Islamic and Christian investors are increasingly well served with financial products from funds to mortgages designed to meet their ethical and spiritual beliefs. For Muslims, it is important not to pay or receive interest, and believers of many faiths may prefer to shun investments in companies involved in gambling or pornography, for example.

But fund managers have largely ignored the needs of more than a billion people in the world, mainly in Asia, who follow religions in which the concept of Dharma – the law that orders the universe – plays an important role. Most of these potential investors are Hindus and Buddhists, but Sikhs and Jains are also included.