The Israel Venture Capital (IVC) Research Center announced that Israeli high-tech firms were able to rake in US $493 million in venture capital during the second quarter. The figure is up by 4% compared with the first quarter's financing.It was further revealed that the amount accumulated for the second quarter was 3% higher than the funds raised during the same period in 2012. IVC made this accounting together with KPMG, an Israeli office of consultancy."The uptick in investments in the second quarter reflected in part relatively robust activity in the medical devices segment," said a partner at KPMG's technology group Ofer Sela."Yet, more than two years after the launch of the Israeli government initiative to promote investments in the life sciences, the sector as a whole is still not showing the expected results," Sela added.High-tech companies in Israel have been regarded as key drivers of the country's economy. It has prompted growth of up to 3.2% last year.

MUKTSAR: Punjab government recently sent a delegation of progressive dairy farmers to Israel to acquaint themselves about modernised techniques of dairy farming under its initiative 'Incentive dairy cattle production training program'. The farmers and experts examined the latest dairy farming techniques in Israel in order to enhance the process of promoting allied agricultural activity and to supplement incomes.Mukatsar deputy director dairy Karnail Singh, who was part of delegation, said that the delegation visited many modernized large dairy farms in Israel and got information regarding latest techniques used by Israeli dairy farmers". He said there are two types of dairy farms in Israel, cooperative based and family based locally known as Kibbutz and Moshav respectively. In Israel 776 family farms exist, each with strength varies from 50 to 200 HF cows. While in cooperative farms strength of cows varies from 200 to 1000 per farm and in total 163 such Kibbutz farms exist in Israel. He said that each cow produces 11667 litres milk per lactation period and per day milk production per animal is 38 litres in Israel. Israeli farmers send those animals to slaughter house whose average production decreases from this mark, he added.He said that environment of Israel is similar to Punjab but still in Israel they made special arrangements to control heat stress. Sheds were made in such a way that animal can move freely to feeding line.Solar systems are installed on each sheds to generate own electricity for farm needs. All dairy farms are fully computerized, as every information like fat, protein in milk; fodder quality etc is noted by computers. He said that Israeli farms are fully mechanized and manual labour works are very limited. He said the experts would promote those techniques in Punjab to increase per capita milk production in state.

Global reliance on US drops; Paris seeks to purchase drones from J'lem "straight away."IAI instructor controls drone Photo: REUTERSIsrael is the largest exporter of drones in the world, a leading industry consultancy firm announced Sunday.In the past eight years, sales of Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles have totalled $4.62 billion, according to figures.The company said that in its calculations, it included products, services and licenses sold to other countries that enable them to produce their own drones. Those type of transactions made up almost 10 percent of Israel’s defense exports, it added.One of the main reasons for the growth in Israeli exports is the decrease in global importers that depend on the US Department of Defense, the company estimated.Between 2005 and 2012, Israel’s defense exports reached about $6.1b. a year, of which drones made up some $578 million annually.Meanwhile, France is in talks with the US and Israel to buy intelligence-gathering drones to build up a modern fleet, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday.France’s existing hardware is outdated and its military intervention in Mali this year has exposed its shortage of surveillance drones suitable for modern warfare. The US provided French commanders with intelligence from its drones based in Niger.“We need this capacity in the short term. There are currently two countries in the world that build drones, the United States and Israel,” Le Drian said on TV channel iTele.“We are in discussions with each to buy some straightaway,” he said.