Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you and Igniting Minds Organisation, a Section 8 non-profit company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 (CIN to be inserted), having its registered office at Hyderabad, Telangana, India, operating the MaaPura platform ("MaaPura", "we", "us").

By creating an account, logging in, browsing, transacting, donating, listing products, subscribing to CSR engagement or otherwise using any part of the MaaPura web, mobile or SMS interfaces, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, Cancellation Policy and Shipping Policy. If you do not agree to any part of these documents, you must not use MaaPura.

To create a MaaPura account and transact on the platform you must be at least 18 years of age and capable of entering into a binding contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872. Citizen records of minors below 18 may be created on MaaPura only by a parent or lawful guardian, and any transactions on behalf of such minors are the legal responsibility of the guardian.

You represent that the information you provide during registration and KYC is true, accurate, current and complete, and you undertake to keep it up to date. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that contain false, fraudulent, impersonating or misleading information.

Several MaaPura features (marketplace selling, NRV sponsorship, donations exceeding ₹10,000 in a financial year, CSR engagement) require completion of KYC. By submitting your KYC you authorise us to verify the documents you upload, including the lawful processing of your Aadhaar number as a one-way hash (see the Privacy Policy).

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately at support@maapura.orgof any unauthorised use or suspected breach of your account.

When using MaaPura, you undertake that you will not:

• submit untrue, fraudulent, defamatory, abusive, threatening, obscene, casteist, communal or otherwise unlawful content;
• impersonate any person, misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organisation, or falsely claim eligibility for a scheme or service;
• scrape, crawl, harvest, mirror, redistribute, reverse-engineer or otherwise access MaaPura data through any means other than the user interface provided to you;
• circumvent the village-isolation, role-based access or rate-limit controls implemented on the platform;
• upload viruses, trojans, malicious payloads or otherwise interfere with the security or availability of the platform;
• use MaaPura in violation of any applicable Indian law, including the Information Technology Act, 2000, the DPDPA 2023, the Income-Tax Act, 1961, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

GramaShoppe is a managed marketplace where village artisans ("Artisans") list handmade products and registered buyers ("Buyers") place orders. MaaPura facilitates the listing, discovery, payment and dispute resolution between Artisans and Buyers; the underlying contract of sale is between the Artisan and the Buyer.

Revenue split. Each order is split as follows:

• 85% to the Artisan (paid out to their verified bank account / UPI on order delivery);
• 10% to the MaaPura platform fund (covers infrastructure, payment-gateway charges and grievance support);
• 5% to the village development fund of the Artisan's home Gram Panchayat.

Artisan obligations. Artisans warrant that:

• products listed are genuinely handmade or village-produced and not counterfeit;
• listings, photographs and descriptions are accurate and not misleading;
• statutory taxes and GST (where applicable) are correctly applied;
• orders are dispatched within the timeline declared at listing.

Buyer obligations. Buyers undertake to provide accurate shipping details, to inspect products on delivery and to raise return / refund requests within the windows stated in the Refund Policy and Cancellation Policy.

Escrow. Payments received from Buyers are held by the payment gateway and released to the Artisan on confirmed delivery, subject to dispute and return windows.

GramaDaan enables donors to support village development causes such as tree planting, elderly care, schemes for women and children, and digital literacy. Donations are received by Igniting Minds Organisation, which holds the necessary 80G and (where applicable) FCRA registrations.

• Donations are voluntary and non-refundable except as expressly stated in the Refund Policy.
• 80G tax-exemption certificates are issued by email to verified Indian donors who provide a valid PAN at the time of donation. The certificate is generally available within 7 working days of payment.
• Donations from non-resident Indian citizens located outside India and from foreign nationals are processed under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA). Such donations require additional disclosures (passport copy, source of funds) and the eligibility of 80G is governed by Indian tax law.
• Donations earmarked for a specific village or cause will be applied to that cause; if the cause is unable to absorb the funds, MaaPura may redirect the donation to a closely related cause after notifying the donor.

GramaPartner is MaaPura's programme for companies that wish to deploy their statutory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budget under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013. Sponsor companies undertake to:

• ensure that the activities they sponsor fall within Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013;
• provide accurate company details (CIN, GSTIN, FY budget allocation) for BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting) disclosures;
• not use the sponsorship for marketing or advertising in a manner that contravenes the CSR Rules, 2014;
• permit MaaPura to publish high-level outcome metrics (citizens reached, trees planted, scholarships disbursed) in its annual impact report.

MaaPura will provide CSR project utilisation certificates and annual impact reports aligned with BRSR and the CSR Rules, 2014.

The MaaPura name, logo, brand marks, product designs, software, documentation, analytics dashboards and the "Village Operating System" framework are the intellectual property of Igniting Minds Organisation. You may not copy, modify, republish, sub-licence or commercially exploit any part of the MaaPura platform without our prior written consent.

Content that you upload (photographs of artisan products, citizen records, grievance descriptions, event posters, NRV stories) remains your property; by uploading it you grant MaaPura a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, translate and use that content as necessary to operate the platform and produce aggregated impact reports.

• No medical advice. Health tracking, vital sign capture, blood-group matching and elderly care features on MaaPura are informational. They are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult a registered medical practitioner.
• No legal advice. Scheme eligibility, grievance routing and CSR Schedule VII guidance are reference information. They are not legal advice and do not create a lawyer-client relationship.
• Government schemes. Information about central and state government schemes is sourced from public databases and is provided on an "as-is" basis. Eligibility, benefit amounts and application procedures are subject to change by the issuing authority. MaaPura does not guarantee approval or disbursement of any scheme benefit.
• Third-party services. MaaPura integrates with third-party providers (Razorpay, MSG91, Firebase, AWS, IMD weather API). We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy or security of those third-party services.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable Indian law, in no event shall Igniting Minds Organisation, its directors, employees, volunteers or affiliates be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages, or for loss of profits, goodwill, data, or business opportunity, arising out of or in connection with your use of the MaaPura platform.

Our aggregate liability for any direct damages arising from your use of MaaPura shall not exceed (a) in the case of marketplace orders, the value of the order in question, (b) in the case of donations, the donated amount, and (c) in all other cases, the sum of ₹10,000.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Igniting Minds Organisation, its directors, employees, volunteers and affiliates from and against all claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising out of (a) your breach of these Terms, (b) your violation of any third-party right, including intellectual-property, privacy and consumer-protection rights, or (c) any content you submit to the platform.

We may suspend or terminate your access to MaaPura at any time, with or without notice, if (a) you breach these Terms, (b) we are required to do so by law, or (c) we discontinue a part of the platform. On termination, sections that by their nature survive (Intellectual property, Disclaimers, Limitation of liability, Indemnity, Governing law) continue to apply.

You may close your account and request deletion of your personal data at any time by writing to dpo@maapura.org.

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of India. Subject to the dispute-resolution provisions in the next paragraph, the courts at Hyderabad, Telangana, India shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or your use of MaaPura.

Before initiating any legal proceedings, you agree to first attempt to resolve the dispute by writing to our Grievance Officer at dpo@maapura.org. We will acknowledge within 48 hours and attempt resolution within 30 days. If the dispute remains unresolved, either party may refer the dispute to arbitration by a sole arbitrator at Hyderabad under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

For any questions about these Terms of Service:

• Operational support — support@maapura.org
• Grievance Officer / DPO — dpo@maapura.org
• Postal — Igniting Minds Organisation, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.