Despite its many internal challenges, Israel has contributed significantly in the areas of irrigation, medicine and technology. Its ties with India have grown over time
The real choice confronting us in the 21st century is between admiration of achievement versus envy and resentment of it. Your attitude towards people who excel in various fields and towards people who are striving to make a mark, is of critical importance. Do you aspire their excellence or do you seethe at it like the disgruntled students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the University of CalcuttaIJ
The students of the two universities are busy showing their sympathy towards the jihadis. Do you admire and celebrate achievement or do you impugn and seek to tear it down like the jihadis and the MaoistsIJ Some people admire effort, potential and talent, and some envy it. The enviers hate Israel, India and all countries and society where people are working towards building a strong nation.
Today, Israel, with its population of less than eight million people, five-and-a-half million Jews is second only to the United States in technological contribution.
In per capita innovationm, Israel dwarfs all other nations. Forces of civilisation in the world continue to feed upon the quintessential wealth of mind epitomised by Israel. By the first decade of 2000, Israel has emerged as a leading global power — with more than $200 billion gross domestic product (GDP), a per capita income of close to $30,000 and a trillion dollars of market capitalisation for the companies operating in that country.
Israel has the highest density of start-ups in the world. By the first decade of 2000, it had close to 4,000 start-ups, one for every 1,800 Israeli. After the US, Israel has the highest number of listed companies on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ). By 2010, Israel had emerged with a per capita venture capital investment 2.5 times greater than the US and eight times greater than China. Israel is a world leader in the percentage of economic expenditure on research and development (R&D).
According to a high-ranking Google executive, outside the US, Israel is the best place to invest in. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has called Microsoft in Israel as much an Israeli firm as an American company because of the size and centrality of its Israeli team. Warren Buffett broke his decade-long record of not buying any foreign company, with the purchase of an Israeli firm at five billion dollars — just around the time Israel began to fight the 2006 lebanon war.
Israel today has emerged as a much sought after destination for business, academia and to live, as it doubled its economy relative to the US while multiplying its population five-fold and fighting three full wars.
This is a totally unmatched feat in the economic history of the world. Half of the world’s top technological companies brought start-ups or opened R&D centres in Israel. The tiny nation grew rapidly in the term 2001-2010, in spite of the global recession, a period of intense terrorist attack and the second lebanon war. The consistency and efforts of people triumphed over the culture of jihad. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was higher on the last day of the lebanon war than on the first in 2009, showing the victory of people of Israel over forces of jihad.
In his book, The Geography of Bliss, author Eric Weiner describes Israel as a country with great ability to turn failures and challenges into opportunities and successes. The more mortar and rockets the jihadis fired at Israel, the more its people got determined to keep progressing. Companies like International Business Machines (IBM) and Intel have a major presence in Israel and their Israel team has played a critical role in the growth of the organisations. It is the teams that are examples of resilience and talent to the world.
The Technion institute in Israel is considered to be one amongst the best technical education institutions in the world. Israel has made significant contributions in the field of information technology, medical science and irrigation.
It would not be an over-statement to say that everything we experience or touch has something from ‘Israel inside’. Israel draws its strength and source of success by developing its human resource and national service in the form of conscription for two to three years.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 45 per cent of Israelis are university-educated — which is the highest in the world. According to recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, Israel is ranked second among 60 developed nations on the criterion of whether university education meets the need of a competitive economy.
Netafim, an Israeli company, is one of the world’s pioneers in developing innovative ways to increase crop yield by up to 50 per cent while using 40 per cent less water. There are many more Israeli companies who are at the forefront of making the planet a better place for all of us. Israel entered the nuclear club in 1960s. It features among the world’s top 10 producers of nuclear patents.
Both India and Israel are democracies that face the menace of jihad. Most important is the historic, people-to-people link between the Jews of Israel and the Hindus of India. India was late in recognising the value of Israel as a friend for a very long time. India’s domestic political compulsion of appeasing to the Muslim world prevented it from developing diplomatic relations with Israel till the mid-1990s.
Israel has time and again stood by India. Its military supply contributed significantly in India’s Kargil victory against Pakistan. Israel had gone out of the way to help India, rejecting pressure from the then US president Bill Clinton. India and Israel must enhance the scope of collaboration and make the engagement deep for the benefit of both the countries.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited India in November 2016. The forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel, the first by any reigning Prime Minister of the country, will be a historic moment in India-Israel diplomatic relations. The addition of strengths of two friendly nations will augur well for the world.
(The writer is a human resource professional based in Ahmedabad)