Good guys, bad guys

From a time of draining swamps and growing oranges, today’s era of cyber security and chip designing in Israel may seem too far removed to have anything in common. But there is a thread that runs right through, say Dan Senor and Saul Singer in ‘Start-Up Nation’ (www.TwelveBooks.com). Today’s entrepreneur, inventing a new drug or a new chip is “like a ‘falah’ (farmer in Arabic), a farmer of high tech,” they add, citing Erel Margalit, one of the top entrepreneurs in the country. “Innovation and technology are the twenty-first-century version of going back to the land.”

As for farming, too, it may be amazing to know that Israel has increased its agricultural yields seventeen times, over a quarter century. Agriculture, as a quote of Shimon Peres explains, is ‘ninety-five per cent science, five per cent work.’ Leave the old industries, there are going to be five new industries, he predicts. “New forms of energy, water, biotechnology, teaching devices – there’s a shortage of teachers – and homeland security to defend against terrorism.”

Full report here Hindu