Kochi to host international seminar on Islamic finance

August 9, 2010

The three-day seminar on “Islamic Finance in India: Products, Institutions and Regulations” will begin at the Le Meridien International Convention Centre in this Kerala port city on October 4 under the chief patronage of eminent jurist Dr V R Krishna Iyer.

The seminar is being jointly organised by the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), a member of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the Al Jamia Al Islamiya, an Islamic seminary in Kerala.

“Islamic finance is for the entire humanity and is based on humane principles. Those who support humanism should welcome Islamic banking and finance in the country,” said Krishna Iyer, a former supreme court judge, while announcing the event here recently.

Claimed to be first-ever seminar on the subject of its kind in India, it will discuss products, institutions and regulations in India and invite the attention of financial experts, regulators, government officials, investors, practitioners and academicians in the field. Leading experts and business groups are expected to participate.

The organisers expect experts like Dr Mohamed Umar Chapra, senior research advisor at the Islamic Research and Training Institute, Dr Ali Mohiyudeen Quradagi, prominent Qatari scholar and orator, Dr Hussain Hamid Hassan, who heads the Shariah board of UAE’s National Bond Corporation, Dr Nizam Mohamed Saleh Yaquby, a leading advisor on Islamic finance based in Bahrain, Dr Mohamed Obaidullah, senior economist with IsDB, Dr Bambang Brodjenegoro of university of Indonesia, Dr Monzir Kahf, the US-based consultant on Islamic finance, Dr S Nazim Ali of the Harvard University and Delhi-based economist Dr Ausaf Ahmad to participate.

Representatives of regulatory bodies, professional organisations, trade bodies, business houses, chamber of commerce and industry, foreign and Indian financial institutions, universities and social activists are also expected to attend the event.

Dr P Mohamed Ali of the Galfar group (Oman), C K Menon of the Behzad Group (Qatar) and P V Abdul Wahab MP are the patrons of the programme.

H Abdur Raqeeb is the chairman of the organising committee and Dr Abdussalam Ahmad the general convener.