Ethical Scoring-AQ

AIM (is a group of individuals believing in principle of ‘ahimsa’ and working towards creating awareness to promote ‘Ethical Investment’.

We (AhimsaGain Foundation) are a Section-8, Not for profit company based in Mumbai, India.

Our goal is to enable capital flow towards relatively ahimsak business activities and away from companies that harm humans, animals and/or the planet earth, that is the only available home for both.

AIM works at dual level:

Educate retail investors about cruelty-free, ahimsa in investments through research, social media and content
AIM consults with and provides inputs to financial institutions to curate ahimsak stocks and create cruelty-free financial products.

AQ Scoring Framework:

AIM’s methodology for curating ahimsak investment

To research every listed stock by checking business activities, raw materials used to create final products and usage of final products.

Two major criteria for AQ score:

Level of involvement of the Company in himsak activities & Severity of harm
Revenue of the Company from himsak activities

Involvement, Severity of Harm & income	Industry Examples	AQ score/ Category
1. Direct Involvement & Very high level of income from harmful activities	Slaughterhouses, poultry farms, dairy, animal testing, defense, meat-based food, leather/wool-based apparel	Red
2. Direct Involvement – but moderately Harmful	Using meat, dairy, leather etc. but not as core operation (e.g., airlines serving meat)	Red
3. Supporting Harmful Businesses	Banks, NBFCs, software companies offering capital/services to harmful businesses.	Orange
4. Indirect Support	Mutual funds (investing in harmful companies)	Orange
5. Minimal Indirect Involvement	Telecom, Digital Media, Entertainment	Green

AQ Scoring- Explanation

Assigning AQ (Ahimsa Quotient) score

Assign AQ (Ahimsa Quotient) score to companies and then classify them into green, orange and red categories based on above criteria.

Prioritisation:

What is harmful to one is ultimately harmful to all.

However, at times, the interests of one don’t align with those of the others in the short run.

In such situations, the immediate saving of lives would be considered a priority over long term harm.

For example, vehicle seats made from synthetic materials are generally considered pollutants that take a very long time for bio-degradation and hence harmful to the planet. However, they replace leather, thus saving animal lives immediately and so would be considered investible.

Industry classification-

National Stock Exchange of India is having a list of some183 industries. We have classified these industries in Green, Orange & Red categories based on above himsak/ahimsak criteria.

We have done research of 1,000+ companies and assigned ratings to them. We are regularly adding more companies in this list.

For companies not covered by us, investors can take help of industry classification and find companies falls in which ‘industry segment’. Accordingly, investor will be able to categories particular company.

Disclaimer-

The whole objective of this classification is to create awareness about ‘ahimsa’ principle and provide opportunity to investors to invest in companies doing least harm to individuals, animals, birds, sea creatures and environment.
This classification and all work of AIM are neutral to any religion, caste or region.
The entire exercise to classify companies are based on fundamental principle of ‘ Himsa or Ahimsa’.
Ahimsa is a very subjective term and no individual can define it in objective term with 100% accuracy. However, we have taken proper care to classify companies based on parameters given above and based on information available.
There are many companies operating in various business segments (diversified) and it is difficult to segregate himsak and ahimsak activities and revenue from each business segment. We have tried to classify them in Green, Orange and Red categories to the best of our judgement.
The whole idea is to provide broad indication about nature of activities of the companies.
We do not claim all data to be 100% scientifically or mathematically true. We have relied on publicly available information and own judgement applied where data not available.
It is possible that all companies may directly or indirectly cause harm to one or other living beings. But, our aim is to arrive at company list which is causing ‘least harm’.
We could get exact segment wise revenue and raw material value data for some companies. For other companies, we have applied our judgement based on available information for particular industry.
This classification and research work is an ongoing exercise and there may be some changes based on more research or more details available.
Institutions and Individual investors should exercise their own discretion while using these data.
If any person/company find any discrepancies in data/ratings of AIM then we will be happy to discuss and revise ratings based on additional data/information received from such company.