Islamic finance and banking is participatory, co-operative and investment-friendly. It can play a very important role to facilitate growth with equity, attract foreign investment especially petro-dollars in trillions. India can be surely a destination because it is safe and production based.
Islamic banking can also revolutionise the micro-finance sector in our country and become a boon for the debt-ridden farmers, small traders and unemployed skilled youth. Similarly Islamic Insurance namely Takaful can also be successful in our country.
Britain, Singapore, USA, Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka are some of the modern secular countries which have successfully introduced Islamic Banking and have opened Islamic Windows along with the Conventional Banking. In Malaysia, non-Muslims especially Chinese traders form a majority of the customers of Islamic Banks.
“I want to turn Singapore into a centre for Islamic financial services,” says Goh Chok Tong, former Singapore PM and currently Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Similar sentiments were expressed by Gordon Brown, British PM when he was the Finance Minister to make UK a hub of Islamic investment. Thailand’s Islamic Bank is under the Finance Minister of that country
Islamic Banking/ Islamic banking products have been accommodated by MAS and Financial Services Authority (FSA) of UK along with conventional banking. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can also do the same into its Banking Regulations to open up the Islamic investment in our country.
Will Mr Chidambaram do the same as Goh Chok Tong and Gordon Brown did and won’t lose this opportunity?
H Abdur Raqeeb
Chennai, TN