Israel and India announced to the world a technology fund to further boost the two countries’ relationship. The announcement followed the signing of seven accords in core areas like space, water and agriculture.

I4F. That’s what the Israel India Innovation Fund is called in shorthand. The technology fund will hand PM Modi unparalleled access to Israel’s technology expertise in cybersecurity and military concerns to begin with. It return it will hand Israel which largely runs on an export economy an open invitation to further penetrate the 1.3 billion strong Indian market.

India and Israel will also form a strategic relationship to improve efforts on conservation, treated wastewater for irrigation, and even on cleaning the waters of great Indian rivers like the Ganges. There will be renewed focus on Israeli technology being possibly ‘Made in India’ in line with one of Modi’s flagship projects, ‘Make in India’. In addition there were also three memorandums of understanding signed to boost space research.

“I have a feeling that today India and Israel are changing our world,” PM Netanyahu has said according to Bloomberg. The second longest serving Israeli PM has accepted an invitation from his Indian counterpart to visit India following the success of Modi’s visit Israel.

Each Government will contribute 4 million dollars a year for five years to this new I4F fund and will aim to spur Indians to invest more in Israel’s tech ecosystem while encouraging Indian companies to set up research and development centres in Israel.

In addition to the I4F, investor collaboration between the two countries has expanded exponentially in recent times. Indian Angel Network will be opening operations in Israel; online angel investor platform LetsVenture will be working with Israeli crowdfunding platform Ourcrowd; Wipro has signed an agreement to pursue research on emerging technology with Tel Aviv University while Israel Aerospace Industries will be entering into a JV with Wipro Infrastructure Engineering while further expanding an existing one with Kalyani Group.

 “The fund is important,” Avi Luvton, Israel Innovation Authority’s senior director for Asia Pacific had said according to Bloomberg. “It creates a tool through which connections are made.”