Bangalore to host Muslim business summit Nov 22

Muslim entrepreneurs, businessmen and professionals from around the country will converge for the fifth All India Minorities Business Summit in Bangalore Nov 22, an organiser said here.

Inspired by the huge economic progress achieved by the Muslim community in Britain, the organisers have invited two international experts to guide Indian Muslims on improving their financial lot, Danish Reyaz, director of Maeeshat Media Pvt Ltd, organisers of the summit told IANS.

"The recent reports of the Muslims in Britain have greatly inspired the Indian Muslims. So we have special lectures by Mufti Barkatullah Abdul Quader, who is a senior official with the Islamic Bank of Britain, and Hasan Chougule, CMD of Emaad Group, Qatar," Reyaz said Thursday.

While Mufti Barkatullah Abdul Quader will speak on 'Solving working capital issues - the Shariah way', Hasan Chougule will discuss ways and means of achieving economic inclusion, he said.

"This is a significant step towards economic mainstreaming of the Muslim minority in the country. The 200-plus participants will discuss and share their ideas on the issue," Reyaz added.

The theme of the discussions will be "Economic Mainstreaming of Minorities - Connecting Business, Technology and Finance" and develop specific approaches to help the community overcome different challenges, Reyaz said.

He said India is an emerging economic empowering country with a large number of listed companies in different stock exchanges, and this provides a huge potential for Shariah compliant stocks, too.

Citing a report, Reyaz said more than 6,000 stocks are listed in India, of which around 5,000 are on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and another 1,500 on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).

As on Sep 2012, the market cap of the BSE-listed stocks was Rs.66,250 billion and that of the NSE-listed stocks of Rs.65,567 billion.

The total Indian Muslim population is around 180 million, ranking as the second largest Muslim population of any country in the world and accounting for 11 percent of the global demography, Reyaz said.

Though more than 40 percent Muslims are self-employed or entrepreneurs, Muslim-dominated areas are not adequately serviced by financial institutions as they fall under a so-called 'red zone', Reyaz said.

The 200-plus gathering will discuss issues confronting the community like financial inclusion through the markets, approaches to bring minorities into the economic mainstream, role of venture capital fund in realty sector, prospects of Islamic Banking in India, role of technology in business and commerce, Shariah governance of financial institutions and overall development and progress of entrepreneurs.