Religion has been the basis of a lot of things in the past. It has also come upon influencing trade and business. Islamic Banking is a very well known idea in the business world. It is all about doing the business of banking in such a way that it complies with the provisions of Shariah ( a code of conduct which rules most aspects of a Muslim individual's life include marraige, business, charity etc). Since the last two decades a lot of reading and experimenting has happened in the area of Islamic Banking.
Islamic Investing is a fairly recent innovation. This is all about investing in companies whose operations and products are Shariah compliant. Major fund-houses and index-service providers have exploited this idea and set up hedge-funds, mutual funds, ETFs which are Shariah compliant. In India BSE along with Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions (TASIS) have come-up with BSE Shariah 50, presently the only thematic index at BSE. NSE has introduced two similar indices namely S&P CNX 500 Shariah and S&P CNX Nifty Shariah.
