Halal pastry: Made in Switzerland

Switzerland, famous for its breath-taking landscape, is the largest producer of processed halal food in the world with annual sales of $3.5 billion. Swiss companies which produce halal food make sure that their products are tested, regularly checked and certified by Islamic experts. Nestle, the world's largest food corporation with $94 billion in sales in 2007, adheres to halal food requirements in 75 of its 480 factories worldwide. For the past two years Nestle has eliminated pork, alcohol and blood from its production process in seven of its European factories, including a sausage plant in France, a Nescafe plant in Germany and a powdered milk plant in Spain.

In 1938 a small-time Swiss baker set up a bakery for producing cake dough and puff pastry in Wangen bei Olten, a small town in Switzerland. The business soon picked up and his puff pastry became very popular in the country as well as in other parts of Europe. Realising the growing demand for puff pastry among Muslims living in Europe, Nestle decided to buy the plant to produce puff pastry with halal methods. Though the ingredients of the commonly available puff pastry and the halal variety-flour, margarine, butter, water and salt-are the same, the former is preserved with alcohol and the other with potassium sorbate. The Nestle factory at Wangen bei Olten produces more than 41,000 tonnes of freshly made dough a year, of which a substantial amount is of the halal variety. Most of the halal puff pastry is sold to France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population.  Continued

Economics of Islamic Banking in India

Syed Zahid Ahmad

In the past few years Islamic finance in general and Islamic investment business in particular have gained considerable ground. Prominent global financial players such as McKinsey and Beary’s Group have introduced Shariah-compliant investment funds. China has recently opened its doors to Islamic banking in order to attract investment of funds from Muslim countries. Islamic banks in China and the UK are attracting even non-Muslim customers in a substantial way.

In India, East Wind has launched an Islamic Index while Reliance Money and Religare have launched Shariah-compliant Portfolio Management Services. Shariah-compliant stocks in the Indian stock market indicate positive trends.

Unfortunately, a great deal of misconception surrounds the issue of Islamic banking in India. Islamic banking is generally believed to be an exclusively religious domain of Muslims and it is feared that the introduction of Islamic banking in the country would lead to financial segregation and that in consequence of the move the country’s scheduled banks might lose Muslim depositors.

It needs to be clarified that the scope of Islamic banking need not be confined to the Muslim community alone; rather, its doors should be open to the wider Indian society. Regrettably, no study has been carried out on the economic viability and sustainability of Islamic banking in India and its potential for inclusive growth.
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