By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been urged to take benefits of interest-free Islamic finance for the infrastructure development of Bihar. H Abdur Raqeeb, Convenor, National Committee on Islamic Banking, met the CM here on Wednesday and urged him to use huge pool of liquidity lying in the Gulf States.
“State of Bihar is fortunate to have you as a Chief Minister, who is determined to take the state to new heights of development and remove the backwardness and underdevelopment in the near future. In this regard we want to submit that interest free Islamic finance can play a significant part,” Mr Raqeeb told the CM.
H Abdur Raqeeb (in black shirt), Convenor, National Committee on Islamic Banking, talking to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the need for Interest-free Islamic Finance for infrastructure development
He informed him that after 9/11, liquidity rich Gulf States are looking towards India and China for long term investments in trillions. “With huge human capital-demographic dividend in the state, this available long term Islamic finance could be used in infrastructure development of the state of Bihar under your able stewardship and turn it to be one of the developed states and role model in the years to come,” Mr Raqeeb, who is also General Secretary of Indian Centre for Islamic Finance, said in his memorandum to the CM.
He also apprised him that some states of the country have already attracted investment from Gulf and urged him to take cue from them.
“The states of Maharashtra and Kerala have already taken the steps in this regard. In Maharashtra, Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House is investing $10 billion in the coming years for setting up an integrated Economic Development Zone near Mumbai. In Kerala, to tap the remittances of Gulf region, the state government has initiated an NBFC of Rs 1000 crores along with private investors for infrastructure development and Kerala State Industrial Development Corp is having a share in it. Therefore it is requested that Bihar government can also pursue this option of huge long term investment and turn the state into a bastion of development and prosperity.”
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, H Abdur Raqeeb (in black shirt), Convenor, National Committee on Islamic Banking and others at the launch of “The Multilingual Dictionary of Holy Quran”
Mr Raqeeb also urged the CM to prevail upon the centre to take step in this regard.
Mr Raqeeb met CM Nitish on the sidelines of a book launch program in the capital on 20th April. The CM released the Multilingual Dictionary of Quran compiled by senior Urdu journalist Zamir Ahmed. The 723-page dictionary contains 1.4 lakh words used in Quran with their meaning in Hindi, Urdu, English and Persian. Mr Raqeeb was also a guest speaker at the program.