Though the promoters are not based in India, the index has representatives of various Indian temples involved in screening the firms suitable for investments.
MUMBAI: People looking to invest in line with their religion now have stocks cleared by various temple trusts and academicians to invest in.
The Dow Jones Dharma India Index, set up by US-based Dharma Investments in collaboration with Dow Jones, is a collection of Indian stocks screened by three committees of academicians and religion practitioners.
Though the promoters are not based in India, the index has representatives of various Indian temples involved in screening the firms suitable for investments.
Such firms follow the model of ahimsa or non-violence preached by Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, too, are involved in the process.
The index that has 250 Indian stocks, excludes firms engaged in alcohol or tobacco manufacturing, pornography, aerospace and defence, casinos and gaming, contraceptives and animal testing of products.
The attention a firm pays to preserve the environment is also taken into consideration. Hence, sectors such as pharma, retail stores and breweries would not be available for investments.
People wanting to invest in global stocks have the Dow Jones Dharma Global Index.
But, it will be some time before individual investors and temple trusts, who have been just been permitted to invest in equity markets, can invest according to the dharma philosophy.
The list of screened firms would not be publicly available. However, licences would be issued to willing MF firms, private equity funds and other financial service providers. These firms would then launch products the investors can park their monies in.
People who are open to the idea and consider the environment as their god currently have the ABN AMRO Sustainable Development Fund for investments. The fund has given a return of 52.07% since inception (as of January 16, 2008).
Islamic funds that follow the Shari’ah philosophy also invest more or less on the same standards. All prohibited sectors in the Dow Jones Dharma India Index are prohibited under the Shari’ah index too. Banking is another sector the Islamic funds avoid since the concept of ‘interest’ is prohibited or halal.
d_khyati@dnaindia.net
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