Opportunities in India
Shariah-valid endowment through ordinary private law. What each participant gains in developing the waqf ecosystem here, and how to begin.
India has a large statutory waqf estate, a government digitisation programme, a sophisticated private-wealth industry, and Muslim families and companies who want arrangements that are recognisably Islamic and legally sound at once.
What it lacks is shared infrastructure on which a founder, an administering institution, a bank, a scholar and an auditor each do their own job on the same record.
We do not compete with the statutory waqf system
The Central Waqf Council, the State Waqf Boards and the UMEED (Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development) Central Portal hold the statutory register, and a statutory waqf is registered there. Where an arrangement is made under ordinary private law instead, the platform records it as exactly that, and never presents itself as an alternative register.
The parties to a waqf
The shape is the same in every country. What differs is who fills each box, and under what law.
What each stakeholder gains
Families, founders and endowed institutions
Dedicate cash, shares, sukuk, property, gold or a defined right, and say exactly what it is for, who benefits and for how long, with any minority position among scholars disclosed before you choose. Universities and hospitals can hold named chairs, scholarship funds and restricted-purpose endowments on a record that outlives everyone present.
Family offices, private trustees and law firms
The platform has no view on how an Indian settlement should be drafted, which is exactly the gap you fill. It keeps the record that begins the day after the deed is signed: constitution, beneficiary mandates, conditions, custody confirmations, governance decisions and the evidence behind each, in a form a successor can pick up.
Banks, custodians and depositories
We record what you confirm you hold, with your own statement as evidence, shown as current or lapsed by the date you gave, and being named opens no account and creates no obligation. Where you also distribute, an endowment becomes a product you can offer a client without building the administration behind it.
Corporations, corporate social responsibility foundations and investment managers
An endowment funds a purpose from returns rather than this year’s allocation and survives a change of management, and an impact claim larger than its evidence is refused. Managers invest within the policy the arrangement sets, and holdings, valuations and breaches are recorded against that policy rather than against a client’s memory of it.
Shariah scholars, auditors and impact assessors
Every ruling names who made it, what it rests on and which of its conditions the platform enforces, so a condition nothing checks never reads like one that binds. Governance, Shariah, financial and impact assurances each carry a named giver and an expiry, which makes an assurance market that does not yet exist for private endowments in India.
Administering institutions
A professional trustee, a not-for-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, a family office or a charitable trust administering a waqf is the platform’s principal customer, and the widest set of choices is yours.
In India the range is the argument: one institution can hold perpetual and term, family, charitable and joint arrangements of cash, property and rights under one record and one governance model, with the Shariah classification stated apart from the civil-law form. That combination is not currently available anywhere.
A waqif is shown only the forms their Operator accepts, so these choices are your product range rather than limits we set. What every Operator decides is set out on Waqf Operators.
How to begin
| Step | What happens | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Establish the legal route | Indian counsel and trustees test whether each ruled form can be made under Indian private law, and through which instrument. Nothing else can come before this. |
| 2 | Assemble the professional ecosystem | Counsel, tax advisers, a trustee, a custodian bank and a Shariah adviser, each in the role the platform already models, so that no party has to do another’s job. |
| 3 | Structure one arrangement properly | One family or company, knowing it is first, taken through constitution, funding, custody confirmation and the first distribution. |
| 4 | Publish its passport | What is current, what has lapsed and what nobody has yet assured, as the first evidence that the record can be checked. |
| 5 | Widen the range | More forms and asset classes, adopted as the administering institution is ready to stand behind them and not before. |
What is not built yet
- Only two awqaf in India are administered on this platform so far, and their passports are public.
- The Indian legal implementation does not exist. Which instrument, in which state and with what tax consequence, across trust, contract, fiduciary, charitable and securities law, is what we are asking Indian counsel and trustees to decide with us.
- The platform has not been through an Indian regulatory review, and we would rather approach that with counsel and a partner than assert a conclusion alone.
What we are asking for
We are not asking for investment or commitment.
- Counsel and trustees to test whether the ruled forms can be implemented under Indian private law, and how.
- A family or a company willing to be the first structured arrangement, knowing it is first.
- A bank or custodian willing to be recorded as a holder and to confirm holdings in the ordinary course.
- Scholars willing to read the rulings and say where they disagree, which is the most useful thing anyone can give us now.
We are also starting in Malaysia, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Work with us in India
How a waqf may be made, and the basis on which each form is allowed, is open to read without an account. If you can bring any of the above, write to us.