As reported in Port2Port: Israeli exports to India in the first half of this year equaled USD 990 million, an increase of 102% in dollar terms compared to the same period last year. China rose to fifth place.
 
During the first half of 2010, India became Israel’s second-biggest export market from eighth; China climbed to 5th place, up from 11th place, in the first half of 2010, according to figures from the Export and International Cooperation Institute (IECI).
 
Israeli exports to India in the first half of this year equaled USD 990 million, an increase of 102% in dollar terms compared to the same period last year.
 
The reason was a 63% leap in exports by the mining, minerals and quarrying sector, which exported US$228 million worth of products – mostly fertilizer to India. One of the biggest exporters to India in this sector was Dead Sea Works, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals. Electronics equipment (and warfare systems) exports to India also grew from less than US$10 million in the first half to US$160 million. Major exporters include ECI Telecom and Comverse, TowerJazz, Elbit Systems and Rafael. Exports to India of metals and metal products increased from US$21 million to US$130 million, an increase of 524%.
 
India and Israel have registered phenomenal growth in bilateral trade starting from USD 200 million in 1992 when diplomatic relations were established between the two countries and approaching USD 4 billion mark with still room for improvement.
 
Following in India’s footsteps, China too is expanding west into Israel. China rose to fifth place with exports to Israel of US$755 million, an increase of US$115 million in dollar terms, mainly because export of electronic components shot up 280% to US$268 million in the first half. But other sectors also found markets in China, including metal goods, medical devices, measurement equipment, computer systems and agricultural exports.
 
Meanwhile the United States’ share of Israeli exports shrank to 28 percent in the first half, compared with 33 percent in January-June 2009. Europe which has traditionally been a major target market for Israeli exporters, partly due to its relative physical proximity increased imports from Israel marginally – from 28% in the first half of 2009 to 31% this year.Turkey dropped from sixth to eighth place.

The Multimeric-001 vaccine is designed to provide multi-season and multi-strain protection against most influenza virus strains, including both seasonal and pandemic strains, and has the potential to eliminate the need for annual flu vaccination.

In recent years, with the appearance of new, global pandemics, influenza has emerged as a serious disease, affecting the lives of millions of people.

The BiondVax vaccine can activate the immune system against new or existing influenza viral strains; it can offer cross-strain protection against all seasonal and pandemic influenza viruses, such as Swine flu and Avian flu; and is resistant to mutations of the influenza virus. In addition, its manufacture process takes only six to eight weeks, where current technologies take four to six months, and unlike current influenza vaccines, BiondVax’s vaccine would not need to be administered every year, and would require booster doses only once in three to five years, thus conferring long-term protection.

Pre-clinical studies have confirmed the efficacy of the vaccine, and BiondVax has recently concluded two Phase I/II clinical trials, in which the vaccine demonstrated both safety and immunogenicity in both younger and older adults.

The company is currently preparing to commence its first Phase II clinical trial, expected to be completed by mid-2011.

They will introduce the tour participants to Israeli hi-tech emphasizing its use in education, visit institutions of higher education which have teacher-training programs in the field of communication technologies and finally, we will visit schools which apply ICT in their work both in outlying areas and in the center of the country.

The tour will also include visits to historical and other well-known tourist attractions.

For more information, please “visit” them at: http://mofetitec.macam.ac.il/facetoface/StudyTours

Inspired by the follow-up book Since Silent Spring, Prof. Leon Blaustein felt driven to find environmentally compatible solutions for combating insect pests. Not much had been done to alleviate the chemical pollution on planet Earth that Rachel Carson warned us about in her monumental book, Silent Spring, published in the 1960s.

In chemical ecology, there are literally thousands of prey species that use chemicals to avoid their predators in some way. No one had managed to zero in on them until now. Blaustein and his colleagues have succeeded in isolating and chemically identifying two chemical cues called kairomones that affect egg-laying behavior in mosquitoes.

Blaustein tells ISRAEL21c that he was attracted to an alternative approach called Biological Control, which advocates using tactics employed by nature to help solve mankind’s problems with pests like mosquitoes, invasive moths and beetles. He says he aims “to develop mosquito pest management in concert with conservation needs.”

Currently at Israel’s University of Haifa, the American-Israeli scientist is developing a mosquito’s nemesis, by turning the insect’s chemical defense against it. Entomologists know that insects and other invertebrates release kairomones (chemicals that carry messages from one species to another, that only benefit the recipient species) that can influence how predators and prey interact.

While pheromones can attract the opposite sex, kairomones can do the opposite, and elicit a particular behavioral or physiological response from predator or prey.

Ecology Letters has published the recent study by Blaustein and US and Israeli colleagues, in which they report their finding.

Disease-carriers may be controlled

The chemicals are delivered by the backswimmer aquatic predator insect Notonecta maculata which likes to eat the larva of the Mediterranean and the Middle East mosquito Culiseta longiareolata for lunch. The chemical can be detected by mosquito mothers-to-be, who then alter their behavior and refrain from laying their eggs in pools of water where backswimmers lurk.

Now that the team has isolated the mosquito-repelling kairomones it will test the compound further to see whether it will produce a similar effect to that found in nature when chemically reproduced. In nature, kairomones can even trigger adaptations such as a change in body size, or tell a crustacean to create body armor to help protect the prey.

“We’ve now determined that the mosquitoes can detect predators of their babies in the water and avoid laying their eggs there. Whether the chemicals we found are similar to ones that other species are using, we don’t know,” Blaustein tells ISRAEL21c.

If the chemicals are developed and applied widely, the notion is that the mosquitoes will die before they have a chance to lay their eggs, because their presence may increase the female mosquito’s chance of dying from other causes before she finds a safe pool. “That’s why we think these chemicals could be a useful part of a strategy to control the population size of mosquitoes,” says co-author Joel Cohen from the Rockefeller University in New York.

“These newly-identified compounds, and others that remain to be discovered, might be effective in controlling populations of disease-carrying insects. It’s far too soon to say, but there’s the possibility of an advance in the battle against infectious disease,” he adds.

To eradicate mosquitoes in a specific way, without wiping out or altering other delicate ecological processes, more research will be needed to see how any synthetic mosquito-related kairomone could be applied in insect pest control in a widespread way.

A surprising mosquito fan

“While we see this as a potentially large breakthrough in developing another weapon against mosquitoes, the work is not over. We hope this breakthrough will spur further research to chemically determine other effective predator-released chemicals, particularly ones that are long-lasting, and then test for their efficacy,” Blaustein relates.

In North America and Israel mosquitoes are generally more of a nuisance than a health concern, but the malaria carriers in Africa and South America pose a significant health risk. “The problems are all over,” says Blaustein.

And although most people are quick to disparage the irritating mosquito, Blaustein explains why he’s a fan. “It brings us all together,” he jokes, then adds, “If I go to the wadi (valley) in the Negev in Israel, I can find mosquitoes in high numbers. And larvae in the water can clean it from certain viruses and bacteria and algae. So potentially, they can be important.

“When I was taking a medical entomology class they lectured that in Africa mosquitoes are encouraged into pots of water for drinking as they filter out the bad stuff and make it better.”

However, his final comment sounds like a nail in the coffin for the bloodsucker: “I think we could do without mosquitoes and it wouldn’t affect the ecosystem all that much,” he says, without a trace of remorse.

This is an informative newsletter on the innovative nutrition products brought to you by Haifa.

Physical copies will be available from your Local Haifa Distributor or your Regional Haifa Agronomist in the coming days.

In order to achieve this OTTO is actively seeking an investor / investors to fund its first Restaurant in Tel Aviv. The investment is in the order of US$ 1,000,000.

Click here to see the Executive Summary.

Click here to see the full demonstration and business plan

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Israeli companies undoubtedly enjoy an exclusive advantage in the global cosmetics and toiletries industry. Direct access to the Dead Sea and its natural minerals and vital ingredients, provides the healthiest production environment on earth and grants Israeli companies like Dead Sea Beauty Products, an incredible competitive edge in the cosmetics market. Many Israeli companies combine advanced science with the natural resources of the Dead Sea, renowned as a unique health and spa site, to produce top of the line cosmetic products. Salts, black mud, and other rich minerals have supported the global success of the Israeli cosmetics industry which exports an annual $ 165 million.

Most companies in the attached presentations would be happy to explore the possibility of Private Labeling.

Please click here to see a Presentation of the latest Cosmetic products coming out of Israel.

In a joint initiative, Amdocs, which develops billing and customer management relations solutions for telecommunications providers, and US telecommunications giant AT&T are setting up the Amdocs Innovations Center, which will enable Israeli companies to develop products and solutions with Amdocs for AT&T.

The innovations center aims to foster collaboration with telephone, mobile phone and smartphone manufacturers, applications developers, and network equipment makers to expedite the development of next-generation broadband applications for wireline and mobile devices.

As part of AT&T’s “Rethink the Possible” program, the company has set up two centers, two in the US and one in Israel, with strategic partners: Ericsson AB, Alcatel Lucent SA, and Amdocs. Full operations are slated to begin before the end of 2010.

We expect to host about 10,000 runners from around the globe
The Jerusalem Marathon will be a unique event – a multicolored happening in the midst of Jerusalem’s memorable, historical, magical views

Breathtaking Course

The course of the race will pass by the historical, ravishing sites of Jerusalem such as:
Mount Scopus | Giv’at HaTahmoshet | the Old City Wall | Jaffa Gate | Zion Gate | the Knesset | the Israel Museum |the Science Museum | the Supreme Court | the Hebrew University

for more info