by Editor | Aug 8, 2022 | Ethical Fund, Finance, Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, News, News & Trending
Mufti Shahbaz Alam
Shariah Scholar in Islamic Finance (CSAA)
By Shahbaz Alam Nadwi
The global Islamic economy has gained an increasingly strong foothold in the world economy, driven by increasing Muslim consumer demand for dedicated products and services compliant with Islamic law that has developed the global sub-sectors of Halal food, Islamic financial services, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, modest fashion, Muslim friendly travel, and Islamic-themed media.
According to the new World Capital Advisors (“NWCA”), the global Islamic economy, estimated to be worth USD$3.8 trillion by 2022. The global halal food and beverage market is expected to reach USD 1063.11 billion by 2030. The global halal food industry is expected to witness a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period owing to the increasing Muslim population and their substantially increasing expenditure on food & beverages, which is considered the main driving force of this market. Now as according to Marketdata forecast, the halal food and beverage market is projected to record a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period (2022-2027)”.
According to GlobeNewswire, the global halal food market reached a value of US$ 1,978 billion in 2021. Looking forward, the market is projected to reach US$ 3,907.7 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.24% during 2022-2027. The world’s 1.9 billion Muslims spent the equivalent of $2 trillion in 2021 across the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, fashion, travel, and media/ recreation sectors, according to a report produced by Dinar Standard with the support of Dubai Economy and Tourism (DET), global Muslim spending in 2022 is forecasted to grow by 9.1 percent for the various Islamic economy sectors, excluding the Islamic finance sector.
Figure 1: The market size of global Halal economy sectors
Source: Salaam Gateway’s the State of the global Islamic economy report 2016/17 and 2017/2018.
Their massive population and the emergence of India as the world’s largest economy after China, offers a great opportunity for marketers within the country as well as outside India and outside the country.
In the Halal food industry, The top five nations exporting to Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries are Brazil at $16.2 billion; India at $14.4 billion; USA at $13.8 billion; Russia at $11.9 billion; and Argentina at $10.2 billion, according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2020-2021—an annual study produced by US-based research company Dinar Standard and supported by Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre.( tradearabia news)
India’s contribution towards the global Halal industry is commendable. plays a vital role in the global Halal industry.
The halal industry is in its infancy in India due to it having the third-largest Muslim population in the world, but it still lacks the level of business ecosystem and awareness needed to achieve the true potential of its halal market, as mentioned in Salaam Gateway. Despite an estimated US$66 billion spent by 180 million Muslims domestically in 2018 on food, pharma, cosmetics, travel, clothing, and recreation and culture, according to data from growth strategy and advisory firm, Dinar Standard, the country is still considered to have a huge untapped market for halal products” and there is a need to create awareness of halal food.
According to Sachar comity India is home to more than 175 million Muslims and has the third-largest community of Muslim consumers in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. But its market regarding the choices of Halal-endorsed products among mainstream brands is still highly untouched. So need to increase the awareness in recent years among Muslim consumers about what they see as religious obligations has expanded the demand for Halal items. Indian Muslims have 15 per cent share in the consumer market, going by their population.
Muslim have the dual reasons for selecting the neighbouring outlet, first is quality and second is Halal authenticity. Muslim can also not believe all vegetarian products as Halal in India due to unnamed and unspecified processing and in fear of mixing of some other Najis elements. The reason why Muslims are enjoined to consume only Halal products is because, in Islam food is an important part of daily life, and religious requirements with regards to foods carry a special significance. Muslims eat and consume to keep themselves in good health and spirit. It is important to note that in Islam, eating is also considered Ibadah, or act of worship. Halal foods are clean and do not bring any harm to persons who consume them. To ensure the acceptance of Ibadah by Allah, one of the requirements that every Muslim must follow is to eat Halal foods, and to shun outright Haram food like pork or liquor.
Consequently, an exclusive and most faithful customer’s demand for Halal products approximately 10% of total consumption exists in the Indian market. Major food product-wise estimated Muslim demand is shown in the given table. and India has a largest Muslim Population country.
Challenges and Opportunities
There are so many challenges in the halal industry now in India, India must tackle this challenge properly. one of the problems raised by previous halal research is the lack of halal awareness amongst the players about the halal concept and understanding of the ingredients, sources, processing, and storage. and there is a lot of misconception and lack of understanding by Muslims. also, there is a lack of consumer awareness among Muslims. as well as the weakness of the policy of halal certification and logo. Past studies have shown that there is a possible lack of awareness and understanding among the workforce in the halal industry. and there are no unified Halal food standards, with many scattered efforts at standardization from the private sector as well as government bodies. Standards serve as both expectation indicators and quality producers’ offerings. If this issue is not resolved, there will continue to be a mismatch between halal standards offered by regulating bodies around the world and will continue to be a mismatch between the services delivered, which will result in increased dissatisfaction. most important thing is that the lack of clear labelling and halal food regulation is limiting Muslim consumers to spend on halal products. as well as Low trust due to lack of regulated certification could be increased if a halal logo is introduced. (Estimated Consumption of Food Products by Muslims in India (2011-2012) As According to India’s premier halal certification agency Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind Halal Trust agree that “the biggest challenge is “non-vocalization” of demand by Indian consumers for authentically halal-certified products. Until recently, consumers mostly demanded halal certification for meat products only”. Finally, the large size of the food market is still unorganized in India. Most people prefer to purchase food products from neighbouring retail outlets due to uncertainty in the quality of packaged and processed foods. Packaged food demand is mostly focused on metropolitan and urban areas. Muslims have the dual reasons for selecting the neighbouring outlet, first is quality and second is Halal authenticity.
But there are always room for improvement. Industry players and agencies need to address some weaknesses in policies and their implementation. Industry players especially producers were noted for their lack of professionalism and short-term business perspectives. To enhance its competitiveness. apart from that the industry needs to further incorporate advanced business processes and practices designed to better serve the rising expectations of customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. As well as training programs are very much needed to provide new skills in halal management and Shariah knowledge for human capital development for the halal industry in India, and different types of halal training programs need to be conducted in India.
The important thing is that we live in the era of industrial revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) and the Internet of Things (IoT), where everything was inter-connected digitally and databases are invaluable assets. Traditional retailers and conventional banking are now struggling to compete and cope with new competitors
armed with online shopping platforms and fintech respectively. India should explore and pioneer this digital transformation and capitalize on this technology to penetrate the borderless market globally by allocating financial aids.
Conclusion
There are various business opportunities in this industry since the market is flooded with potential investors, entrepreneurs, and global consumers. There are various sectors gaining impetus due to Government policies, changes in consumer’s tastes and preferences, and higher levels of disposable income. Finally, also In the Food Supply Chain India has a huge opportunity to become a leading global food supplier if only it has the right marketing strategies and of course agile, adaptive, and efficient supply chain. India has diversity in terms of its population with several religious groups with different food habits and culture. This diversity should be used to advantage to become the Halal Food Hub, the Organic food hub, the Vegetarian food hub, and the Seafood hub among others. Overall, India’s food value chain is poised to create multiple opportunities for investment and employment in storage infrastructure, farming, retail and quality control.
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Shahbaz Alam Nadwi is currently pursuing his PhD in Islamic finance at the Universiti Utara Malaysia and was previously a research assistant at INCEIF and ISRA.
by Editor | Jun 4, 2022 | Economy, Ethical Fund, News, World
The UN relief envoy in Somalia has allocated $20 million from the Somalia Humanitarian Fund (SHF) to provide immediate assistance to communities at risk due to drought in priority locations.
Mogadishu, 4thJune 2022: The UN relief envoy in Somalia has allocated $20 million from the Somalia Humanitarian Fund (SHF) to provide immediate assistance to communities at risk due to drought in priority locations.
Adam Abdelmoula, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said a disaster is unfolding in the African nation due to severe drought, reports Xinhua news agency.
“In several areas, the risk of famine has increased, and scores of Somalis are on the brink of catastrophe,” he added.
According to the UN, Somalia is the most drought-impacted country in the Horn of Africa.
At least 6.1 million people have been affected, of whom 771,000 have abandoned their homes in search of water, food, and pasture.
The UN said at least 1.5 million children are facing acute malnutrition, and over 3,170 acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera and 2,460 measles cases have been confirmed since January.
“I am concerned that a huge number of people will starve to death unless we rapidly scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those most affected,” Abdelmoula said.
The UN said the 2022 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan, which seeks $1.5 billion to assist 5.5 million people, has only received 18 per cent of required funding (nearly 260 million dollars) as of May 31 despite increasing needs.
In February, the UN said SHF allocated $25 million to mitigate the impacts of severe drought while about 836,000 people benefited through multi-sectoral integrated interventions.
Abdelmoula said the new allocation will focus on underserved, hard-to-reach areas and complements the $14 million Rapid Response grant from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) that aims to address the worsening food crisis and multi-sectoral needs of communities severely affected by the drought.
“We are running out of time. Unless we act now, we are likely to experience the worst outcomes in coming months.”
by Editor | Jan 20, 2022 | Economy, Ethical Fund, World
Kabul: Deborah Lyons, the UN’s top envoy in Afghanistan, announced that the world body will ask $8 billion from donors as aid to help the war-torn nation amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the media reported.
Addressing an international gathering at the Presidential Palace, Arg, here on Wednesday, Lyons said that transfer of cash to Afghanistan would continue until the banking system is revived in the country, TOLO News repored.
“We secured the permission to import cash to address the crippling lack of liquidity, assisted by your administration in doing so. We imported in December, last month of last year, over 120 million dollars and this month another 32 million,” she said.
The international gathering at the Arg was the first since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021.
Representatives of 20 countries attended the event, some via videoconference.
The UN special envoy further said that some achievements of the past two decades have been violated and that over half of the country’s population is living under the poverty line.
She said that the UN is attempting to remove existing sanctions on Afghanistan.
Also addressing the summit, Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Hassan Akhund said that short term aid is not enough to tackle the crisis, and he called for the removal of obstacles in the way of economic recovery, reports TOLO News.
“A mutual path should be formed to meet the problems of people on time, and forever. The short term aid is not sufficiently beneficial for the nation,” he said.
Taliban cabinet members praised the UN support for Afghanistan.
The Second Deputy of the Prime Minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, said that they would monitor the distribution of aid to vulnerable people.
“The political conditions of the donors are not acceptable. We never want economical reliance, which brings crisis, we never want to be in the circle of political conditions of donors. We will never sacrifice economic independence.”
Acting Finance Minister Hedayatullah Badri said the Taliban government has made a plan to tackle the economic crisis, adding that the “humanitarian aid is not sufficient and there is a need for development aid”.
by Editor | Jan 9, 2022 | Banking, Ethical Fund, Interviews, Islamic Finance
By Danish Reyaz
Although the commercial banking system has propagated to far-flung areas, a large chunk of people, especially the poor, still remain out of their bounds. Reasons are many, including banks own reluctance towards disbursing small loans to these people.
As a result, poor and low-income families often go to the local money lenders, who further make their lives miserable with their exploitative nature. Besides, they also find high-interest rates prohibitive for taking a loan to fulfill their financial needs, howsoever pressing that might be.
To help these needy people, Al-Khair Co-operative Credit Society has come forward with the Islamic concept of interest-free loans.
Start of the journey
Al-Khair first started as a trust in 1997 and converted into a Co-operative in 2002 to expand its activities. Headquartered in Patna, Bihar, it now has 13 branches, including the branches in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi, and has more than 11 thousand members.
Naiyyer Fatemi, Managing Director of Al-Khair Co-operative Credit Society, speaking to Maeeshat, said, “We started amidst the fraud by JVG Groups of finances and other chit funds, so initially it was difficult to win the confidence of small-time depositors, but with full honesty and commitment to our work, we gradually managed to allay their fears and apprehensions.”
“What suits to the people is the zero-interest credit financing, and quick and minimal paper works required for it,” Fatemi added.
Open for all
According to Islamic laws, charging interest is strictly prohibited. Therefore, Al-Khair levies one-time nominal (3.5% to 8%) service charges for different slabs of loans. Since there is no obligation to pay interest on repayment, this works for the poor; especially, it intrigues the Non-Muslims who otherwise feel harassed by banks and loan sharks with high-interest rates.
“Non-Muslims beneficiaries dominate as many as two branches in Uttar Pradesh while more than 30% in every branch constitutes non-Muslims customers. Our gate is open for all,” says Fatemi.
Committed to transform lives
The Al-Khair aims to alleviate poverty with timely and sustained support to the needy, who could be small enterprises, shop owners, small vendors, farmers, working women, or others.
Al-Khair helps set up businesses by assisting with capital as well as helping those who want to reinvest to grow their ventures. It is also forthcoming in giving loans to parents to fund their children’s education, etc.
“Our objective is to ensure that economic activities within the poor and the low-income groups continue unabated to lead them into a financially stable future. We take care to expedite decisions on loans and make sure that no genuine appliers are ever turned away,” says Fatemi.
During lockdown
Talking about the pandemic-enforced lockdown, he says, “It was challenging for our members when the markets were shut for months. Our deposits declined, but we didn’t let it affect our liquidity. We even could manage doorstep delivery of withdrawals during the pandemic, which further helped in strengthening people’s trust with us.”
Women’s role in Al-Khair success
Al-Khair has given a lot of importance to building a woman workforce. Today there are as many as four branches headed by women and more in the pipeline.
“Women for their gender are discriminated lot, but if one is a woman and a Muslim, she is twice as much discriminated. So we first started employing widows and divorcees who were in dire need of help, and then a lot of women came along and have played a more significant role in the success of Al-Khair.”
Fatemi says that there is a common belief that women can’t be helpful in the case of loan recovery. But women have proved it wrong. They monitor a loan with a lot more zeal, take regular follow-ups, and even go to the field if necessary.
Not keen on a hasty expansion,but…
On questioning the expansion plan, Fatemi told us that demand for more branches is coming up, but they are not in a hurry. More branches mean a jump in operating cost which will compromise the benefits passed on to members. Society goes ahead with a new branch only when it is convinced about handling credits commensurate with the economic viability of that area and the need of the people.
“However, there is a need of at least a Co-operative credit society in every district so that people reap the benefits of interest-free Islamic finance to enhance their financial capability,” Fatemi says in the end, and stresses that more people should come forward and establish such Co-operative societies to uplift the minorities and others who live from hand to mouth and are badly needing financial assistance.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | C S R, Corporate, Ethical Fund, News
by Shaheryar Hossain for Maeeshat
New Delhi: Okhla based Zakat Foundation of India (ZFI) felicitated its students who cracked UPSC exam on Sunday.
While Syed Zafar Mahmood, a former civil servant, has been running the Sir Syed Coaching and Guidance Centre under the parent organisation ZFI, 28 students from his centre qualified UPSC exam this year.
“During its 10 years journey, ZFI has helped many students crack the country’s most prestigious exam. 28 candidates from our institute cracked this year’s UPSC. Two candidates are from 2015 ZFI batch,” said Mahmood on the sidelines of the felicitation ceremony, held in collaboration with Interfaith Coalition for Peace, at a hotel in New Friend’s Colony.
ZFI initially engaged in activities such as running an orphanage and helping the needy students. However, the coaching programme began in 2007.
“I am thankful to ZFI for supporting me. I want to give the credit to ZFI, Jamia Milia and Hamadard for my success. I didn’t clear the exam the first time. But I didn’t give up. I attempted again,” said Inabat Khaliq, ZFI fellow who qualified UPSC this year.
The Kashmiri girl secured 370th rank in the merit list. She had qualified the UPSC exam 2016 as well but secured a lower rank.
Lauding the hard work put forth by the civil service aspirants in cracking the exam, Interfaith Coalition for Peace’s Father Packiam T. Samuel also congratulated the qualified the prestigious civil services.
Selection process
The foundation launched Sir Syed Coaching and Guidance Centre in 2007.
Every year, 35-40 candidates between the age of 22 and 27 are shortlisted for the fellowship.
Shortlisted candidates from Muslim and Christian communities are coached at various institutes and are accommodated in three boys hostels and a girls hostel in Mukherjee Nagar.
Highlights
Of the 51 Muslim candidates who cracked this year’s UPSC exam, 28 are from the ZFI.
The students were given certificates.
A total of 990 candidates — 750 men and 240 women — have been recommended by the UPSC for appointment to various central government services.
List of Successful ZFI fellows
Name State
Imran Ahmed Uttar Pradesh
Asim Khan Uttar Pradesh
Syed Imran Masood Uttar Pradesh
Ejaz Ahmed Uttar Pradesh
Md Shafiq Uttar Pradesh
Junaid Ahmed Uttar Pradesh
Syed Ali Abbas Uttar Pradesh
Dr Haaris Rashid Uttar Pradesh
Arif Khan Uttar Pradesh
Illma Afroz Uttar Pradesh
Dr Ibson Shah I Kerala
Ihjas Aslam CS Kerala
Shahid T Komnath Kerala
Amal Noushad S Kerala
Muhammad Shabeer K Kerala
Anna Sosa Thomas Kerala
Benson Ninan Kerala
Afsal Hameed Kerala
Atul Choudhary Jammu and Kashmir
Inabat Khaliq Jammu and Kashmir
Md Farooq Jammu and Kashmir
Nooh Siddiqui Maharashtra
Shaikh Salman Maharashtra
Md Nadeenuddin Karnataka
SaraiyaRizaz Bhai Rafi Bhai Gujarat
Khalid Hussain Bihar
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Ethical Fund, Halal Industries, News
Maeeshat.in,
Mumbai, July 16: Per household per month, Muslims donate Rs 126 for charity (i.e. to institutions) while Hindus donate Rs 82. But Christians donate far more than these two communities do – the Christians donate Rs 296 per household per month. Even Sikhs are ahead of Hindus by donating Rs 154 for charity per household per month.
But when it comes to donating to priests and individuals, Hindus go ahead of Muslims. Hindus donate Rs 92 per household per month to priests and individuals while Muslims donate only Rs 54. Christians donate Rs 137 and Sikhs Rs 122
However, in absolute numbers of all religious donations, Hindus donated highest of all – Rs 15,660 crore in 2014-15. In the same year, Muslims donated Rs 2,580 crore, Sikhs Rs 1,716 crore and Christians Rs 420 crore.
As per a news report in The Hindu, these facts are from the 72nd round of National Sample Survey (NSS) on Household Expenditure on Services and Durable Goods and have been recently extracted from the NSS’ data by a team of researchers led by Sabir Ahamed of the Pratichi Institute and Zakaria Siddiqui, research assistant at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. The 72nd round of NSS was conducted in 2014-15, but could be accessed only in late 2016.
National Sample Survey is conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) which comes under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
