[Reader-list] Israeli cos eye slice of India’s e-gov pie

[Taha Mehmood]

...while the euphoria continues in some sectors...enjoy the drama!!!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Israeli-cos-eye-slice-of-Indias-e-gov-pie/articleshow/4742222.cms

Israeli cos eye slice of India’s e-gov pie
6 Jul 2009, 0252 hrs IST, ET Bureau

BANGALORE: Israeli technology firms are joining the race for India’s
e-governance projects, seeking to offer solutions for the unique
identification card programme.

“Israeli companies may bid along with Indian ones as we always need
local partners for e-governance projects”, Consul General of Israel
Orna Sagiv said . Sagiv was heading a delegation of 14 Israeli
software companies to Bangalore to explore the opportunities in the
Indian market and find local partners. Trade between the two countries
is at $4 billion in 2008, up from $3.3 billion in 2007.

Israel will be looking to partner the Indian technology giants
especially because the country has e-governance solutions like
e-payment, e-documentation, registration of population and citizen
smart cards already running.
“Many governments around the world came to Israel to see how we did
it,” said Katrin Melamed, business development manager at the Israel
Export and International Co operation Institute (IEICI).

India is among top three trade partner for Israel in Asia and one of
the top 10 trade partners globally. “This year our government decided
to put special effort and give incentives to Israeli businessman who
want to explore the Indian market,” said Ms Sagiv. Ms Sagiv said that
the global crisis just showed Israel that the future is not only in
the US and Europe, which are its traditional market. “ India and China
are our markets now which are growing”, she said.

With about 3,000 indigenous IT firms, spanning hardware and software,
the Israeli hitech industry has grown exponentially as the export of
software from Israel has reached to $5.8 billion against $90 million
in 1990. Some 40% of the revenue comes from the US, 20% from Europe
and rest from other nations.” I am expecting Asia will account for
more than 30% this year and India will play a significant role,” said
Ms Melamed of IEICI.