Hassan Cheruppa
JEDDAH — Indian Consul General B.S. Mubarak underscored the need for joint efforts to introduce interest-free banking in India and spread massive awareness about this viable financial system. He made the remarks while receiving a delegation of the Jeddah-based Indian Forum for Interest-free Banking (IFIB) at his office here recently.
Mubarak said that the interest-free system, which has been proved successful in many parts of the world, would be instrumental in spurring economic growth in India and lending a helping hand to various segments of the society, especially the poor and needy, with its micro-financing schemes.
“The lack of proper awareness has caused a lot of misgivings about interest-free banking. The Malaysian model of interest-free banking, as successfully applied in the financial transactions of the Haj pilgrims, is a sound example of how productively this system could be utilized as an ideal alternative to the interest-based banking system,” he pointed out.
IFIB President Shehdad Abdul Rahman, Secretary General Abdul Aziz Valiyaveetil, Director K.T.A. Muneer, and Gopinath Nedungadi were in the delegation that met the consul general. The IFIB officials handed over to Mubarak the memorandum to be presented to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a demand to initiate interest-free banking start-ups in the country.
“Given the ongoing economic background where the world is seeing global financial meltdown, we, after much discussions and deliberations, have come to the conclusion that instead of sticking to an interest-based system, channels should be opened up for investment of NRI’s hard earned money in an alternative but ethical system like the interest-free ventures, which we find as a cure for the current financial crisis,” it was pointed out in the memorandum.
IFIB Jeddah is a secular and plural platform formed in 2011 to introduce value based alternative economic initiatives to the society, with a focus on educating and making aware of the public in this respect. The main objective of the platform is promoting the concept of interest-free banking and micro financing as an alternative economic tool for the welfare of all segments of the Indian society.
The IFIB has taken the lead in initiating five major projects based on interest-free participatory financing in the southern Indian state Kerala, and they included organic farming, goat rearing, and human resource development training, according to the forum officials.
