Context: Recently, India and Israel signed a cultural agreement that outlines a three-year programme of cooperation to further strengthen their strategic bilateral relations with an aims to promote greater people-to-people exchanges.
About Cultural Agreement between India and Israel

• It outlines a three-year programme of cooperation to further strengthen the strategic bilateral relations between India and Israel.
• It aims to promote greater people-to-people exchanges.
• It aims to contribute to the development of the bilateral relations and to raise awareness related to the history and culture of the people of both countries.

The major areas of cooperation identified to promote cultural ties include

• the exchange of culture and art experts;
• encouraging cooperation in the protection of cultural heritage and archaeology with the help of Israel Antiquities Authority (IIA) and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI);
• organising literary fests and book fairs while promoting the translation of famous works in each other's languages;
• encouraging the participation of films and film-makers in each other's international film festivals; and
• devising youth exchange programmes and encouraging sports-related interaction among youth.