming the participants and thanking the organisers, stressing that the India-Israel partnership rests on shared values and common challenges faced by a combined population of a billion people. He framed artificial intelligence as the next strategic frontier that offers “amazing opportunities together” and highlighted Israel’s ambition to be among the world’s top three AI innovators, noting that the country now has “found… amazing friends with a vision, with ambition” in India. He concluded that the summit “marks only the beginning of a deeper cooperation” and wished the hosts success [1-5][11-14][15].
The moderator then welcomed the audience, introduced Special Chief Secretary, IT, ENC, and Industries and Commerce, Government of Telangana – Sanjay Kumar, and framed the panel’s first question on how India and Israel could jointly apply AI within scientific research [20-23][31-41][42]. He also introduced Nir Dagan, head of Innovation Data & AI, Israel National Digital Agency, highlighting his role in the discussion [155-156].
Sanjay Kumar outlined the geopolitical reshaping driven by AI and recalled the seven- to eight-decade-long India-Israel friendship that already spans water conservation, defence, agriculture and smart-city projects. Representing Telangana, he positioned the state as a leading Indian hub for IT, AI and emerging technologies, citing its status as the second-largest IT centre in the country and the first Indian state to launch a state-backed AI hub and a “fund-of-funds” dedicated largely to AI and IT startups. He urged that these assets make Telangana a natural partner for Israel’s rapid, decision-driven AI integration [26-30][27-29].
Victor Gosalker, Head of Horizon Line Division, Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Israel, described the scientific-research cycle-from question formulation to hypothesis generation, literature review and experimentation-as a process that can be accelerated at every stage through AI. He proposed two concrete collaboration models: (i) joint grant programmes that provide mutual funding for AI-enabled research, and (ii) the development of Indian-origin AI services that support researchers in both countries throughout the entire research workflow [45-47][48-51].
Sanjay Kadaveru, Founder and Chairman, Action for India (and senior executive of the Sun Group family office), explained that his organisation has recently launched an “AI impact cohort” targeting “true AI” startups-those that own proprietary data, possess deep domain expertise and solve problems that are only tractable with current AI/AGI tools. He recounted a mentorship exchange with Ori Goshen, co-founder of Israel’s AI21 Labs, which inspired the cohort’s participants. Kadaveru also highlighted the “Dristi” programme, which places Israeli deep-tech startups in Indian incubators such as T-Hub to pilot solutions in agriculture, health and climate, arguing that India’s frugal-innovation test-bed can scale these solutions globally [78-85][92-104][106-112][113].
Meirav Zerbib, Director of Research & Development, Ministry of Education, Israel, reported that an international AI conference in Israel was recognised by the Indian government as a pre-conference to the AI Impact Conference, underscoring mutual respect. She noted that both countries are developing personalised learning platforms and face the same challenge of up-skilling teachers, whom she described as “the main agents of change”. She called for collaborative professional-development programmes and for moving from sandbox pilots to nationwide scaling, especially given India’s 250 million-student population versus Israel’s 2.3 million [122-124][125-130][131-133].
Garima Ujjainia, Innovation Lead, NITI Aayog, added that several joint R & D sandboxes, incubators and the Atal Innovation Mission already exist, but they remain fragmented and require a coordinated governmental bridge to become a unified AI ecosystem. She stressed that India’s massive market makes it an ideal test-bed for Israeli technologies, and that formal mechanisms-such as the I4F initiative-are needed to channel Israeli solutions into Indian users while also allowing Indian startups to enter Israeli and global markets [139-148][149-155].
The moderator then asked how AI could intersect with India’s digital public infrastructure [158-159]. In response, Nir Dagan warned against allowing AI to replace essential human interactions in education and health, insisting that “the essential products, the essential services… you want AI not to replace” must be preserved to avoid bureaucratic disengagement. He linked this to the broader need for public trust, arguing that transparency-such as informing citizens when they are interacting with a bot and offering an opt-out to a human-is the “most valuable currency” for AI adoption [160-162][225-227].
Victor Gosalker later introduced Israel’s “Scanning Horizon” foresight mechanism, which uses AI tools to monitor global trends, detect weak signals and surface emerging technologies for government strategic planning. He announced a nascent collaborative pilot with India on this tool, noting that six months after an Indian delegation’s visit the two sides were already moving toward an agreement [164-166][167-170].
Across the discussion, several points of agreement emerged. All speakers affirmed that the India-Israel AI partnership is at an early, strategic stage and requires institutional mechanisms such as joint grant schemes, state-backed AI hubs and fund-of-funds to finance collaborative research [3-5][26-30][48-51][139-155]. They also concurred that education initiatives must keep teachers central, develop personalised-learning sandboxes and scale them nationally [45-58][122-130][139-148]. Moreover, participants uniformly stressed that public trust, transparency and robust governance guardrails are non-negotiable prerequisites for any large-scale AI rollout [160-162][225-227][139-155].
Moderate disagreements were noted. Nir Dagan framed India’s unique contribution in spiritual-ethical terms, positioning the country as the “spiritual capital” that can guide the global AI revolution [207-213], whereas others (Kumar, Gosalker, Zerbib) highlighted concrete technical assets such as the Telangana AI hub, joint grant programmes and education sandboxes [26-30][45-51][122-130]. On governance, the audience called for an internationally accepted framework to prevent misuse of AI and quantum technologies [217-223]; Garima advocated for a national-level coordinated approach using India’s test-bed capacity [139-155], reflecting a tension between global standards and national implementation. Finally, Victor portrayed the Scanning Horizon collaboration as rapidly advancing [164-170], while Garima described many existing initiatives as fragmented and in need of formal bridges [139-155].
Key take-aways and proposed actions
1. Establish joint mutual-fund grant programmes to embed AI across the scientific-research cycle (Victor Gosalker) [48-51].
2. Leverage Telangana’s AI hub and its fund-of-funds to co-finance R & D projects (Sanjay Kumar) [26-30].
3. Expand the AI impact cohort and the Dristi programme to bring more Israeli deep-tech startups into Indian incubators such as T-Hub (Sanjay Kadaveru) [78-85][106-112].
4. Create education sandboxes and teacher-training pipelines through India’s I4F and Atal Innovation Mission, with Israeli ed-tech partners participating (Meirav Zerbib, Garima Ujjainia) [122-130][139-148].
5. Operationalise the Scanning Horizon joint monitoring effort to feed strategic insights to both governments (Victor Gosalker) [164-170].
6. Advance the Green AI Learning Network (GRAIL) and a dedicated Grail Investment Fund to attract capital from the US, Europe and elsewhere for climate-focused AI startups (Sanjay Kumar) [174-188].
7. Prepare for the upcoming India-Israel prime-ministerial meeting, during which a formal AI cooperation agreement is expected to be signed (moderator’s reference) [250-251].
Unresolved issues include the precise design of the joint grant mechanism, the development of internationally recognised AI/quantum guardrails, coordination among multiple ministries and state agencies to avoid fragmentation, and the definition of timelines, milestones and revenue-sharing models for sandbox-to-market pathways. Suggested compromises involve building joint solutions from day one rather than post-pilot partnerships (Kadaveru), channeling existing sandboxes and funding through a dedicated governmental liaison (Ujjainia), and aligning Israel’s deep-tech strengths with India’s scale and third-party capital to produce affordable, globally relevant AI solutions (Kadaveru) [196-201][174-188].
The moderator concluded by thanking the panelists and indicating that audience questions would follow [260-262]. The panel reiterated that the success of Indo-Israeli AI collaboration hinges on transparent governance, sustained public trust and the ability to translate pilot projects into scalable, impact-driven solutions that benefit both nations and the wider world [214-216][250-251].
Hello, everyone. I’m so glad to be here, and welcome to everyone. Thank you for the organizers. The cooperation between India and Israel, of course, based on a deep relationship of values and the same challenges, because, you know, together we are a billion people, as you know. So, well. And now the issue is AI. I believe that in AI we have amazing opportunities together. Before, you know, Israel was going to lead to be one of the top three of the world. And we understand that we need allies. Before this week, I thought that we need to found allies. Now I can say that we found. And really amazing, amazing friends with a vision, with ambition, I feel like in Israel.
And I just want to say thank you to our friends in India. Of course, this amazing summit, but of a deep relationship and cooperation. And I just want to say that it’s just the beginning. So thank you very much. And good luck. Thank you.
Now I’d love to invite Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Special Chief Secretary, IT, ENC, and Industries and Commerce from the government of Telangana. He’s involved in developing advanced therapeutics, AI -driven drug discovery, and strengthening the IT and manufacturing ecosystem in Telangana. So please, I’d like to invite sir. Thank you.
What India as a country is doing. And you know, AI as such is, everybody knows that it’s evolving very fast, but it is, what impact it is having on geopolitical situation, I think it’s leading to political and economic realignment. So today, we are here with our Israeli friends, India’s and Israel’s friendship is quite deep, it runs into last seven, eight decades. We have active partnerships going on in the field of water conservation, defense, agriculture, and so on, smart cities also. In fact, I had visited, as from my earlier avatar in Ministry of Urban Development, for smart cities, I’ve seen a couple of places in Israel. So now it is the turn of AI, and given the deep relationship we have, I think we can work to…
together and when it comes to work because I am representing right now my state Telangana where I am working as IT secretary there. So when it comes to partnership in AI, Telangana is one of the leading hubs of IT AI and emerging technologies. We have been told that we are aware that Israel is one of the very few countries where AI has been integrated to government decision making and Israel is known for its speed, the way you take decisions, the way it is implemented. When you are looking at India, Telangana will be your natural choice because we are known for IT progress since last 3 -4 decades. We are I think second largest IT hub in India and plus we have, when it comes to AI, we are the first state which has launched a state backed initiative, AI hub which we call AI hub.
it ICOM and to help the startups we have recently launched our fund of funds we are one of the four five states we launched fund of funds which majority part of that will be focused on AI and IT I think there are a lot of opportunities where we can collaborate and work so my best wishes to all the panelists I think everybody will have a very fruitful discussion and after this I think everybody will get enlightened. Thank you.
Thank you sir for laying out the foundation for what promises to be a very important discussion I would now like to introduce all the speakers here to come in accompanying us starting off with mr. Nir Dagan head of innovation data and artificial intelligence department Israel National Digital Agency then miss Meirav Zerbib director of of Research and Development Department, Ministry of Education, Israel. Then Mr. Sanjay Kadaveru, Founder and Chairman, Action for India, Sun Group. Mr. Victor Gosalker, Head of Horizon Line Division, Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Israel. And lastly, Ms. Garima Ujjainia , Innovation Lead, NITI Aayog . Now I’d like to hand over the reins to… Thank you. Thank you. Not because just you’re sitting beside me, but like, I will go in a very random order.
But just to make my point. So my first question to you is like very, very, and the foundational level is that is like, in what ways do you think like Israel and India can partner in applying artificial intelligence, specifically within scientific research, because science and technology is one of the major aspects that most of the, you know, emerging, globally, every countries are looking into. Including the impact summit, we had one of the working groups. science and technology. So with that, I would like to start the conversation with you.
Thank you everyone. Hello to everyone this noon. Science has a research cycle. Research cycles mean we are starting with the question, the research question, truth generating the hypothesis, the literature, exploration, and of course the experimentation. The AI, implementation AI in the whole cycle of research accelerates the productivity of the science. So in Israel, we are just starting to think about how to implement in each stage of the process the AI. I think the collaboration with India can be in two aspects. One is to prove the mutual funds to give grants to researchers to implement AI in science. It’s obvious, but the second one is to develop in India, I think because in India there is the great advantage of well -educated researchers, specifically in AI.
I think India can develop specific services to support science, implementing AI in science in all stages, and support researchers in India and Israel in that way to encourage the research productivity.
I think that’s excellent points. Two important aspects when it comes to collaboration is scientific research, how that can be like academic partnerships, and second one is the skilled labor. And also, as you mentioned, India has a lot of skilled labor, which is working within these innovations. Would you like to add something?
Yes, I really agree with you. The real advantage of India is the skill regarding Israel, the skill and the well -educated people here. So the combination between those aspects give the opportunity to collaborate with Israel that has the advantage in the R &D and also the senior researchers in some fields.
Thank you so much. I’ll circle back to you as we go forward. Now I would like to go to Mr. Sanjay. Sir, thank you so much for joining and great work that you have been driving through Action for India. So from the Indo -Israel perspective, how do you really see AI -driven social innovations evolving? And especially within some of the critical sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and all of those aspects. And how can we move forward from there?
Thank you. Firstly, it’s been one of a kind of an experience to be part of this AI impactor. In fact, I’ve been around the block. but I’ve never seen anything like this. So kudos to the Indian government and all the delegates from the 100 plus countries who’ve come here. It’s just been amazing learning, amazing people, amazing networking and all that. So kudos to all the organizers who made this session possible. I wear a couple of hats. One hat is as a founder and chairman of an organization called Action for India. So we’ve been around for more than a dozen years and we focus on working with social entrepreneurs, for -profit social entrepreneurs in sectors like education, healthcare, agriculture, livelihood, fintech, cleantech.
So we identify these startups in the early stages of the scaling journeys and then connect them with resources to help scale the impact of the work, be it funding, mentors, technology resources, government nation makers, customers and what have you. So yeah, in this dozen years of work, there’s been… We have 1 ,000 social entrepreneurs we work with in some shape or form. And now, with everybody latching on to the AI bandwagon for all the right reasons, we’ve also put our hat in the ring. And so we’ve just recently launched an AI impact cohort. And so this is about a dozen entrepreneurs who are selected from about 100 applications in three sectors, climate, agri, healthcare. And as you might imagine, if you’ve gone to any of these halls, everybody is AI this, AI that.
But our premise or hypothesis is that if you make the extra effort in identifying the true AI startups, and what do I mean by true AI startups? Startups that have access to proprietary data. Startups that have deep domain expertise in whatever sector they are coming in from. And startups that are pursuing solutions that could not have been pursued but for the current AI, AGI, tools and technologies. Those startups, if you focus on them, my sincere belief is that the scale of impact… as well as the pace of impact would be significantly higher, better, larger than even tech -enabled social startups. So it is with that premise that we are putting in a lot of time and energy into this new version 3 .0 of AFI.
We are focusing on all things at the intersection of AI and impact. And in my remarks later on in this panel, I want to talk about two things. Some things that are already happening at the country level, at the organizational level like AFI and the family that I work with. So I want to give specific examples. It’s not just theory or some ideas, find the sky kind of ideas. So when we launched this cohort, it was just about a few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to meet with an Israeli entrepreneur by the name Ori Goshen. Members of the Israeli delegation might recognize his name. He is the co -founder and co -CEO of this company called AI21 Labs.
This is one of the premier AI startups from Israel. I met him at a family office conference in the Bay Area sometime back. And he was the keynote speaker when we had this valedictory event a little while ago. And it is these kind of exchanges that happen between entrepreneurs in Israel and ecosystems in India. They inspired the dozen entrepreneurs who were there in that session. And Ori is, of course, a commercial startup. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars. And he is at a completely different trajectory. But to have somebody like that profile, engaging with entrepreneurs, and then sharing their insights in terms of what to do, what not to do. These are the kind of things that can go a long way in terms of making things better.
And there is one initiative that I want to highlight to the audience here. An initiative called Dristi, which was launched a few years ago. This is, again, the whole premise there is in terms of how do you focus on deep tech startups and how do you focus on deep tech startups and how do you focus on deep tech startups from Israel, people working in sectors like defense, AI, robotics. and how do you give them, I mean, in this particular case, these startups, we’re working with T -Hub, which is a, yeah, the secretary was here. This is one of the more marquee incubators from India and these startups were given opportunities to launch their pilots, work with local partners and evolve their solutions.
So these kind of things are already happening and we’d love to see more of these things happen. And one final point that I’d like to make here is that India is really a test bed for social innovation. I mean, the problems that are, we have more problems than most of the parts of the world, but the solutions that are developed in India are being developed with a frugal innovation or a Gandhian engineering perspective. And these solutions with minor customization can be very relevant for other parts of the world, be it other parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America. So again, marrying Israeli deep tech with the innovation, Indian talent pool, the Indian potential for scale, Indian frugal innovation.
can make great things happen for the world.
Excellently put, sir, in terms of important facets of when it comes to exchange, especially I think the first point that you mentioned in terms of why these kinds of dialogues are very important, right? Exchange happens through these things and new ideas and new knowledge gets birthed there, right? And also an excellent point you mentioned in terms of how, especially when you’re talking about social sector and it’s testbed as India because we have a hurry of people, different contextualities, which is excellent for us to test all of these solutions. So I’ll circle back to you, sir, but I would like to come to Ms. Meirav here. I hope I’m pronouncing your name right. But yeah, so that’s a beautiful name, though.
So I think I just wanted to pick up on the point, which Victor had mentioned in terms of the scientific research. So if you could bring in a little bit of light towards where do we really stand when it comes to Indo -Israel Education Innovation Partnerships, and how are we planning to take that forward?
Okay, so two weeks ago, we had an international conference in Israel regarding AI, and we were so honored when the government here in India recognized our conference as a pre -conference to the AI Impact Conference. So we have a great respect to India. And when I came, I said it also when I spoke on Tuesday, when I came to India, the minister called me, and he said, please, come with insight. an opportunity to collaborate with India. So I’m here in a mission, and I want to share with you what I understood throughout the three days that I’m here. I’m going to departure tomorrow. So, yeah. So I would like to relate to the students, teachers, and the whole system.
I understood that when I came and I presented the 720, innovative, personalized systems in Israel, I thought that I invented the world. But then I understood that the Indian Ministry of Education has the same vision, and they’re also working on the same solutions. So we have solutions that we are developing in Israel, and also India is developing. its own system so we can share knowledge because no one knows how to promote personalization we all have the same values we want that no one will be left behind and and this is something that i found that we can collaborate on regarding teachers when i spoke to the ministry to the general secretariat of education and the innovation department i understood that we have also the same challenge with teachers we both understand the teachers are the main the main agent of change so nothing will will happen without teachers so how to build a different and moderate and and work on a professional development together and promote teachers knowledge of how to integrate ai into the curriculum this is something that we can share you the third thing that I want to relate to is how to move from framework to scaling up this is something also I presented it also on my lecture and this is something that we can also learn from each other this is a huge country we have in Israel only 2 .3 million students and here you have 250 million students so you have a huge challenge but still it’s the same how to move from framework using sandboxes and managing risk and mitigating them and scaling up this is something I find really an opportunity to share knowledge, research
That’s excellent I think that’s all it takes in terms of looking at the similarities and the same vision that India and Israel has towards Like, how can we make the, you know, last mile get the positive impacts of the solution itself? And excellent points that you mentioned in terms of, like, teachers. That’s also a major problem that, like, you know, within India, we are also trying to, like, look at, like, how can we complement technology with teachers? And then also, like, very important question is that is, like, you know, how policy to action. And I think there’s a lot of exchange, not only with Israel, but globally also, like, a lot of exchange is important for us to, like, bridge that gap between, like, you know, something on the paper towards action.
So I’ll circle back to you. But right now I just wanted to bring in Ms. Garima, who’s from the, who’s, who’s the representation here we have from the Indian government. So, Garima, thanks for joining and would like to, like, have your perspectives in terms of, like, what kind of collaborations from Indian side that you see with Israel? research collaborations and like you know Meirav also mentioned about sandboxes and other aspects so anything that you would like to bring from the Indian perspective
I am not sure if I can say this Shabbat Shalom I can say right Shabbat Shalom and thanks to Maya she had taught me whatever Hebrew I know so I was in Israel last year thanks to Maya we were on a high level AI delegation from the counterparts to Israel and I think the dialogue that I have been having here rightly put out like they already are there into the collaborations it’s just that you know it’s the school education, the sandboxes the research part to it the R &D, the incubators they are already in talks it’s just that the bridges has to be made from the Indian government we already have an I4F and I think that’s really important and I think that’s really important and I think that’s really important and I think that’s really important and I think that’s really important project that has already been going on where research, joint researches are being built with India and Israel and that has to be tested to the market.
Now I was in, I was talking to Victor yesterday about if so I’m representing NITI Aayog, Government of India and into that Atal Innovation Mission. So we are the mission and the organization body which is trying to or is certainly putting out that innovation is the backbone of the country will be helping to make Bharat, the Vixit Bharat we are trying to make in 2047. So we actually pitch that if we can do jointly collaborative some sandboxes if you know the technology that Israel has if they can be on boarded into the Indian market, the exposure of the startups can be given to the Indian market. And the Indian startups certainly goes to also Israel and they test their products there because if you say India is currently trying to make local products for the global market.
So the cost that is what we have in edge and that we can give it to the other markets. And if you will say from the other countries not just Israel but the whole if you take as globe as the market. Now India becomes the user. We are the customers. We are the biggest customers right now for any market right now. So we become the test beds for a lot of technologies which are already out there into the market and if you people want to test it. So that that sort of a call is what and becomes the foundation of their all the bridges has been made. So the government has been trying to push the same thing.
And if you go to the expo you will see the the marquee products of the companies which are there and they are saying that we are building it for the Indian market. We want to come and enter. The market if you go to the chat GPT both they are like we are already doing so much of hackathons. We are already started penetrating into the Indian state. now it’s like they the fragmentation is the work has been in fragmented what we have to do is as a government also to make it more together and that is what we are trying to do so government is already out there trying to build it’s just you know we have to pick the right players to make it together and hold it.
That’s that’s great points um Garima i think like you know uh in a nutshell like i can say that like this is the entire uh mission that we have is like making india for the globe and um and and and when we talk about making india for the globe is also means that we need like -minded countries to like you know join our hands and like start making that kind of solutions which has scalability across the globe as well as like some solutions globally also to be like you know more adaptable to the indian context so thank you so much for that points and now i want to like move to um need here thanks thanks for patiently waiting uh you know lads to have your perspective last but not the least very important question to you is because it’s very close to Indians is the digital public infrastructure and the digital journey and the transformation that India has had over the past decade is just very commendable right.
So as we move forward especially when we talk about intersectionality between the digital infrastructure and AI where do you see both the countries can complement each other?
value. So if someone would say, oh, we have a new digitization process and now you don’t need to meet the teacher, I would be disappointed as a citizen because education for me means that my son and I and the teacher can talk about his education. So you need to understand what are the essential products, what are the essential services that you want AI not to replace in order to eliminate the bureaucracy that doesn’t make the people in India do their real work as teachers, as social workers, as physicians.
Thank you so much for those points. I think it was very grounding to know that we pulled back the conversation that digital transformation is not about the technology, it’s about the people. So the necessity comes from the people and people has to be put first and I think that’s where the entire summit is also called the impact and who is it impacting is the people, right? so those are excellent points and I think like as you mentioned in terms of like academic collaborations and like you know public sector needs that kind of like vision which will be provided by the other you know policy actors and stakeholders we are also doing the NDIAI mission which is trying to like you know try to involve as many players as possible through different initiatives under seven pillars so as we move forward I think like you know it’s going to really like pick up and also I think like there has to be some level of global contribution to this as well as something that should be like you know thought through.
Thank you so much for those points I’ll circle back to you so we have 15 minutes I would also want to pick up people’s questions but before that I wanted to you know have one round of like closing remarks from all the panelists maybe we can start with Victor
okay I want to add this and tell you about the mechanism I’m head of in Israel, the mechanism called Scanning Horizon, like in other advanced countries, regarding to improve the strategic planning of the government, truth, understanding the global trends, and specifically the emerging technology that shape our world. And we are using some of the AI tools for monitoring the global trends and the new trends, weak signals in light to alert about the new trends, and also to find the next emerging technology that shape our world, and contribute to the strategic planning. We are now standing with collaboration with Indian side about this issue of scanning horizon and emerging technology. Next week, I hope it will be, next time.
and this is a good opportunity for me to thank the Indian side because they visited us last year. We exposed them the tools, the AI tools and the mechanism and they appreciate it and very fast. We are just six months after the Indian side visit in Israel and we are already in the track of agreement. So it’s very fast. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Victor. Maybe now we can have Mr. Sanjay too.
So one of the things that I’ll mention is I said at the beginning that I wear two hats. One is as the founder and chairman of Action for India. I also work for a family office called the Sun Group. So we are a fourth generation business family and we have business interests across the US, Africa, Europe, India. One initiative in particular that I want to mention is we have a lot of people who are very passionate about this. talk about and implications for India -Israel relationship is an initiative called GRAIL, G -R -A -I -L, as in Holy Grail. It stands for Green AI Learning Network. And the whole idea is in terms of how do you leverage some of the current AI, AGI technologies for scaling solutions, accelerating solutions that address climate change.
So we are currently on a mission to form a global ecosystem across investors, entrepreneurs, executives, researchers, foundations to move this agenda forward. Last year, we had a massive convening in London. We had about 200 professionals from places like Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Alan Turing Institute, which is the premier AI institute for the UK, came together and were discussing in panels like this on themes like smart grids, renewables, new material innovation, climate modeling, and topics like that. And we’d like to bring this initiative, GRAIL, to other parts of the world, be it the US, be it other parts of Europe. to other parts of the world, be it other parts of the world, to other parts of the world, be it other parts of the world, or even to Israel.
And I think, yeah, in terms of the complementarities that exist between the two ecosystems in Israel and in India. Israel, as you know, it’s got a culture of deep tech, research of bold experimentations. And if you marry that with a huge engineering talent in a place like India and, yeah, the potential for scale, I think, yeah, big things can happen. And to this, it need not be just a bilateral relationship between India and Israel. If you bring in actually a triangulated model of collaboration with, say, pools of capital from a geography like the U .S., then things can happen. I mean, you can make affordable solutions made available to the globe by marrying the technology of Israel, the large markets of India, and, yeah, the capital, leveraging the capital of places like the U .S.
So this is something that… Again, as this initiative moves forward, there could be a Grail Investment Fund wherein we could identify early -stage startups working at the intersection of climate and AI solving problems in this domain. And one thing in my closing remarks. So there are elements about what has already happened, elements that can happen. But a couple of ideas in terms of two, three ideas about what could be some new or different things that could be attempted. So in the past, traditionally it’s been what I told you, shared with you about the Drishti initiative. It was startups from Israel coming to a T -Hub in Hyderabad and then working with local partners and collaborating later on.
Maybe what could be attempted is in terms of building things together from day one rather than a partnership much later. That’s something that could be attempted. And see what happens there. And then building a robust pipeline of innovation opportunities. opportunities that traverse the defense and the civilian application case and again leveraging the complementarities of the little sort of ecosystems. If you build that pipeline I think more good things could emerge and the last point is in terms of not just limiting it to a bilateral relationship but marrying the strengths of these two ecosystems and doing good things for the world by bringing in other stakeholders into the equation.
Thank you so much. I think that’s a great point and I think at Dialogue we also work with other countries and one important aspect was the same as building together for cross -border solutions and very fascinating results we have seen when two countries come together and two talent pools from two different countries come together solving for the same goal but also complementing both sides of context. Excellent point. Thank you so much. I would love now to come to Ms. but I have to give her closing remarks ok I see the clock so I just want to say that your prime minister is about to come to Israel next week and he will meet with our prime minister and I hope that a delegation of the ministry of education in India will come to Israel and we will go forward to the next step and sign an assignment together I’m really looking forward to it we are also looking forward to the same what’s going to come out of it yes now let’s go to Ms.
Garima
I think everyone has put everything on the table so there is nothing any specific I would want to share but ministry of education you said the PM is going to Israel I think that makes the if health, security remains the priority points of both the countries and if something can come up in that I think innovation will anyways cut across all the sectors so if you know some the priorities of both the nations can marry together with the same agendas and we can contribute towards both of it I think that
excellent so I saw that many many of the sessions here we’re dealing with a question of what could be the optimal contribution of India to the global AI revolution and it’s quite a difficult question because you have everything here you have the best coders and you have energy sources and you have water supply and you have compute power but in my opinion as your guest this is not the most unique thing that you can find in India I believe that the AI revolution holds a very significant spiritual crisis for the world. If I’m a lawyer and now my job is better performed in the legal arena by AI, then I’m in a real crisis. If I’m a coder and in the last two years the codes of Claude became better than me in coding, then many people see it as a crisis.
And I think that India is the spiritual capital of the world. You have thousands of years in exploring the human spirit. And if there is something that AI will never replace, this is the human spirit. And this is what I would like you to bring to the global AI revolution that we are having.
Thank you so much, Nir. And thank you so much for the panelists for all the great questions, answers and excellent points. But I’m sure like audience here also have a lot of questions to ask to the panelists. before we conclude we can take few questions here
Both countries represents minority ethnic minorities cultural ethnic minorities so but we have to be the guardians of the global human civilizational existence because the quantum the AI is part quantum is going to unleash the power of compute accessible to every individual in his palm which can act misuse abuse to threaten societies communities countries it may go to rogue actors bad governments rogue nations as well so for that But there is no single entity in the world which is trying to develop a framework or models or some kind of a globally accepted best practice standard based thing. Because a stitch in time saves nine. No corporate which is developing quantum is taking responsibility of having guardrails in place because they are all pro -profit individual companies.
Quantum is real happening now. So but a stitch in time saves nine. It is onus on the part of Israel and India to create human existential rail guards for us to survive and also to give a global standards, global rail guards. As a minority ethnic cultural minorities of the world. it’s an existential issue.
yeah I think just putting the question I think like is trust and safe like you know it’s an important aspect when we actually talk about the solutions as well anybody in the panel would want to like touch on like how both countries can work together on putting together that governance framework as we move forward any thoughts anybody.
So I think that as governments we need to understand that the most important coin for us is not rupees or dollars but public trust and public trust this is the reason that we are here for if we will not have public trust then no one will download our apps and no one will make us even go to the AI and trust is like a tree it is very hard to build it is very hard to grow but you can cut it off in a second and I think that this makes us very much responsible to the matter of public trust in the when we deploy AI solutions when we develop quantum solutions we need to be extremely transparent with the public we need the public to be involved in our development process we need to the public to know exactly what technologies we are using if an AI bot from the Ministry of Welfare is calling me I want to know that it is a bot and I want to be able to say oh I want to speak with the real person oh I want a real person to examine my situation and I think that trust cost a lot of money and sometimes it makes us a bit slower but this is the direction and transparency is the direction in which we should be towards if we want the revolution to succeed.
excellent point trust is the bedrock for anything that we are talking here without trust there’s no uptake we have time for one more question
I’m dr. silent I have agreed to start What I have seen since the last three, four decades, Israel technology for agriculture, water conservation, it is supreme. All over the world, they know the technology also, and they know the speed of decision also of Israeli. And Israel, through America, they are having global power. Now through India, they can have a global purpose. We are not only in India, but the whole world is going to have a virtual land for you, for a global purpose. How you are going to do, I would like to see that. Thank you.
Over to the panelist. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. I’m from the Ministry of Science and Innovation and Technology in Israel. And we see India not just a… bilateral partner, as a global partner, because we see India will become in the 21… century as a global superpower and we start with the Indo -Pacific region. Israel developed a strategy for the Indo -Pacific region and we see India as a key state, a key country in this region. And this region is the center of the gravity of the global world regarding economy, demography, technology, of course. Technology is transit from the western side of the world, of the global world, to the Indo -Pacific. Look at China, India, Korea, and all the other countries here, Japan, of course.
So we are in Israel, see India as a strategic partner, not just for India, just for our region.
I would like to add that, Nir, say something about necessity. and necessity in India makes you much greater innovative than Israel and the United States. I want to give a small example. Yesterday we visited the Indian Institution of Technology and I met entrepreneurs with innovative, they presented to me not a product, not a technological product, but a STEM product like a game and it was so innovative. Because the entrepreneurs in India think about so many people, so many varieties of students that should take this game and make it relevant to so different societies and the price was so low that then I said, I want it to every class in Israel. So it’s so powerful.
We don’t have it in Israel and of course not in the US.
India is about to join the PAK -Silica agreement and first of all congratulations for joining this agreement that we are already part of and we really really appreciate I think that many people are speaking about the silica part of PAK -Silica but the first word is PAKS which actually means peace and I think that India is also a superpower in making peace and we can learn a lot from you in this matter as well so Shabbat Shalom and Ramadan Kareem for everyone who is fasting and let’s pray for peace in the Middle East.
Victor Gosalker identifies complementary strengths between the two countries, with Israel having advantages in research and development capabilities while India possesses a large pool of skilled and w…
EventAnd I think, yeah, in terms of the complementarities that exist between the two ecosystems in Israel and in India. Israel, as you know, it’s got a culture of deep tech, research of bold experimentatio…
EventAnd within that, there are endless taxonomies of all the wonderful things that AI can do. And, of course, you’ll be worried about the increased Gs from data centers, but that’s not the primary focus o…
EventDiscussion point:Trust-building through clear governance frameworks
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EventBoth speakers acknowledge the challenge of making government data available for AI innovation while protecting sovereignty and citizen interests. They agree that a balanced approach is needed that ena…
EventCreating accountable institutions at both central and state levels to balance agility with governance requirements Establishing controlled data sharing mechanisms that enable innovation while protect…
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Blog“India is a trusted country.”<a href=”https://dig.watch/event/india-ai-impact-summit-2026/ai-collaboration-across-borders_-india-israel-innovation-roundtable?diplo-deep-link-text=Thank+you.+Firstly%2C…
Event“Erez Askal emphasized that the India‑Israel partnership rests on shared values and common challenges, representing a combined population of a billion people, and expressed gratitude for finding “amazing friends with a vision, with ambition” in India.”
The knowledge base states that Askal highlighted the cooperation built on shared values, common challenges and that together the two countries represent a billion people, and he thanked the allies for their vision and ambition [S1].
“Sanjay Kumar recalled the seven‑ to eight‑decade‑long India‑Israel friendship that already spans water conservation, defence, agriculture and smart‑city projects.”
The source notes that speakers emphasize a strong foundation of India-Israel cooperation over seven to eight decades, with collaborations across defence, agriculture, water conservation and smart-city initiatives [S3].
“Representing Telangana, Sanjay Kumar positioned the state as a leading Indian hub for IT, AI and emerging technologies, citing its status as the second‑largest IT centre in the country and the first Indian state to launch a state‑backed AI hub and a fund‑of‑funds for AI and IT startups.”
Additional information from the knowledge base highlights Telangana’s focus on healthcare and software, describing Hyderabad as a global hub for these sectors, which adds nuance to the claim about the state’s prominence in IT and emerging technologies [S83].
The panel displayed strong consensus on four core pillars: (1) establishing a strategic, early‑stage India‑Israel AI partnership; (2) creating dedicated financial and grant mechanisms to fund joint R&D; (3) ensuring education initiatives keep teachers central and promote personalized learning; (4) embedding trust, transparency and robust governance as non‑negotiable foundations, with India’s large user base positioned as a test‑bed.
High consensus across technical, policy and ethical dimensions, indicating that participants are aligned on both the vision and the concrete mechanisms needed for Indo‑Israeli AI collaboration. This alignment bodes well for translating discussion into joint programmes, funding streams and governance frameworks that can be operationalised in the near term.
Speakers broadly concur on the importance of deepening India‑Israel AI collaboration, yet they differ on the nature of India’s contribution (spiritual/ethical vs technical/financial), the scale and mechanism for governance and trust (global standards vs national test‑bed and transparency), and the perceived pace of joint initiatives (rapid joint projects vs fragmented existing programmes).
Moderate – while there is consensus on the need for cooperation, the disagreements centre on strategic emphasis and implementation pathways, which could affect the alignment of policies, funding models, and governance structures, potentially slowing coordinated action if not reconciled.
The discussion evolved from high‑level diplomatic goodwill to a nuanced roadmap for Indo‑Israeli AI collaboration. Key comments introduced concrete sub‑national initiatives (Telangana’s AI hub), systematic research integration, a refined startup selection framework, and education‑centric implementation strategies. Equally pivotal were the philosophical and governance insights that broadened the dialogue to include ethical, cultural, and trust‑building dimensions. Each of these remarks acted as a catalyst, steering the conversation toward actionable partnerships, highlighting existing institutional bridges, and underscoring the need for coordinated, transparent, and human‑centered AI development.
Disclaimer: This is not an official session record. DiploAI generates these resources from audiovisual recordings, and they are presented as-is, including potential errors. Due to logistical challenges, such as discrepancies in audio/video or transcripts, names may be misspelled. We strive for accuracy to the best of our ability.
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