Dow Jones Dharma Indexes for faith-based investment

Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 20:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Mumbai: Dow Jones Indexes has tied up with Dharma Investments, a private investment firm pioneering the development of faith-based investment, to launch the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes on Tuesday. "The new indexes will measure the performance of companies selected according to the value systems and principles of Dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. Our goal is to provide the investment community with the most comprehensive benchmarks that comply with these principles," Michael A. Petronella, president of Dow Jones Indexes, said here. The Dow Jones Dharma Indexes are the first faith-based indexes created to measure faith-compliant equities. Petronella said the launch of the new Dow Jones Dharma Indexes marks a major step in efforts to further expand our range of faith-based indexes. "Dow Jones Indexes pioneered this space by launching the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes in 1999 - today the leading Islamic market indexes worldwide," said Petronella. The Dow Jones Dharma Index series includes the Dow Jones Dharma Global Index, as well as four country indexes for the U.S., Britain, Japan and India. "We are honoured to be serving a demand for faith-based investing. Bringing our religious values onto the global stage offers sustainable solutions to the problems facing the world today. The principle of dharma contains precepts relevant to good conduct, and the implicit requirement of mindfulness about the sources of wealth - and therefore responsible investing," said Nitesh Gor, CEO of Dharma Investments. The Dow Jones Dharma Index plans to screen the company on a combination of environmental, social, governance and traditional sin sector filters. "The Index will not just have appeal to the religious, but to a far broader audience as well. If one has to be included in the listings, the company must pass a set of industry, environmental, corporate governance and qualitative screens for Dharmic compliance," Gor explained. Dharma Investments said environmental screens would include company's impact or policies with respect to emissions, climate change and carbon footprint analysis, oil and chemical spills and waste management and recycling. Companies from sectors where the nature of their business activities and operations have been termed unacceptable are excluded form the index. "Brewers, casinos and gaming, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, alcohol, adult entertainment, animal testing and genetic modification of agricultural products are not unacceptable," said Gor.
Source: IANS
siliconindia