Firstpost
How brand Modi is merchandising Indian politics
by Sandip Roy Oct 9, 2013
We have failed to present Brand India in front of the world because of some self-created problems,” Narendra Modi told a market summit in Mumbai recently.
Modi himself clearly has no such problems. He is a text book case study of how to sell a brand. In this case, the brand being himself.
The Times of India reports that a NaMo store is opening in an upmarket mall in Ahmedabad to sell NaMoMantra apparel, books and other merchandise. A boutique in Ahmedabad has registered a trademark for those half-sleeve kurtas Modi favours. It's now eyeing an international trademark for the brand.
Indian Express adds that at least 30,000 made-in-Surat long sleeved kurtas with the words NaMo Mantra embroidered on them are on their way to Patna's Gandhi Maidan for Modi's October 27 Hunkar (lion's roar) rally.
]Modi Tshirt Modi T-shirt.
Move over Lion King. Modi Lion is here. That's not a joke. Modi Lion is, in fact, an upcoming brand planning to sell toys to children.
Even his most ardent fans could not have foreseen this transformation - from Loha Purush to cuddly toy.
Indian politics is no stranger to cultish behaviour. Politicians from Indira Gandhi to N T Rama Rao have enthusiastically promoted their larger-than-life personas. While Mahatma Gandhi's loin-cloth, so derided by Winston Churchill, didn't quite take off as a fashion craze, we do have the Gandhi-topi and the Nehru jacket.
But in post-liberalization India our passion for political demi-gods is only matched by our crazed brand-consciousness. This cottage industry of memorabilia springing up around Modi, both in mithai shops with Modi pedas and in upscale malls, is really a comment on the commodification of our politics where the man and his message can be merchandised. And the sales figures are regarded as a mark of his political salability.
As ad man Santosh Desai writes, brands such as Brand India are sexy because “it allows for the translation of a large, abstract concept into an ownable and easy-to-consume confection.”
This is Disney-fication of politics as opposed to the deification of political leaders that we have been used to. That was an old-school kind of branding imposed with the heavy hand of the state. It meant Mayawati's giant statues in public parks. Or endless government schemes bearing the names of the Nehru-Gandhi family from the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana to the Indira Awaas Yojana. Or the inexcusable nonsense of a Rajesh Pilot Marg, a street in a prime south Delhi location, named after a man whose primary claim to fame was being a Friend of Rajiv.
Modi has moved us a step beyond the usual markers of political branding. This is a different kind of branding, a more market-savvy, people-friendly one. It's closer in spirit to those I Am Anna caps and Mamata Banerjee's paintings that sell for lakhs in Kolkata. But those paintings are bought in galleries by industrialists. There's no line of Didi-wear clothes or I Am Anna t-shirts being peddled in malls anywhere.
That is why the commodification of Modi is different, both in scale and scope, from what we are used to in Indian politics. It's not new in a global sense. There's plenty of Obama-bilia around from the Yes Pecan ice cream flavour to the iconic Obama Hope t-shirts. But whereas there can often be a playfulness about the memorabilia-zation of politicians, we are deadly earnest about it. That means we will not see Rahul “escape velocity” rockets or Mulayam pehlwan-dolls.
The NaMo youth anthem with its boppy beat doing the rounds of social media sounds alternately cringe-inducingly earnest.
“A powerful orator will now become the nation's curator. His persona is athletic, his charisma magnetic.”
And darkly menacing.
“Who's gonna mar ‘em? NaMo. NaMo. Who's gonna scar ‘em? NaMo.”
Turning a politician into a brand is certainly useful. Brand Modi becomes an act of reflection with the multiplying effect of a hall of mirrors. As Modi stands at the rally, beaming, waving to the crowd, the jubilant crowd gazes back at him draped in NaMo paraphernalia - Modi masks, Modi t-shirts, Modi-kurtas.
For his fans it's like coming together in the hyper-reality of a theme park, a Disneyland of hope and optimism. And Modi-haters will nod in recognition at the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's assessment of Disney:
The whole Walt Disney philosophy eats out of your hand with these pretty little sentimental creatures in grey fur coats. For my own part, I believe that behind these smiling eyes there lurks a cold, ferocious beast fearfully stalking us.
Either way it is as if our feverish passion for politics and our insatiable hunger for brands have finally come together in common churn. And Narendra Modi has emerged from that manthan as an entity than can both sell and be sold.
What better NaMoMantra can there be in the new India?
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/how-brand-modi-is-merchandising-indian-politics-1162299.html
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Showing posts with label Market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Market. Show all posts
October 09, 2013
November 14, 2009
Book Review: State-temple-corporate Complex Invading Secular Space
Invading the Secular Space
Ram Puniyani
Satya Sai Baba of Puthaparthi in his recent tour of Mumbai (Nov. 2009) was invited by the Maharashtra Chief Minister designate, Ashok Chavan to his official residence, Varsha, for blessing the house and for the associated puja (invocation). When criticsed for inviting the Holy Guru to his official residence he said that since he is a devotee of the Baba from last many decades it is a privilege for him. There are many other news items where state functionaries mark their presence for the programs of Gurus and Babas (God men).
As far as Satya Sai Baba is concerned he is regarded as the living God by his devotees, while he himself claims to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. This Sai Baba is also a miracle person and a spiritual Guru. His miracles have been exposed by the Rationalist Associations and his trick of producing Gold chain was brought up in the court, as production of gold is illegal. This case was not pursued for various reasons. There are many charges of sexual abuse by Sai baba. Magician of fame P.C. Sarkar also said his miracles have nothing to do with divinity but are mere magical tricks.
Use of official residence for such functions is in total violation of the secular constitution of the country where religion is a private matter of the individual and state functionaries can’t wear their religion on their sleeves in official capacity and in official places. Contrary to that norm, lately this norm is known more for its violation than by adherence to it. Gone are the days of Nehru when he could stand up and snub such actions by whosoever it is in the official capacity. Of course, Gandhi, Father of the nation and Nehru the architect of Indian state were no devotees of any Baba or Guru. Over a period of time such principles have been violated with impunity. Uma Bharati during her brief tenure as the Chief Minister ship of Madhya Pradesh converted her official residence in to a Gaushala (Cow shed) with saffron robed Sadhus forming the main residents of her official residence.
India has quite a broad fare of God men. There are Gurus, Sants, Maharajs, Acharyas and Purohits (clergy) in the main. Their role has been changing over a period of time. Last three decades seem to be the time of their major glory, with their presence in all spheres in a very dominating way. Their number has also proliferated immensely and while some of these are big players, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdeo, Asaram Bapu to name the few. There are hundreds of them scattered in each state. Many of them are working in close tandem with Hindu right, Swami Assmanand, Late Swami Laxmananad Sarswati, Narendra Mahraj etc. These are the one’s who have created their own niche with different techniques, while Shankarachayas, are associated with the Mutts coming from historical times, the Akshrdham chain is also not very old a tradition. The Pramukh swamis (Chief Guru) of these temples wield enormous clout. One recalls Anand Marg came up during the decade of seventies and not much is hearing of that now.
Overall religiosity has been on the upswing and not many are protesting the promotion of blind faith by many such God men. The rational thought and movement is on the back foot and political leadership, social leaders, of many hues are bending over backwards to please these Babas, some of whom are also dispensing health and some of them claim to be looking into the crystal ball of future.
There is an interesting correlation between the coming up of adverse effects of globalization, rise in the anxieties and deprivations and the current dominance of God men. Many an interesting observations about these God men are there, the major one being the rise in alienation in last three decades along with the rising religiosity in the social space. Many a remarkable studies on this phenomenon are coming forth. One such is by a US based Indian scholar of repute, Meera Nanda. In her book, The God Market, she makes very profound observations. She points out that this rising religiosity is manifested in boom in pilgrimages and newer rituals. Some old rituals are becoming more rooted and popular. She sees a nexus between state-temple-corporate complexes also. Secular institutions of Nehru era are being replaced by boosting demand and supply of God market.
A new Hindu religiosity is getting deeply rooted in everyday life, in public and private spheres. The distinction between private and public sphere is getting eroded as the case of Sai Baba in Maharashtra Chief Ministers official bungalow shows. Hindu rituals and symbols are becoming part of state functions; Hinduism de facto is becoming state religion. Hindu religiosity is becoming part of national pride with the aspiration of becoming a superpower. She observes a trend of increased religiosity. In India there are 2.5 million places of worship but only 1.5 million schools and barely 75000 hospitals. Half of 230 million tourist trips every year are for religious pilgrimage. Akshardham temple acquired 100 acres of land at throw away price. Sri Sri Ravishanker’s Art of Living Ashram in banglore has 99 acres of land leased from Karnataka Government. Gujarat Govt. gifted 85 acres of land to establish privately run rishikul in Porbander. Most significantly Nanda argues that the new culture of political Hinduism is triumphalist and intolerant, while asserting to be recognized as a tolerant religion. While claiming to have a higher tolerance, its intolerance is leading to violence against minorities.
It is because of this that even if the BJP may not be the ruling party, the political class and other sections of state apparatus have subtly accepted Hindu religiosity and the consequent politics as the official one, and so the justice for victims of religious violence eludes them. The question is, can the struggle for justice for weaker sections also incorporate a cultural-religious battle against the blind religiosity and proactive efforts initiated to promote rational thought.
--
Ram Puniyani
Satya Sai Baba of Puthaparthi in his recent tour of Mumbai (Nov. 2009) was invited by the Maharashtra Chief Minister designate, Ashok Chavan to his official residence, Varsha, for blessing the house and for the associated puja (invocation). When criticsed for inviting the Holy Guru to his official residence he said that since he is a devotee of the Baba from last many decades it is a privilege for him. There are many other news items where state functionaries mark their presence for the programs of Gurus and Babas (God men).
As far as Satya Sai Baba is concerned he is regarded as the living God by his devotees, while he himself claims to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. This Sai Baba is also a miracle person and a spiritual Guru. His miracles have been exposed by the Rationalist Associations and his trick of producing Gold chain was brought up in the court, as production of gold is illegal. This case was not pursued for various reasons. There are many charges of sexual abuse by Sai baba. Magician of fame P.C. Sarkar also said his miracles have nothing to do with divinity but are mere magical tricks.
Use of official residence for such functions is in total violation of the secular constitution of the country where religion is a private matter of the individual and state functionaries can’t wear their religion on their sleeves in official capacity and in official places. Contrary to that norm, lately this norm is known more for its violation than by adherence to it. Gone are the days of Nehru when he could stand up and snub such actions by whosoever it is in the official capacity. Of course, Gandhi, Father of the nation and Nehru the architect of Indian state were no devotees of any Baba or Guru. Over a period of time such principles have been violated with impunity. Uma Bharati during her brief tenure as the Chief Minister ship of Madhya Pradesh converted her official residence in to a Gaushala (Cow shed) with saffron robed Sadhus forming the main residents of her official residence.
India has quite a broad fare of God men. There are Gurus, Sants, Maharajs, Acharyas and Purohits (clergy) in the main. Their role has been changing over a period of time. Last three decades seem to be the time of their major glory, with their presence in all spheres in a very dominating way. Their number has also proliferated immensely and while some of these are big players, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdeo, Asaram Bapu to name the few. There are hundreds of them scattered in each state. Many of them are working in close tandem with Hindu right, Swami Assmanand, Late Swami Laxmananad Sarswati, Narendra Mahraj etc. These are the one’s who have created their own niche with different techniques, while Shankarachayas, are associated with the Mutts coming from historical times, the Akshrdham chain is also not very old a tradition. The Pramukh swamis (Chief Guru) of these temples wield enormous clout. One recalls Anand Marg came up during the decade of seventies and not much is hearing of that now.
Overall religiosity has been on the upswing and not many are protesting the promotion of blind faith by many such God men. The rational thought and movement is on the back foot and political leadership, social leaders, of many hues are bending over backwards to please these Babas, some of whom are also dispensing health and some of them claim to be looking into the crystal ball of future.
There is an interesting correlation between the coming up of adverse effects of globalization, rise in the anxieties and deprivations and the current dominance of God men. Many an interesting observations about these God men are there, the major one being the rise in alienation in last three decades along with the rising religiosity in the social space. Many a remarkable studies on this phenomenon are coming forth. One such is by a US based Indian scholar of repute, Meera Nanda. In her book, The God Market, she makes very profound observations. She points out that this rising religiosity is manifested in boom in pilgrimages and newer rituals. Some old rituals are becoming more rooted and popular. She sees a nexus between state-temple-corporate complexes also. Secular institutions of Nehru era are being replaced by boosting demand and supply of God market.
A new Hindu religiosity is getting deeply rooted in everyday life, in public and private spheres. The distinction between private and public sphere is getting eroded as the case of Sai Baba in Maharashtra Chief Ministers official bungalow shows. Hindu rituals and symbols are becoming part of state functions; Hinduism de facto is becoming state religion. Hindu religiosity is becoming part of national pride with the aspiration of becoming a superpower. She observes a trend of increased religiosity. In India there are 2.5 million places of worship but only 1.5 million schools and barely 75000 hospitals. Half of 230 million tourist trips every year are for religious pilgrimage. Akshardham temple acquired 100 acres of land at throw away price. Sri Sri Ravishanker’s Art of Living Ashram in banglore has 99 acres of land leased from Karnataka Government. Gujarat Govt. gifted 85 acres of land to establish privately run rishikul in Porbander. Most significantly Nanda argues that the new culture of political Hinduism is triumphalist and intolerant, while asserting to be recognized as a tolerant religion. While claiming to have a higher tolerance, its intolerance is leading to violence against minorities.
It is because of this that even if the BJP may not be the ruling party, the political class and other sections of state apparatus have subtly accepted Hindu religiosity and the consequent politics as the official one, and so the justice for victims of religious violence eludes them. The question is, can the struggle for justice for weaker sections also incorporate a cultural-religious battle against the blind religiosity and proactive efforts initiated to promote rational thought.
--
September 10, 2009
The God Market: How Globalization is making India Hindu by Meera Nanda
‘Globalization is making the whole world more religious and all religions more political.’
Did you know:
• Educated Indians in small towns are becoming more religious than less educated villagers?
• India has more places of worship than educational institutions or health services?
• Half the total number tourist trips in a single year are for religious pilgrimages?
• State governments are selling land to temple trusts at throwaway prices?
• Corporate houses are setting up institutions for ‘value-based’ education?
The secular Indian state is constitutionally bound to have no official religion. However, India is not free from politicized religiosity which expresses itself in a growing sense of Hindu majoritarianism. The rising tide of popular Hinduism is directly linked with India embracing the gospel of free markets.
Middle-class Indians are becoming more actively religious as they are becoming prosperous. The last decade has seen the proliferation of powerful new god-men, a massive rise in temple rituals, the creation of new gods, and the increased demand for priests. The state is enabling the Hinduization with the help of the private sector. From actively promoting religious tourism, to handing over higher education to the private sector, some of whom use religious trusts to run the institutions that impart ‘value-based’ education, to giving away land at highly subsidized rates to gurus and god-men, many of the privatization measures of the government are linked with the promotion of Hinduism.
In this hard-hitting and controversial book, Meera Nanda uncovers the nexus between the state, temple and corporate India to reveal the ugly truth behind India’s leap into globalization and poses the question:
What room does this India that dreams saffron-tinged superpower dreams have for non-Hindu minorities? What happens to the India that Muslims, Christians, non-believers and other non-Hindus also call home as the country begins to see itself as India@superpower.OM? Can the country deliver on the promise of secularism without cultivating a secular culture in a secular polity?
Meera Nanda writes on science and religion. She is a philosopher of science with initial training in biology. She has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the John Templeton Foundation, USA. She is a visiting fellow (2009-10) at the Jawaharlal Institute of Advance Studies, JNU. She is the author of the award-winning book, Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodernism, Science and Hindu Nationalism.
Publication: August 2009
ISBN: 9788184000955
Extent: 320 pages
Price: Rs. 395
Random House India:
Mindmill Corporate Tower, 2nd Floor, Plot 24 A, Sector 16 A Noida, 201301
Phone:+91-120-4607500
http://www.randomhouse.co.in
February 02, 2008
Religion on the stock Market: Dow Jones Dharma India Index etc
Asia Times
Jan 23, 2008
Indian index has a religious edge
By Raja M
MUMBAI - The global trend towards socially responsible investing has gone religious in India, with Dow Jones Indexes and its US-based partner investment firm Dharma Investments Ltd launching the Dow Jones Dharma India Index in Mumbai on January 15, the first major faith-based investment product in South Asia.
The Dharma India index is the latest addition to the 130,000 stock indexes Dow Jones publishes globally, including the US, Britain and Japan versions of The Dow Jones Dharma Index.
The Dharma India Index, with 250 Indian companies, features stocks compliant with the code of moral conduct according to
Hinduism, teachings of the Buddha and which also incorporate principles of the Sikh and Jain religious tenets - together, ways of life with billions of followers in Asia and forming nearly 20% of the human race.
The index license is sold to asset managers and others wishing to commercially use the Dow Jones Indexes information to market investment products or for publication in the media, such as television and the Internet.
According to a Dow Jones presentation in Mumbai, socially responsible investing (SRI), including faith-based investing, accounts for US$4 trillion worth of assets under management, a figure growing 20% annually.
European SRI assets are worth nearly $1.75 trillion and such assets are worth $22 billion in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Dow Jones. "Historically, the increase of wealth within any population has resulted in an interest in ethical investing," the Dow Jones Dharma Investment presentation noted.
India's first SRI product was the ABN AMRO Sustainable Development Fund, launched in March 2007. The Dow Jones Dharma Index is the first major faith-based SRI product in India.
"Mid-to-long term, we expect products like funds, open-ended funds, index funds, certificates but also exchange-traded funds" to be potential investors to the index, said Nicole Wesch, from the Frankfurt office of Dow Jones.
The DJ Dharma India Index value will be updated daily with a quarterly review. "The review frequency of indexes depends on the use of the indexes," said Wesch. "For example, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 is reviewed monthly and the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 is reviewed annually." Most Dow Jones indexes are reviewed quarterly.
The DJ Dharma Index aims to meet the needs of socially aware investors seeking to avoid companies with harmful practices, services or products. Environmental screening in the DJ Dharma Index will consider corporate performance on emissions, climate change and carbon footprint analysis, oil and chemical spills, waste management and recycling. Corporate governance filtering will involve labor relations and disputes and discrimination allegations, human-rights violations, working conditions and wages.
The launch of Dow Jones Dharma Indexes comes as stocks compliant with the Islamic code of conduct, or sharia, are attracting more attention worldwide, with the Islamic investment market estimated between $400 billion to $500 billion.
The 51 Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, the world's first faith-based ethical investment products, made their debut in 1999, with input from an independent advisory Sharia Supervisory Board with a member each from from Syria, Pakistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Malaysia.
Data available from the Dow Jones Indexes website says the DJ Dharma India Index of 250 companies has a total market capitalization $919 billion, compared with $1.6 trillion among 415 companies in the Dow Jones Dharma Japan Index.
The DJ Dharma US Index features 1,065 companies with a total $5.3 trillion in market capitalization. The full list of companies in the Dharma Indexes is made available only to their licensees, which denies an independent chance to verify how accurate their filtering mechanisms are.
For instance, the Indian companies Dow Jones gave out as examples in their Dharma India Index - ICICI Bank Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Infosys Technologies Ltd, Housing Development Finance Corp and Bharti Airtel Ltd - did not include any units of the $70.3 billion Tata Group, India's most respected corporate house, India's largest corporate taxpayer and among the world's most socially responsible companies.
Philanthropic trusts own about 66% equity capital of Tata Sons, the primary promoter, making Tata Group possibly the largest corporate group of its kind in the world where the majority shareholder is Messrs Compassion and Charity.
"Until now, faith-based investing has been restricted to Islamic and Christian religions only," Nitesh Gor, chief executive of Dharma Investments, told the media. "But 20% of the world population consists of dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea [of the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes] is to promote faith-based investing through dharmic religion."
The word dharma in the ancient Indian languages of Sanskrit and in Pali dhamma has vast connotations that defies exact translation into English, but the primary meaning is "universal laws of nature" without any sectarian divisions.
Dow Jones Indexes acknowledges that dharma or dhamma is a "spiritual concept central to the many religions originating in South Asia, including Hinduism, the Buddha's non-sectarian teachings, Jainism, and Sikhism."
The Dharma Index subscribes to the core of all spiritual thought originating in India: non-violence, respect for all forms of life, compassion and loving kindness.
The investment potential for the so-called faith-based investment products following a moral code of conduct is particularly big in India and offers a combination of the country's ancient spiritual riches with new-found economic wealth.
India, after millennia, is seeing a resurgence in the teachings of the Buddha, not least in the increasingly widespread practice of Vipassana meditation. For the growing hundreds of thousands of Vipassana practitioners from all religions, including those from the business community for whom brief but intense workshops are available in numerous centers throughout the world, products such as the Dow Jones Dharma index make for easier choices on how to incorporate non-sectarian, practical self-realization into their daily lives.
Many leading Indian businessmen are serious practitioners of Vipassana, including media baron Subash Chandra Goel, owner of Zee Television, Asia's leading Hindi satellite channel. Companies such as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India and Indian Railways offer paid leave for senior officials and other employees to take Vipassana courses.
In Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, the government training center in Pune city for senior Indian Administrative Service officers, the Yeshwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, offers Vipassana courses as part of the curriculum.
Mumbai, India's busiest and most workaholic city, always finds time for investing in spiritual health. A long queue can invariably be found even on mornings of working days outside the famous Siddhivinayak Temple to Lord Ganesha, the deity for enterprises. Christians in the city drop into churches during the mid-day break and Friday prayers in mosques are well attended. In the miserably crowded suburban trains, many commuters quietly read prayer books or sing bhajans (devotional songs).
Faith-based investing in India took off with the world's first online sharia compliant online brokerage that opened in November 2007. Parsoli Corporation Limited, a Mumbai-based brokerage with a market capitalization of $25 million, launched Stockmultiplier.co.in, an online trading facility following the sharia, the life code of conduct, that forbids investing in businesses relating to alcohol, gambling, pornography and entertainment and those earning high income only from interest, such as financial institutions and commercial banks.
The company's Parsoli Islamic Equity Index tracks sharia-compliant stocks from listed equities in India's stock exchanges. "The response was overwhelming barely two days after we opened," Parsoli chief executive Jafar Sareshwala told Asia Times Online. "We received over 700 enquiries of which about 20% were non-Muslims. The idea of making money with clean investments appeals to a lot of people.''
The growth of Asian economies has helped to set the stage for the present concerns with investments anchored in religious values, according to Nitesh Gor of Dharma Investments, speaking at the Mumbai launch of the Dow Jones Dharma India Index.
"India and Asia have made remarkable advances economically over the last few years and in parallel we believe that bringing our religious values onto the global stage offers sustainable solutions to the problems facing the world today," he said.
The Dow Jones Dharma India Index is to be screened by three committees of academicians and religion practitioners - the academic advisory committee, a dharma supervisory committee and a religious council providing guidance and establishing the principles for the methodology.
Advisors include faculty members from Harvard University, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Britain's Oxford Center for Hindu Studies and the Oxford Center for Buddhist Studies, Yokohama University, Japan, Columbia University in the US, Thammasat University, Bangkok, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Religious figures involved include such as the venerable monks Dr Ashin Nyanissara, chancellor of Sitagu International Buddhist Academy, Myanmar, and the venerable Sangharaja, the patriarch of Cambodia, chief spiritual advisor to the king of Cambodia.
SRI evaluation clearly can be subjective, and what passes the SRI test for some fails for others. For instance, the Mumbai-based RO Somani Charitable Trust published its Karmayog corporate social responsibility ratings on January 4, with what it called India's first corporate social responsibility ratings of India's largest 500 companies based on sales.
"The results of the Karmayog CSR rating are extremely disappointing," the survey declared, "with no company meriting the highest five rating and with 46% of companies condemned with the lowest zero rating ... The only four companies with a four out of five rating were HDFC, Infosys Technologies, Tata Steel and Titan Industries."
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Jan 23, 2008
Indian index has a religious edge
By Raja M
MUMBAI - The global trend towards socially responsible investing has gone religious in India, with Dow Jones Indexes and its US-based partner investment firm Dharma Investments Ltd launching the Dow Jones Dharma India Index in Mumbai on January 15, the first major faith-based investment product in South Asia.
The Dharma India index is the latest addition to the 130,000 stock indexes Dow Jones publishes globally, including the US, Britain and Japan versions of The Dow Jones Dharma Index.
The Dharma India Index, with 250 Indian companies, features stocks compliant with the code of moral conduct according to
Hinduism, teachings of the Buddha and which also incorporate principles of the Sikh and Jain religious tenets - together, ways of life with billions of followers in Asia and forming nearly 20% of the human race.
The index license is sold to asset managers and others wishing to commercially use the Dow Jones Indexes information to market investment products or for publication in the media, such as television and the Internet.
According to a Dow Jones presentation in Mumbai, socially responsible investing (SRI), including faith-based investing, accounts for US$4 trillion worth of assets under management, a figure growing 20% annually.
European SRI assets are worth nearly $1.75 trillion and such assets are worth $22 billion in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Dow Jones. "Historically, the increase of wealth within any population has resulted in an interest in ethical investing," the Dow Jones Dharma Investment presentation noted.
India's first SRI product was the ABN AMRO Sustainable Development Fund, launched in March 2007. The Dow Jones Dharma Index is the first major faith-based SRI product in India.
"Mid-to-long term, we expect products like funds, open-ended funds, index funds, certificates but also exchange-traded funds" to be potential investors to the index, said Nicole Wesch, from the Frankfurt office of Dow Jones.
The DJ Dharma India Index value will be updated daily with a quarterly review. "The review frequency of indexes depends on the use of the indexes," said Wesch. "For example, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 is reviewed monthly and the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 is reviewed annually." Most Dow Jones indexes are reviewed quarterly.
The DJ Dharma Index aims to meet the needs of socially aware investors seeking to avoid companies with harmful practices, services or products. Environmental screening in the DJ Dharma Index will consider corporate performance on emissions, climate change and carbon footprint analysis, oil and chemical spills, waste management and recycling. Corporate governance filtering will involve labor relations and disputes and discrimination allegations, human-rights violations, working conditions and wages.
The launch of Dow Jones Dharma Indexes comes as stocks compliant with the Islamic code of conduct, or sharia, are attracting more attention worldwide, with the Islamic investment market estimated between $400 billion to $500 billion.
The 51 Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, the world's first faith-based ethical investment products, made their debut in 1999, with input from an independent advisory Sharia Supervisory Board with a member each from from Syria, Pakistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Malaysia.
Data available from the Dow Jones Indexes website says the DJ Dharma India Index of 250 companies has a total market capitalization $919 billion, compared with $1.6 trillion among 415 companies in the Dow Jones Dharma Japan Index.
The DJ Dharma US Index features 1,065 companies with a total $5.3 trillion in market capitalization. The full list of companies in the Dharma Indexes is made available only to their licensees, which denies an independent chance to verify how accurate their filtering mechanisms are.
For instance, the Indian companies Dow Jones gave out as examples in their Dharma India Index - ICICI Bank Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Infosys Technologies Ltd, Housing Development Finance Corp and Bharti Airtel Ltd - did not include any units of the $70.3 billion Tata Group, India's most respected corporate house, India's largest corporate taxpayer and among the world's most socially responsible companies.
Philanthropic trusts own about 66% equity capital of Tata Sons, the primary promoter, making Tata Group possibly the largest corporate group of its kind in the world where the majority shareholder is Messrs Compassion and Charity.
"Until now, faith-based investing has been restricted to Islamic and Christian religions only," Nitesh Gor, chief executive of Dharma Investments, told the media. "But 20% of the world population consists of dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea [of the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes] is to promote faith-based investing through dharmic religion."
The word dharma in the ancient Indian languages of Sanskrit and in Pali dhamma has vast connotations that defies exact translation into English, but the primary meaning is "universal laws of nature" without any sectarian divisions.
Dow Jones Indexes acknowledges that dharma or dhamma is a "spiritual concept central to the many religions originating in South Asia, including Hinduism, the Buddha's non-sectarian teachings, Jainism, and Sikhism."
The Dharma Index subscribes to the core of all spiritual thought originating in India: non-violence, respect for all forms of life, compassion and loving kindness.
The investment potential for the so-called faith-based investment products following a moral code of conduct is particularly big in India and offers a combination of the country's ancient spiritual riches with new-found economic wealth.
India, after millennia, is seeing a resurgence in the teachings of the Buddha, not least in the increasingly widespread practice of Vipassana meditation. For the growing hundreds of thousands of Vipassana practitioners from all religions, including those from the business community for whom brief but intense workshops are available in numerous centers throughout the world, products such as the Dow Jones Dharma index make for easier choices on how to incorporate non-sectarian, practical self-realization into their daily lives.
Many leading Indian businessmen are serious practitioners of Vipassana, including media baron Subash Chandra Goel, owner of Zee Television, Asia's leading Hindi satellite channel. Companies such as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India and Indian Railways offer paid leave for senior officials and other employees to take Vipassana courses.
In Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, the government training center in Pune city for senior Indian Administrative Service officers, the Yeshwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, offers Vipassana courses as part of the curriculum.
Mumbai, India's busiest and most workaholic city, always finds time for investing in spiritual health. A long queue can invariably be found even on mornings of working days outside the famous Siddhivinayak Temple to Lord Ganesha, the deity for enterprises. Christians in the city drop into churches during the mid-day break and Friday prayers in mosques are well attended. In the miserably crowded suburban trains, many commuters quietly read prayer books or sing bhajans (devotional songs).
Faith-based investing in India took off with the world's first online sharia compliant online brokerage that opened in November 2007. Parsoli Corporation Limited, a Mumbai-based brokerage with a market capitalization of $25 million, launched Stockmultiplier.co.in, an online trading facility following the sharia, the life code of conduct, that forbids investing in businesses relating to alcohol, gambling, pornography and entertainment and those earning high income only from interest, such as financial institutions and commercial banks.
The company's Parsoli Islamic Equity Index tracks sharia-compliant stocks from listed equities in India's stock exchanges. "The response was overwhelming barely two days after we opened," Parsoli chief executive Jafar Sareshwala told Asia Times Online. "We received over 700 enquiries of which about 20% were non-Muslims. The idea of making money with clean investments appeals to a lot of people.''
The growth of Asian economies has helped to set the stage for the present concerns with investments anchored in religious values, according to Nitesh Gor of Dharma Investments, speaking at the Mumbai launch of the Dow Jones Dharma India Index.
"India and Asia have made remarkable advances economically over the last few years and in parallel we believe that bringing our religious values onto the global stage offers sustainable solutions to the problems facing the world today," he said.
The Dow Jones Dharma India Index is to be screened by three committees of academicians and religion practitioners - the academic advisory committee, a dharma supervisory committee and a religious council providing guidance and establishing the principles for the methodology.
Advisors include faculty members from Harvard University, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Britain's Oxford Center for Hindu Studies and the Oxford Center for Buddhist Studies, Yokohama University, Japan, Columbia University in the US, Thammasat University, Bangkok, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Religious figures involved include such as the venerable monks Dr Ashin Nyanissara, chancellor of Sitagu International Buddhist Academy, Myanmar, and the venerable Sangharaja, the patriarch of Cambodia, chief spiritual advisor to the king of Cambodia.
SRI evaluation clearly can be subjective, and what passes the SRI test for some fails for others. For instance, the Mumbai-based RO Somani Charitable Trust published its Karmayog corporate social responsibility ratings on January 4, with what it called India's first corporate social responsibility ratings of India's largest 500 companies based on sales.
"The results of the Karmayog CSR rating are extremely disappointing," the survey declared, "with no company meriting the highest five rating and with 46% of companies condemned with the lowest zero rating ... The only four companies with a four out of five rating were HDFC, Infosys Technologies, Tata Steel and Titan Industries."
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
April 12, 2007
Commercialization of religion must end
The Economic Times
12 April 2007
Its Time Marketers Explore Community-Specific Consumer Segments
Commercialization of religion must end
by S Irfan Habib
Scientist
NISTADS
New Delhi
Why should marketers explore community specific consumer segments now? As a matter of fact, a large number of Indian and transnational companies have done that already and this intervention has commercialized our cultural, social and religious lives. Than what do we mean by community in India?
As America seems to be the model in most of the market strategies, I must point out that American idea of a community is different from us in India. America is a huge diaspora where diverse races and communities form a single nation. Fresh communities are added changing the demographic profile of the American nation. Close to 18% US population today is Hispanic, with a growing purchasing power. A large number of marketing groups are rightly targeting this community. Comprising several unique and diverse consumer segments, the Hispanic Cohorts offers marketers the ability to understand the demographics, lifestyles, attitudes and behavioral characteristics of America’s largest, and fastest growing ethnic market. In India, however, the notion of a community is mostly around religion or region. Quite a few of our marginal Hindu festivals have been put on centre stage through the community specific marketing of several products. In a country like India, with serious economic and social disparities and heterogeneities, such unashamed commercialization has created social tensions, particularly in urban India. Why should a commercial product appeal to someone’s communitarian identity? We have designer T-Shirts with Om, Allah, and pictures of Gods and Goddesses in the market and now ring tones like Gayatri mantra for Hindus and Azaan for Muslims. One of the major MNCs launched a soap called Ganga with a claim that the soap had few drops of sacred Gangajal, obviously targeting the Hindu community in north India.
Besides profit and business, I see the need for community related marketing as part of the identity crisis in the globalized world. Even science and knowledge have not been spared from this essentialism and we have serious advocates for Islamic science and Hindu science, who tend to see their science as different from modern science. Islamic science in particular emphasizes its distinctive character, with Quran as its sole inspiration. I see all such attempts as divisive, particularly in a plural society like India.
Thus, I must say, I have a serious ethical problem with community specific marketing. Indian society, which is already fissured socially and regionally, should not be exposed to the neo-liberal market logic that revolves around profit at all cost. I do not advocate a return to the license raj but globalization does not mean unabashed aping of American consumerism. I say American here and not Western because I have often observed and shared a European’s discomfort with an American’s infinite appetite to consume
12 April 2007
Its Time Marketers Explore Community-Specific Consumer Segments
Commercialization of religion must end
by S Irfan Habib
Scientist
NISTADS
New Delhi
Why should marketers explore community specific consumer segments now? As a matter of fact, a large number of Indian and transnational companies have done that already and this intervention has commercialized our cultural, social and religious lives. Than what do we mean by community in India?
As America seems to be the model in most of the market strategies, I must point out that American idea of a community is different from us in India. America is a huge diaspora where diverse races and communities form a single nation. Fresh communities are added changing the demographic profile of the American nation. Close to 18% US population today is Hispanic, with a growing purchasing power. A large number of marketing groups are rightly targeting this community. Comprising several unique and diverse consumer segments, the Hispanic Cohorts offers marketers the ability to understand the demographics, lifestyles, attitudes and behavioral characteristics of America’s largest, and fastest growing ethnic market. In India, however, the notion of a community is mostly around religion or region. Quite a few of our marginal Hindu festivals have been put on centre stage through the community specific marketing of several products. In a country like India, with serious economic and social disparities and heterogeneities, such unashamed commercialization has created social tensions, particularly in urban India. Why should a commercial product appeal to someone’s communitarian identity? We have designer T-Shirts with Om, Allah, and pictures of Gods and Goddesses in the market and now ring tones like Gayatri mantra for Hindus and Azaan for Muslims. One of the major MNCs launched a soap called Ganga with a claim that the soap had few drops of sacred Gangajal, obviously targeting the Hindu community in north India.
Besides profit and business, I see the need for community related marketing as part of the identity crisis in the globalized world. Even science and knowledge have not been spared from this essentialism and we have serious advocates for Islamic science and Hindu science, who tend to see their science as different from modern science. Islamic science in particular emphasizes its distinctive character, with Quran as its sole inspiration. I see all such attempts as divisive, particularly in a plural society like India.
Thus, I must say, I have a serious ethical problem with community specific marketing. Indian society, which is already fissured socially and regionally, should not be exposed to the neo-liberal market logic that revolves around profit at all cost. I do not advocate a return to the license raj but globalization does not mean unabashed aping of American consumerism. I say American here and not Western because I have often observed and shared a European’s discomfort with an American’s infinite appetite to consume
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