Israel cautions India on IP-related issues while committing to ‘share' tech and know-how for ‘Make in India' success

Jerusalem, June 30

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As India and Israel prepare for a Free Trade Agreement, Israel’s envoy to India has expressed his country’s desire “to share” technology and know-how for the success of New Delhi’s flagship programme ‘Make in India’, but at the same time expressed concerns over violation of Intellectual Property norms.

Naor Gilon, Israel’s Ambassador to India, said here on Wednesday that “we all are interested in ‘Make in India’ and see an immense potential in cooperation with India”.

Gilon, at an event at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that he got three serious complaints from Israeli companies about IP problems in India.

“And this is my only recommendation for India – you want to do ‘Make in India’ and I think two-three weeks ago during our Defence Minister’s visit to India during the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all we talked about was ‘Make in India’. We are all interested in ‘Make in India’ and see an immense potential for cooperation with India,” he said.

“The combination of Israeli technology and Indian technology and your capacity of manufacturing and your ability to do sales around the world in many more countries than we can do because you have much wider diplomatic relations around the world, especially in Muslim countries. The potential is huge. And Israel is very much looking forward to ‘Make in India’.

“We are ready to share but I must say very clearly that this IP problem will be a problem,” he said.

In an indirect reference to China, the Israeli diplomat warned: “you should not get the reputation of your neighbours”.

“One has to maintain a solid reputation because ‘Make in India’ requires not only manufacturing but IPs. And if you want people to share their IPs, they have to feel confident…Our defence cooperation is in the most sensitive fields of intelligence-gathering, a lot of things that we will not speak about here, and IP is also very important for the private sector,” he emphasised.

Discussions then centered on improving trade ties, cooperating in the region’s maritime security, synergising efforts for global public health, and joint infrastructure projects focused on transportation and technology.