Amid growing relations between Israel and India, a new business community network focused on India-Israel ties launched on June 25, 2026 to promote in-person connection, business and most importantly — culture amid growing relations between the two countries.
The India x Israel Nexus aims to connect leaders, policymakers, businesses, and cultural figures to deepen strategic cooperation between Israel and India. India and Israel share a growing strategic partnership spanning defense, AI, cybersecurity, and largely agricultural innovation. India x Israel Nexus is a privately funded initiative and so far has informal backing of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry.
“Israel has demand, India has supply and Nexus aims to be a matchmaker. across all fields from workforce, manufacturing, defence, investments and innovations leading to lasting partnerships,” said India x Israel Nexus co-founder Joyston Dmello.
India has historically kept a distance from Israel to balance diplomatic relations with Arab states. However, under the leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has strengthened ties with Israel, and the partnership marks new beginnings for India’s continued modernization and technological advancements. Prime Minister Modi has visited Israel a number of times, bringing the warm wishes of the Indian people with him. His most recent visit was during a time of turmoil. Just days after his departure, the February 28th, 2026 round of fighting with Iran began and sent the country into a state of heightened security for more than 6 weeks.
“Since Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel, the India–Israel partnership has gained great momentum. We wanted to create a space where Indians and Israelis can connect, build relationships, exchange ideas, and unlock new opportunities. Strong people-to-people ties are what will ultimately sustain and strengthen the strategic partnership between our two countries,” said India x Israel co-founder Paushali Lass.
Israel Daily News founder and CEO Shanna Fuld was at the event marking India x Israel Nexus’ launch in Jerusalem, and spoke to the organization’s third co-founder, Revital Moses, about the need for in-person connection based on culture.
“When people think of India-Israel relations, the first thing that comes to mind is defense tech and agri tech. But in my opinion, that was very transactional,” said Moses. “If you want to get from a transactional relationship to an emotional relationship, we need to focus on culture… If you focus on culture, it’s going to create a people to people connection,” she continued.
An example Revital showed was India’s film industry, highlighting how India produces 1,500-2,000 movies per year. She shared that Indians primarily love to travel to Switzerland and Thailand because those are the scenes they are shown in Indian cinema. In hopes of boosting tourism between India and Israel, she believes that Israel can offer Indian production houses across Israel and that it would give Israel a great opportunity to show up on Indian screens and give some new visibility to the Holy Land and its culture in an organic way.
Two Israel panelists spoke about the healing power that India has on IDF soldiers, noting that they themselves as well as their army comrades report being transformed in India and returning to Israel renewed. Another panelist noted that there are 42,000-85,000 Indians living and working in Israel, including 32,000 Indian workers. Since late 2023, thousands of Indians have been recruited to work in Israel under bilateral agreements. Most of them work in construction, caregiving, and agriculture. In a time where Israel is seeing less and less support from its allies, a stronger connection with India could be the answer to the future.
