Ties between India & Israel get further boost with launch of Israel Centre @ IIMB on Nov 5
Bengaluru: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), along with the Consulate General of the State of Israel in Bengaluru, will launch the Israel Centre @ IIMB, on November 5 (Sunday), 2017, at 4.30 pm.
The launch, by the Chief Guest His Excellency Daniel Carmon, Ambassador of Israel to India, will mark 25 years of India Israel partnership and will boost the development of business and academic ties between the two countries.
“The goal of Israel Centre @IIMB is to forge academic relationships between IIMB and institutions in Israel, so that there is mutual learning for impact on Indo-Israeli business relationships in the domains of innovation, technology, start-ups and scaling up of organisations,” said Prof. G. Raghuram, Director, IIM Bangalore.
Expressing his thoughts about the upcoming Israel centre at IIMB, Israel’s ambassador to India H.E. Daniel Carmon said: “I am filled with pride as bridges of academic collaboration are appearing across India and Israel. The vision of the agreements between our academic institutions materializing into real centres of learning and rapprochement is a big part of the fruition of our growing partnership.”
“Real learning takes place everywhere. It is therefore important to venture out to centres of learning, wherever they may be, to behold the future of our relations taking root and branching out in new directions,” he added.
The Consulate General of Israel in Bengaluru is delighted to welcome the Ambassador, who is especially going to be here to initiate this stepping stone between IIMB and Israel.
“The Israel center at IIMB will help fulfil the talent and potential on both the sides to the fullest and the Consulate will work together with IIMB to achieve this goal,” said Dana Kursh, Consul General of Israel to South India.
Ambassador Carmon will deliver the inauguration address. The keynote address will be delivered by Ajay Vipin Nanavati, Chairman, Syndicate Bank, and former CEO, 3M Israel and 3M India. Prof. Gadi Ariav, Visiting faculty IIMB, will deliver the closing address. Ms. Dana Kursh, Consul General of Israel in Bengaluru, will be a special guest. Prof. G. Raghuram will also address the gathering on the occasion after welcoming the guests.
Background:
India and Israel have had a long and fruitful history of bilateral development cooperation especially since 1992 when formal diplomatic relations were established. During Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s visit to India last year in November 2016, more than 20 agreements were signed between the heads of Israeli and Indian universities aimed at increasing academic cooperation, student and faculty exchanges, and research partnerships.
With the new emphasis of the Indian government on promotion of entrepreneurial activity, the business and academic contacts between the countries assumed heightened significance. The change in Indian attitude and official stance coincided with Israel’s search for revised geopolitical configuration.
Israel Centre @ IIMB
Focused activities of the Israel Centre @IIMB will be aimed at stimulating, strengthening and sustaining Indo-Israeli academic-business interactions.
“The centre aims to become a leading research and networking place that aims to provide students, researchers and business managers and firms with deep understanding of Israeli and Indian business, supporting and promoting diversified body of research and teaching related to Indo-Israeli business,” said Prof. Abhoy K. Ojha, Chairperson of the Centre and senior faculty from the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management (OBHRM) area at IIMB.
IIMB is ideally positioned to start an Israel Centre as it has ongoing academic programmes, research collaborations and students exchange programmes with leading Israeli academic institutions and especially, in the last four years, with Tel Aviv University (TAU).
Faculty at IIMB have been involved in Israel-related research. In addition, there are many scholars from Israel who have visited IIMB for research seminars or conferences.
IIMB has an exchange relationship with Coller School of Management at TAU that has participation from the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) students at IIMB. The Coller School also has an International Exchange Week which has had participation from Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) students.
Technion is part of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) which allows IIMB students, in the long duration programmes, to take courses offered by it. There are other ongoing teaching engagements that are Israel centric, particularly the course called Developing Technology Partnerships between Indian and Israeli Firms, which is jointly taught by faculty from Coller School and IIMB involving live projects that require students to spend time in Israel.