madhukosha®

Madhukosha

Terms of Use

Operated by Madhukosha Apiary Services Private Limited

Version 1.0 | Effective Date: 1 September 2026 | Last updated: 1 September 2026 | Website: https://madhukosha.org | Jurisdiction: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE MADHUKOSHA WEBSITE OR APPLICATION. BY BROWSING THE PLATFORM, USING THE CROP POLLINATION LOOKUP TOOL, SUBMITTING AN ENQUIRY OR ORDER FORM, OR MAKING A PAYMENT AGAINST A QUOTATION, YOU AGREE TO BE LEGALLY BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND BY EVERY POLICY INCORPORATED INTO THEM. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, YOU MUST STOP USING THE PLATFORM.

Preliminary

  1. About us. Madhukosha Apiary Services Private Limited (“Madhukosha”, “the Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 with its registered office at 305, 1st Floor, Heritage Street, 6th Block, Banashankari 6th Stage, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560060, India. We operate the website at https://madhukosha.org and the Madhukosha Android application (together, the “Platform”).
  2. What we do. We do two things. First, we publish the Crop Pollination Lookup Tool, a free informational tool that summarises published research on the pollination of Indian crops. Second, we sell the PolliHab - a terracotta beehive supplied with an established honey bee colony as a one-time purchase, on our own account.
  3. Scope and incorporated policies. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) form a legally binding agreement between you and Madhukosha. They must be read together with the following, each of which is incorporated into and forms part of these Terms: the Privacy Policy; the Consent Policy; the Cookie Policy; and the Refund and Cancellation Policy.
  4. Order of precedence. If there is a conflict between these Terms and an incorporated policy, these Terms prevail, except that (a) the Privacy Policy, the Consent Policy and the Cookie Policy prevail on any question of the processing of personal data, and (b) the Refund and Cancellation Policy prevails on any question of refund, replacement or cancellation. A quotation accepted by payment prevails over all of them as to price, quantity and specification.
  5. Acceptance. You accept these Terms by ticking the box marked “I have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Refund and Cancellation Policy” on the enquiry or order form, which is not pre-ticked, and again by making payment against a quotation. We record the version of these Terms you accepted, together with the date and time. Continued use of the Platform also constitutes acceptance.
  6. Amendments. We may amend these Terms. We will publish a material amendment on the Platform at least seven (7) days before it takes effect. The version in force when you paid governs your purchase; a later amendment does not apply retrospectively to a completed sale.

Definitions and Interpretation

  1. “PolliHab” means the terracotta beehive supplied with an established honey bee colony, sold by us under these Terms.
  2. “Lookup Tool” means the Crop Pollination Lookup Tool made available on the Platform.
  3. “Enquiry” means the form you submit on the Platform stating your name, mobile number, pincode, role and requirement.
  4. “Quotation” means the written offer we send you stating the specification, quantity, price, and any delivery information for the PolliHab units you have enquired about.
  5. “Payment Link” means the Razorpay Payment Link by which payment against a Quotation is collected.
  6. “Delivery” means handing over the PolliHab units at the address stated in the Quotation, or at such other place as is agreed in writing.
  7. “Applicable Law” means the Indian Contract Act, 1872, the Sale of Goods Act, 1930, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the rules made under it, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, and every other law applicable to us or to you, each as amended.
  8. Headings are for convenience only. The singular includes the plural and vice versa. “Including” means “including without limitation”. “Shall” imposes an obligation, “may” confers a discretion, and “will” states a future fact.

Eligibility

  1. Age and capacity. The Platform is available only to persons competent to contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872. By using the Platform you represent that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age. A person under eighteen (18) may not submit an Enquiry or make a purchase.
  2. Territory. We sell and deliver within India only. We do not accept orders for delivery outside India, and we do not accept payment in any currency other than Indian Rupees.
  3. Purpose of use. The Platform is offered for business, agricultural, institutional and hobbyist use in relation to pollination and beekeeping. You must not use it for any other purpose.
  4. Your responsibility for permissions. You are responsible for obtaining any permission, consent or approval required at your location for keeping honey bees, including any permission required from a landowner, a housing society, a local authority or a neighbouring occupier, and for complying with any local rule on the siting of hives. We do not obtain those permissions for you and we do not verify that you hold them.

The Crop Pollination Lookup Tool

  1. Licence. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Lookup Tool for your own information. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
  2. What the Lookup Tool is. The Lookup Tool summarises published research on the pollination of Indian crops. It shows the sources it draws on. It is a starting point for your own judgement.
  3. What the Lookup Tool is not. The Lookup Tool does not give agronomic, financial, veterinary or legal advice, and nothing it displays is such advice. We work to keep the information accurate, but we do not guarantee that it is complete, current or correct for your particular field, crop, season or situation. Any decision you take on the basis of the Lookup Tool is your own decision, and you must satisfy yourself independently before acting on it. The Lookup Tool is provided on an “as is” basis.
  4. Restrictions. You must not, and must not permit any person to:
    1. scrape, crawl, harvest or extract the contents of the Lookup Tool by any automated means;
    2. submit automated or bulk queries to it;
    3. reproduce, republish, redistribute, sell or licence its data or outputs, whether in whole or in substantial part;
    4. reverse engineer or attempt to derive the underlying dataset; or
    5. misrepresent its outputs as ours where you have altered them.
  5. Fair use and enforcement. We may impose rate limits, require verification, or block access, where we reasonably believe that use of the Lookup Tool breaches clause 4.4 or threatens the availability of the Platform for others.
  6. Availability. The Lookup Tool is provided free of charge. We do not commit to any level of availability for it, and we may change, suspend or withdraw it at any time without notice or liability.

How a Purchase Works

  1. There is no cart or checkout. The Platform does not sell the PolliHab by an online checkout. The sequence is set out below, and no contract of sale arises before step (e).
    1. You submit an Enquiry stating your requirement, crop, acreage, location and the number of units you want.
    2. We assess whether the PolliHab is suitable for your crop and location, and whether a colony is available.
    3. We send you a Quotation, together with these Terms and the Refund and Cancellation Policy.
    4. If you accept, we send you a Razorpay Payment Link for the amount in the Quotation.
    5. When your payment is successfully received, a binding contract of sale is formed between you and Madhukosha on the terms of the Quotation and these Terms. The Quotation is an offer; your payment is the acceptance.
  2. Our right to decline. We may decline an Enquiry, withdraw a Quotation before payment, or decline to accept payment, where a colony is not available, where the location is unsuitable, where we reasonably suspect fraud or a breach of these Terms, or where supply would be unlawful. If we decline after receiving payment, we will return the full amount received to the original payment method within seven (7) business days.
  3. Accuracy of what you tell us. The suitability assessment, the Quotation and the delivery arrangements all depend on the information you give us about your crop, acreage, location and access. You are responsible for the accuracy of that information. We are not responsible for an outcome that follows from information you gave us that was inaccurate or incomplete.
  4. Pre-contract information. Before you pay, the Quotation will state: the total price payable; the quantity and specification of the units; the delivery address and the expected delivery arrangement; the fact that the sale is not refundable and that replacement is the sole remedy, as set out in the Refund and Cancellation Policy; and our contact and grievance details.

Price, Taxes and Payment

  1. Price. The price is the amount stated in the Quotation. Prices shown anywhere on the Platform are indicative only and do not constitute an offer.
  2. Taxes. Madhukosha is not registered under the Goods and Services Tax law, and accordingly no goods and services tax is charged on, or collected under, the Quotation, and no tax invoice bearing a GSTIN is issued. If we become liable to register, we will charge the applicable tax on Quotations issued after that date, and we will say so on the face of the Quotation.
  3. Payment. Payment is collected through a Razorpay Payment Link. Razorpay is an independent payment service provider; your use of the Payment Link is also governed by Razorpay’s own terms and privacy policy. We do not receive or store your card number, UPI credential, CVV or bank password.
  4. Payment failures and double debits. Where a payment fails but an amount is debited, or where a duplicate debit occurs, the reversal is made by Razorpay or your bank in accordance with their timelines. Raise such matters with Razorpay and your bank. We will give reasonable assistance but we do not control those timelines and cannot guarantee an outcome that lies with a financial institution.
  5. One-time purchase. The PolliHab is sold as a one-time purchase. There is no subscription, no recurring billing, no auto-renewal and no stored payment instrument. Nothing you buy from us renews automatically.

Delivery, Risk and Title

  1. Timing. Delivery timelines vary with location, colony availability and season. We do not publish a fixed delivery period. The expected arrangement is communicated in the Quotation, and any revised timing is communicated to you by telephone, WhatsApp or email as soon as we know it.
  2. Live goods. A PolliHab contains a living honey bee colony. Delivery must therefore be scheduled by agreement, and someone must be present to receive it. You shall give us safe access to the site, and shall tell us in advance of anything at the site that would make placement unsafe or unsuitable.
  3. Failure to take delivery. If you are not available at the agreed time, or the site cannot safely be reached, we will attempt to reschedule once. If delivery fails a second time for a reason attributable to you, the units are treated as delivered, risk passes to you, and any further attempt is at your cost.
  4. Risk and title. Risk in the PolliHab passes to you on Delivery. Title passes to you on the later of Delivery and receipt by us of the full amount due.
  5. Placement. Unless the Quotation says otherwise, we place the unit at the point you direct. You are responsible for the suitability and safety of that point, and for the hive thereafter.

The Colony - What We Warrant and What We Do Not

  1. What we warrant. We warrant that, at the time of Delivery: (a) the terracotta hive is free from manufacturing defect and is not broken or cracked; and (b) an established honey bee colony is present and alive in it.
  2. What we do not warrant. Honey bees are wild living creatures. Their behaviour after Delivery depends on forage, weather, disease, predation, pesticide exposure, siting, handling and other factors outside our control. Accordingly we do not warrant, and give no assurance as to: the continued presence of the colony; that the colony will not abscond or swarm; the health, size, strength, temperament or survival of the colony; any level of honey production; any level of pollination or of crop yield; or any commercial or agronomic outcome of any kind.
  3. Your obligations. After Delivery you shall keep the hive in a manner consistent with the placement and care guidance we give you, shall not expose the colony to pesticide application without appropriate precautions, and shall not relocate the hive without observing the guidance given. Failure to do so is a matter within your control, not ours.
  4. No maintenance service. We provide no ongoing maintenance, inspection, feeding, requeening or colony-management service. Any such service must be agreed separately in writing and is charged separately.
  5. Checking on arrival. Because a colony can only be assessed at the moment of Delivery, you shall inspect the unit at Delivery and, if the hive is damaged or no live colony is present, report it in accordance with clause 9 and the Refund and Cancellation Policy.
  6. Nothing here excludes statutory rights. Nothing in this clause 8 excludes or limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or the Sale of Goods Act, 1930 that cannot lawfully be excluded, including any remedy for goods that were defective at the time of Delivery.

Refund, Replacement and Cancellation

  1. The rule. The sale is final. No monetary refund is payable once payment has been made and a colony has been allocated to your order.
  2. The sole remedy. Where the hive is found on Delivery to be damaged, or no live colony is present, the sole remedy is replacement of the affected unit, at Madhukosha’s discretion. A request for replacement must be made within forty-eight (48) hours of Delivery, with photographs, in the manner set out in the Refund and Cancellation Policy.
  3. Where we cannot supply. If we cancel before Delivery, or cannot supply after receiving payment, we will return the full amount received to the original payment method within seven (7) business days.
  4. Detail. The full framework, including exclusions, the process and the timelines, is set out in the Refund and Cancellation Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms.
  5. Chargebacks. If you consider a charge incorrect, raise a grievance under clause 16 before initiating a chargeback. Initiating a chargeback in respect of goods validly delivered may result in recovery of the amount due together with the costs we incur.

Acceptable Use

  1. You must not, and must not permit any person to:
    1. use the Platform in breach of any Applicable Law, or for fraud, impersonation or any financial crime;
    2. scrape, crawl, harvest or extract data from the Platform, or submit automated or bulk queries to the Lookup Tool;
    3. redistribute, resell or republish the data or outputs of the Lookup Tool, in whole or in substantial part;
    4. introduce malware, or interfere with, disrupt, probe or overload the Platform or its infrastructure;
    5. attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Platform, any account, or any server or network connected to it;
    6. reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any part of the Platform;
    7. misrepresent your identity, your location or your requirement in an Enquiry;
    8. use our name, logo, trade mark or brand without our prior written consent, or hold yourself out as our agent, dealer or distributor; or
    9. resell a PolliHab as a Madhukosha-supported product, or represent that we support, warrant or service a unit you have resold.
  2. Consequences. Breach of this clause may result in blocking of access, rate limiting, cancellation of an Enquiry or Quotation, refusal of future supply, reporting to the authorities, and any legal remedy available to us. Where the breach is capable of being cured, we will give you notice and seven (7) days to cure it before terminating access, unless the breach is of clause 10(a), (d) or (e), in which case we may act immediately.

Intellectual Property

  1. The Platform, the Lookup Tool, its underlying dataset and compilation, the Madhukosha name and logo, and all text, design, photographs, graphics and software on the Platform are owned by us or licensed to us, and are protected under the Copyright Act, 1957, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and other Applicable Law.
  2. You may view and print pages of the Platform for your own non-commercial reference, and you may quote short extracts from the Lookup Tool with attribution to Madhukosha and a link to the source page. You may do nothing else with our content without our prior written consent.
  3. Where the Lookup Tool cites published research, the rights in that research remain with its authors and publishers, and our citation does not grant you any right in it.
  4. If you send us feedback, we may use it without restriction and without any obligation to you.

Personal Data

  1. The collection, use, sharing, retention and protection of personal data is governed by the Privacy Policy, the Consent Policy and the Cookie Policy, each of which is incorporated into these Terms.
  2. You agree to receive service and transactional communications relating to your Enquiry, Quotation, payment and Delivery by telephone, WhatsApp and email. These are necessary to perform the contract and are not marketing.
  3. You will receive marketing and promotional communications, and your contact details will be used for advertising audience targeting, only if you have separately opted in. You may withdraw that consent at any time as described in the Consent Policy.

Disclaimers

  1. To the fullest extent permitted by Applicable Law, the Platform and the Lookup Tool are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without warranty of any kind, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or uninterrupted or error-free operation.
  2. Nothing on the Platform constitutes agronomic, financial, veterinary or legal advice.
  3. We do not warrant any level of crop yield, pollination outcome, honey production or commercial return arising from the use of a PolliHab or of the Lookup Tool.
  4. We are not responsible for the content, security or practices of any third-party website or service we link to, including Substack, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google, WhatsApp and Razorpay.
  5. Nothing in this clause 13 excludes or limits any liability or right that cannot be excluded under Applicable Law, including rights available to consumers under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Limitation of Liability

  1. Cap. To the fullest extent permitted by Applicable Law, our total aggregate liability to you, whether in contract, tort, statute or otherwise, arising out of or in connection with a purchase, the Platform or the Lookup Tool, shall not exceed the price actually paid by you for the PolliHab unit or units that gave rise to the claim. Where you have not paid us anything, our total aggregate liability shall not exceed five thousand rupees (₹5,000).
  2. Excluded losses. We shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, nor for loss of profit, revenue, crop, yield, opportunity, goodwill, data or anticipated saving, however arising.
  3. Colony outcomes. Without limiting clause 8, we shall not be liable for the absconding, swarming, decline, disease, predation or death of a colony after Delivery, nor for any loss said to follow from it.
  4. What is not excluded. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for wilful misconduct, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including rights available to consumers under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
  5. Basis. You acknowledge that the price of the PolliHab reflects this allocation of risk, and that the Lookup Tool is provided free of charge.

Indemnity

  1. You shall indemnify and hold harmless Madhukosha and its directors, officers and employees against any claim, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: your breach of these Terms or of any Applicable Law; your use of the Lookup Tool or of its outputs; any injury or damage caused by a hive after Delivery to you, including to any third party or neighbouring occupier; and any information you gave us that was inaccurate or incomplete.
  2. We shall notify you of any claim to which this clause applies, shall not settle it without your consent (not to be unreasonably withheld), and shall give you reasonable assistance at your cost in defending it.

Grievance Redressal

  1. Grievance Officer. Vijithendra Thejaswi, Chief Executive Officer, Madhukosha Apiary Services Private Limited, 305, 1st Floor, Heritage Street, 6th Block, Banashankari 6th Stage, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560060, India, email hello@madhukosha.org.
  2. Timelines. We will acknowledge a grievance within forty-eight (48) hours of receipt and will resolve it within thirty (30) days. A complaint under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it will be acknowledged within twenty-four (24) hours and disposed of within fifteen (15) days.
  3. What to include. Your name, the mobile number or email address you used, the Quotation or payment reference, what happened, and what you want us to do.
  4. Escalation. If you remain dissatisfied you may approach the consumer dispute redressal commission having jurisdiction, or, in respect of personal data, the Data Protection Board of India.

Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

  1. Governing law. These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India.
  2. Steps. Any dispute shall be dealt with as follows: (a) you shall first raise it with the Grievance Officer under clause 16 and the parties shall attempt in good faith to resolve it; (b) if it is not resolved within thirty (30) days of being raised, the parties shall attempt to resolve it by mediation before a mediator appointed by agreement, seated at Bengaluru; and (c) failing resolution, the dispute shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts at Bengaluru, Karnataka.
  3. Consumer rights preserved. Nothing in clause 17.2 prevents you, as a consumer, from instituting a complaint before the consumer dispute redressal commission within whose jurisdiction you ordinarily reside or personally work for gain, as provided under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Force Majeure

  1. We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by an event beyond our reasonable control, including act of God, flood, drought, cyclone, fire, epidemic, disease outbreak affecting bee populations, pesticide contamination of a region, government action, civil unrest, strike, failure of telecommunications or payment infrastructure, or failure of a third-party provider.
  2. If such an event prevents Delivery for more than sixty (60) days from the expected date, either party may cancel the affected order by notice, and we will return the amount received for that order to the original payment method within seven (7) business days.

Suspension and Termination

  1. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform, in whole or in part, where you breach these Terms or Applicable Law, where required by a competent authority, or where we reasonably consider it necessary to protect the Platform or any person. Where the breach is capable of cure we will give notice and seven (7) days to cure, except in the cases stated in clause 10.2.
  2. Clauses 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 and any other provision which by its nature should survive, shall survive termination.

Notices

  1. Notices to us shall be sent to hello@madhukosha.org and to Madhukosha Apiary Services Private Limited, 305, 1st Floor, Heritage Street, 6th Block, Banashankari 6th Stage, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560060, India.
  2. Notices to you may be sent by email, WhatsApp or SMS to the address or number you gave us, or published on the Platform. A notice sent by email, WhatsApp or SMS is deemed received on the day it is sent; a notice published on the Platform is deemed received on the day of publication.

Miscellaneous

  1. Entire agreement. These Terms, the incorporated policies and the Quotation constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to their subject matter and supersede all prior discussions.
  2. Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force.
  3. No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
  4. Assignment. You may not assign your rights under these Terms. We may assign ours to a successor in business or to an affiliate, on notice to you.
  5. No agency. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, agency, joint venture or employment relationship.
  6. Limitation. Nothing in these Terms shortens or otherwise restricts the period of limitation prescribed by law for bringing a claim.

By using the Platform, submitting an Enquiry or paying against a Quotation, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed to these Terms of Use and the policies incorporated into them.

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Supported by PM-RKVY and Incubated at MANAGE-CIA.Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare · PM-RKVY · MANAGE-CIA, Hyderabad
Pre-incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore.NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore