Indian bourse aims for climate change fund

Mumbai - India's BSE, formerly known as the Bombay Stock Exchange, is in talks with asset managers to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on its climate change index in the next couple of years, its chief executive said on Monday.

BSE launched the S&P Carbonex index in 2012 based on its popular BSE 100 index, giving increased weighting to companies depending on carbon footprint scores.

"We continue to prod investors and people who specialise in those kind of investments about tracking this index and having an ETF," Ashishkumar Chauhan said at the Reuters Global Climate Change Summit.

"The investors who look to invest with a longer-term horizon tend to be a little more into nudging the companies into sustainable activities," Chauhan said. "This is not only a do-good kind of activity, but also a commercially prudent framework for investors to look at."