Mumbai, Apr 20 (PTI) India is a strategic partner and presents huge opportunities for Israeli companies, Israeli Minister for Industry and Economy Nir Barkat has said.

"India is a strategic partner to Israel and Indians are allies to the Jewish people... The Indian market contains huge opportunities for Israel," Barkat said during a visit to a facility run by India's largest information technology company TCS here.

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A statement issued by TCS on Thursday after the visit said the Israeli delegation also included Amnon Merhav, director general of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, and Ohad Cohen, the trade commissioner and director of the Foreign Trade Administration.

In what can be seen as an apparent reference to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between Israel and India, Barkat said Israel will "further a new business development agreement that will allow us to enjoy the benefits and strengths of both economies".

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At a meeting, the visiting delegation discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between Israeli government bodies and TCS.

TCS said it is working in Israel's public sector on several key digital transformation initiatives like the 'Project Nimbus', which aims to migrate Israeli ministries' and authorities' operations and data to a cloud environment.

Its flagship engagement in Israel has been the setting up of the TCS Banking Services Bureau (BSB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance to encourage the entry of new digital banks, it said.

TCS' chief technology officer K Ananth Krishnan, head of middle east and Africa Sumanta Roy and TCS Israel chief executive Chen Kamer were present at the meeting, the statement said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)