IBM, Cognizant, Genpact, Aegis:  Not Halal
By Bala Shah

India has been blessed with the presence of many great religions living in relative peace and harmony.  And this mix of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and other great religions have given us strengths unique in the world.   Sometimes, in the country the line between religion, politics and money is very thin indeed.  Not quite what the gods, saints and prophets intended.  Now an Islamic investment company is promoting some tech stocks as halal.

Halalmoney.org, based in Andhra Pradesh, describes its mission as “wealth generation within Islamic Shariah.  And to provide wealth creation opportunities to the Islamic community in a manner which is consistent with the Islamic Shariah”.

Halalmoney.org explains it vision as “preventing the Islamic community from forbidden investments”

The Halalmoney website shows a list of the ‘chosen’ halal computer stocks.   Respected tech company WIPRO was on the Halal list.  HCL, I-Flex, Satyam and Infosys were also listed as Halal.   BPO’s like Genpact and Aegis were not in the list; as for some mysterious reasons they are not Halal.  One of the stars of the Indian IT industry, Cognizant, was not in the list of Halal companies. IBM and HP, which have invested billions of dollars in India and employ tens of thousands of locals, are not in the list.

Techgoss was intrigued.  What makes an IT and/or BPO company worthy of being Halal?  We contacted Halalmoney.org to understand the logic behind their listing companies as worthy of investment, and why companies like Cognizant were not good enough.

Halalmoney.org refused the opportunity to share such inside information with our readers.  Why should any divine knowledge be secret?  One thing we are sure about is that is none of the great religions in India would advice their followers to invest in gossip websites like techgoss.

Techgoss note:  The list of Halal shares can be seen at
http://www.halalmoney.org/compliant.htm

Techgoss note:  Halal is an Arabic word meaning lawful or permitted. The opposite of halal is haram, which means unlawful or prohibited. Halal and haram are universal terms that apply to all facets of life