ICIF pitches for Islamic banking to fund India's infra

| Saturday, December 10, 2011
Indian Centre for Islamic Finance(ICIF) today made a strong pitch for Islamic banking in the country to meet India's huge need for funds for infrastructure development.


India needs one trillion dollar to upgrade its infrastructure in order to achieve the target of annual growth of 9 per cent and hence Islamic banking can be an alternative to meet this requirement, said Mr Muddassir Siddiqui, an international expert on Islamic finance.

Speaking at an ICIF conference here, he claimed Islamic financing has emerged as a viable alternative the world over after the financial meltdown in the West in 2008. It is growing at the rate of more than 15 per cent.

Islamic finance, he said, is a business, not a charity but it is an ethical way of financing and investing, he told the media on the margins of the conference.

Mr Siddiqui claimed that Kerala government is open to Islamic funding for infrastructure, while Andhra Pradesh government has decided to launch an interest-free loan scheme to finance self-help groups and microfinance institutions.

He said, "A democratic country like India should think of her citizens first than anything else. Islamic finance can be an alternative as it is an asset-backed system fully based on Sharia(Islamic law)". As a big and emerging economy with the second highest population of Muslims after Indonesia, India can use this alternate mode to help its nationals.

Asked why it is named Islamic banking when its basic objective is business and development, Mr Siddiqui told UNI, " It is not a religious issue. It is a financial alternative for the whole country but yes, the main focus remains on Muslims".



http://www.newkerala.com

0 Comments:

Post a Comment