Webinar on How Indian and Israeli agritech startups are transforming agriculture
Trade Promotion Council of India organised a webinar on How Indian and Israeli agritech startups are transforming agriculture, in association with the Embassy of Israel in India on September 13, 2021. The discussion focused on key challenges faced by present-day agriculture, policy perspective on agricultural sustainability, solutions emanating from Indian and Israeli agritech companies and the potential of agritech startups to play a transformative role in agriculture.
Trade Promotion Council of India organised a webinar on How Indian and Israeli agritech startups are transforming agriculture in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel to New Delhi on September 13, 2021 at 3:00 pm IST. The webinar discussed some of the major challenges being faced by agriculture, and the most pertinent solutions being developed by innovative agritech startups in both countries.
India and Israel are both home to a highly dynamic and progressive tech startup ecosystems that are churning out several disruptive innovations and business models across sectors. Israel has the largest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world apart from Silicon Valley. It has over 250 R&D centers as well as incubators, accelerator programs and co-working spaces working in a highly concentrated ecosystem.
Similarly, India’s startup ecosystem is creating benchmarks of its own from a global standpoint. The country has the 2rd largest startup ecosystem in the world, with more than 5,694 active investors and over 38,000 startups. Between January-April, 2021, the ecosystem had generated 9 unicorns (valuation of US$ 1 bn+), as opposed to an annual average of 6 over the past six years, according to Inc42. At this pace, the country is expected to be home to at least a 100 unicorns by 2025.
Within the agritech space as well, startups from both countries are playing a pivotal role in addressing some of the most pressing challenges including productivity, supply chain, weather, financing, irrigation, distribution, agronomy, marketing, etc.
Following is the list of esteemed panelists for the webinar:
• Natasha Zangin, Counsellor, Head of Economic & Commercial Mission, Embassy of Israel to New Delhi
• Dr Rca Godbole, Co-Founder & CSO, SaliCrop
• Dr Sangita Ladha, Business Director, Rivulis
• R. Sabrinathan, Global Rice Agronomist, Netafim
• Dr. Rakesh Sharda, Principal Scientist (Plasticulture) cum Principal Investigator, Precision Farming Development Center, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University
• Kapel Malhotra, Founder & MD, Total Solutions Group
• Kunal Prasad, Co-founder and COO, Cropin
• Saurabh Job, Global Marketing Head, Intellolabs
The webinar covered the following prominent focus areas:
• Key challenges faced by present-day agriculture.
• Policy perspective on agricultural sustainability.
• India-Israel collaboration in the agritech sector.
• Solutions emanating from Indian and Israeli agritech companies and how they are helping farmers.
• Future potential of agritech startups to play a transformative role in agriculture.
The session was moderated by Virat Bahri, Deputy Director, Media & Corporate Communications, Trade Promotion Council of India, and Editor, India Business & Trade.