India and Israel will work together to develop a set of new generation Covid-19 tests that aim to bring the entire testing process down to a few seconds. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, these breakthrough technologies will be tested in India, and if successful, be manufactured in India and marketed jointly by India and Israel to the world.
A special flight will be dispatched from Israel soon which will include Israeli military R&D scientists and tech specialists who will work with an Indian team under the Prime Minister’s principal scientific adviser K Vijayaraghavan at AIIMS for about two weeks.
Briefing journalists from Israel, Dani Gold, head of the Directorate of Defence Research and Development, Israeli ministry of defence, said the “breakthrough technologies” that would be tested in India include a voice test, a breathalyser test and an isothermal test. Gold said there was “comprehensive research cooperation between the DDRD and India’s PSA”
The Israel embassy said, “A special planned flight from Tel Aviv to New Delhi is set to carry a high ranking MOD R&D team which has been working with India’s chief scientist and DRDO to develop rapid testing for Covid-19 in under 30 seconds. Merging Israeli technology with Indian development and production capabilities aims to allow a swift resumption of normal life alongside the virus.”
While Israel has a global edge in early stage development of breakthrough technologies and therapeutics, India brings to the table massive data and global manufacturing capability. PM Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken three times since the outbreak of the pandemic - “in which they promised mutual assistance in dealing with the virus and committed to joint technological and scientific research between the countries”.
The special flight will also include representatives from some Israeli companies chosen by their defence ministry and the Israel Defence Forces and “given unique access to one of the largest economies in the world to provide monitoring and treatment technologies while significantly reducing contact between patients and the medical staff.”
India aims to manufacture these Israeli technologies on a mass scale for the huge Indian demand as well as for third countries. Israel will also be sending mechanical ventilators for use in Indian hospitals. India now has over a million Covid-19 patients and ranks third in the world after the US and Brazil.
