Terms of service · v3 · 2026-05-15 · Edge Terminal update

Terms of Service

v3, updated May 2026 to cover the launch of Edge Terminal — our educational analytics layer at bharathshiksha.com/terminal/ — alongside the existing cohort, affiliate, testimonials, and diagnostic features. The educational-publisher posture under SEBI's January 2025 framework remains unchanged: we sell curriculum access, we do not provide investment advice. By enrolling in any Bharath Shiksha stage or using bharathshiksha.com (including Edge Terminal), you accept these terms.

1. Scope & educational publisher posture

Bharath Shiksha is an educational publisher. We provide structured curriculum, encyclopedia content, calculators, articles, and tutor channel access for educational purposes. We do not provide:

• Investment advice or recommendations on specific securities.
• Buy/sell/hold signals, real-time alerts, or trading-call services.
• Personalised investment plans or portfolio management.
• Performance projections, return guarantees, or claims of trading accuracy.
• Brokerage, trade execution, or fund-management services.

Per the SEBI January 2025 circular distinguishing investor education from investment advice, our entire scope is education. The compliance whitepaper (/compliance/whitepaper.pdf) details our content, platform, and operational controls.

2. Enrolment, payment, lifetime access

Enrolment

Enrolment in any Bharath Shiksha stage requires: a valid email address, payment of the stage fee via Razorpay (or All-Inclusive bundle), self-declaration that you are 18+, and acceptance of these terms.

Payment

All payments are processed by Razorpay. We accept UPI, debit cards, credit cards, net banking, and supported wallets. We do not accept cash, cheques, or cryptocurrency. Currency: Indian Rupees (₹) only.

Lifetime access — what it means

"Lifetime access" means literal lifetime: no annual fees, no automatic renewals, no surprise charges. Once you've completed the 7-day refund window, your enrolment is permanent. This applies to:

• The video lessons, curriculum book PDFs, and lesson-library access.
• The cohort discussion thread for the cohort you enrolled in.
• Updates to the curriculum (new editions of the book, refreshed videos) — at no additional cost.
• Tutor channel access (subject to fair-use limits).

Lifetime access does not include:

• Future stages you haven't enrolled in.
• Cohorts beyond the one you enrolled in (re-enrolling in a future cohort of the same stage requires no payment, but seat availability isn't guaranteed).
• Content from new scanner categories (Crossovers, Volume Profile, etc.) added after your enrolment, if the new category is sold separately. Most encyclopedia expansions are included; explicit additions to the catalogue may be priced separately.

Account responsibilities

Your account credentials are your responsibility. Don't share login. If you suspect unauthorised access, change your password and notify support@bharathshiksha.com. Sharing credentials with non-students is grounds for account termination without refund (see Acceptable Use section 5).

3. Cohort enrolment terms

Cohort enrolment includes everything in solo enrolment (curriculum, book, videos, tutor channel) plus:

• Cohort discussion thread access for the duration of the cohort and beyond.
• Monthly live cohort Q&A on Zoom, recorded for asynchronous viewing.
• Curriculum staff response within 24 working hours on cohort thread questions.
• Optional cohort partner pairing for journal review.

Cohort price is identical to solo path. The cohort isn't a paid upgrade; it's a structural choice. Switching from cohort to solo (or vice versa) within the 7-day refund window is supported; outside the window, switching is at the discretion of the curriculum team.

Cohort cap and waitlist

Each cohort is capped at 25 students. Waitlist members receive a 24-hour priority enrolment window before public enrolment opens. Joining the waitlist creates no obligation.

Cohort behaviour expectations

Cohort participants agree to:

• Civil discussion on the cohort thread. Disagreement is fine; personal attacks, harassment, and abusive language are grounds for cohort removal without refund (after 7-day window).
• No tip-sharing. The cohort thread is for curriculum-driven learning, not for swapping market predictions or specific-security recommendations. Per SEBI educational-publisher posture.
• No unauthorized recording or distribution of cohort Q&A sessions. Recordings are shared with cohort members via the platform; external distribution requires written permission.

4. Refund policy reference

The full refund policy is documented at refund-policy.html. Summary: 7-day full refund window per stage. Refund process: email support@bharathshiksha.com.

5. Acceptable use

You agree to:

• Use the curriculum for personal educational purposes only.
• Not share login credentials with anyone outside your account.
• Not download, rip, or redistribute video content, PDFs, or any other curriculum material to non-students. Bulk redistribution is grounds for immediate termination without refund and may attract legal action under the Indian Copyright Act 1957.
• Not reverse-engineer the platform, attempt unauthorised access, or interfere with the security of bharathshiksha.com.
• Not use the tutor channel or cohort thread to solicit other students for commercial purposes outside the academy's affiliate program.
• Not impersonate other students, curriculum staff, or the academy in any communication.
• Not post content on the cohort thread that violates Indian law (defamation, hate speech, threats, etc.).

Violation of acceptable use is grounds for warning, content removal, account suspension, or account termination, depending on severity. Major violations (credential sharing, content redistribution, harassment) typically result in termination without refund.

6. Intellectual property

All content on bharathshiksha.com — including curriculum books, encyclopedia methodologies, articles, calculators, brand marks, and design elements — is the intellectual property of Bharath Shiksha unless otherwise marked. Trademark: Bharath Shiksha.

Your enrolment grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, lifetime licence to access and use the curriculum for personal educational purposes. You may:

• Print curriculum books and worksheets for personal use.
• Take notes from videos and lessons for personal reference.
• Save calculator outputs to your own files.
• Reference our content in academic / journalistic / educational work with attribution.

You may not:

• Distribute, sell, or share the curriculum content with anyone outside your enrolled account.
• Remove brand watermarks from any curriculum material.
• Create derivative works (rewordings, summaries, courses) based on our content for commercial use.
• Use Bharath Shiksha trademarks in commercial contexts without written permission.

7. Testimonials

Testimonial submissions via /testimonials.html are subject to:

• Consent to publication on bharathshiksha.com, with the right to revoke consent in writing at any time (revocation removes the testimonial within 7 working days).
• Compliance check — we auto-reject testimonials containing performance claims, return percentages, "guaranteed/sure-shot" language, or specific buy/sell/hold references. This is structural, not editorial.
• Light editing — we may lightly edit for length or clarity (without changing meaning) before publication. Substantive edits are reviewed with the submitter before going live.
• Honest experience — testimonials should reflect your actual learning experience. Fabricated or fraudulent testimonials are removed and the submitter's account terminated.

8. Affiliate program terms

Affiliate program participation is subject to terms documented at /affiliate.html plus:

• Genuine recommendations only. Cold-traffic arbitrage, paid traffic to the academy without disclosure, or spam-style promotion violates the program. Continued violations end the affiliate relationship without payout of accrued commissions.
• Compliance posture must be respected. Affiliate marketing copy may not promise specific returns, claim accuracy on signals, or otherwise contradict the academy's SEBI educational-publisher posture.
• No self-referrals. Affiliates cannot use their own link to enrol in stages they haven't enrolled in already.
• Refunded enrolments don't earn commission. If an enrolment is refunded within the 7-day window, your commission for that referral is also reversed.
• Tax responsibility lies with the affiliate. Commissions are reported per Indian tax requirements. Affiliates are responsible for income tax on payouts.
• Program may be modified or terminated with 30 days notice. Existing pending payouts are honoured regardless.

9. Disclaimers & limitation of liability

Educational scope disclaimer

The curriculum is educational. It is not investment advice, does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and does not guarantee any specific trading outcome. Trading and investing involve substantial risk of loss; past performance does not guarantee future results. Most retail traders who actively trade lose money over multi-year horizons.

No accuracy claims

Methodology examples in the curriculum, encyclopedia, and articles use anonymised historical data with at least 30-day data lag. We make no claims about the accuracy of methodologies on live trading; the content describes how to think, not what will happen.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by Indian law, Bharath Shiksha's total liability arising from your use of the curriculum or services is limited to the fees you paid for the affected stage(s). We are not liable for:

• Trading losses you incur from applying methodology covered in the curriculum.
• Indirect, consequential, special, or punitive damages.
• Loss of trading opportunity, loss of profits, or business interruption.
• Errors in third-party services we depend on (Netlify, Razorpay, Postmark) beyond our reasonable control.

This limitation does not waive any consumer-protection rights you have under Indian law including the Consumer Protection Act 2019 and DPDP Act 2023.

10. Changes to terms

We update these terms when we add features, change processors, or in response to regulatory updates. Material changes are notified via email to enrolled students at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Continued use of the service after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

Non-material changes (clarifications, formatting, factual corrections) are made silently with the version number and date updated. The version history is maintained at the top of each terms version.

Version history: v1 (initial), v2 (this version, 2026-05-08).

11. Edge Terminal — acceptable use and disclaimers

Edge Terminal, launched May 2026 at bharathshiksha.com/terminal/, is the educational analytics layer of the Bharath Shiksha platform. It comprises six modules: Visualiser, Watchlist, Backtester, Trade Journal, Risk-Literacy Dashboard, and Methodology Library. The following terms apply specifically to Edge Terminal use:

11.1 Nature of Edge Terminal

Edge Terminal is an educational tool. Every chart, every backtest result, every methodology card carries a compliance label identifying the content as historical illustration only. Edge Terminal does not, and will not, generate signals, predictions, recommendations, or any directional output. The "what we will never build" list in our Compliance Whitepaper is binding policy.

11.2 Stage-gated unlock

The Edge Terminal methodology catalogue contains 255 methodologies catalogued across the six Bharath Shiksha stages. Each methodology in the Backtester, Trade Journal, and Visualiser is unlocked when you enrol in (and have an active Netlify Identity role for) the corresponding stage. Stage unlocks are cumulative: a Stage 3 (Professional) enrolment unlocks Stage 1, Stage 2, AND Stage 3 methodologies. Logged-out / non-enrolled users may execute Stage 1 methodologies as a free public preview; the rest are browseable but execution-locked.

11.3 Data you generate inside Edge Terminal

At V1, Watchlist tickers, Trade Journal entries, and any notes you write are stored in your browser's localStorage. Bharath Shiksha does not have access to this data. Clearing your browser data clears your Edge Terminal personal-data. Future Phase 2.5 work may add optional cross-device sync via Netlify Identity-gated Blobs storage; that change will be disclosed before deployment, and opt-in will be explicit.

11.4 Historical market data — accuracy and lag

All market data shown in Edge Terminal is historical with a minimum 30-day lag, sourced from NSE Bhavcopy via the cache-bhavcopy scheduled function. We do not guarantee accuracy of historical data; minor reconciliation errors against your own broker statements are possible. If you find a discrepancy, email support@bharathshiksha.com. We make no warranty of fitness for any trading purpose — the data is for educational illustration only.

11.5 Backtest results are illustrations, not projections

The Backtester (Module 03) computes hypothetical results of applying a methodology to historical data with synthetic transaction costs. Past performance is not, and never will be, indicative of future results. Backtests do not model regime change, slippage in illiquid conditions, broker outages, emotional execution, or many other real-world factors. By using the Backtester you acknowledge that any inference about future performance from backtest results is your own analytical judgement, not a statement by Bharath Shiksha.

11.6 Acceptable use

You may use Edge Terminal for personal educational study. You may NOT:

• Scrape, mirror, or systematically download the methodology catalogue or backtest engine for redistribution
• Resell access to Edge Terminal as if it were your own product
• Use the Backtester to advertise specific "win rates" or "performance" of any methodology as a trading recommendation
• Reverse-engineer the methodology rules and re-publish them under a different brand without attribution
• Use any module to facilitate real-money signal-distribution services to third parties

11.7 Free public beta — no SLA, no warranty

Edge Terminal at V1 is a free public beta. We do not warrant uptime, availability, or feature completeness. Modules may be modified, paused, or evolved without prior notice during the beta period. Once a paid tier is introduced (no earlier than Q4 2026, per current roadmap), explicit service-level commitments will be added to these terms.

11.8 Compliance posture (binding)

Bharath Shiksha is an educational publisher operating inside SEBI's January 2025 framework for online educators. Edge Terminal will never:

• Display buy / sell / hold recommendations on specific securities
• Provide AI-generated trading signals with confidence percentages
• Operate prediction markets on financial outcomes
• Distribute real-time data feeds (≥15-min delayed is the minimum lag for any future real-time-style feature; ≥30-day lag is the actual standard at V1)
• Issue forward-looking performance projections

These exclusions are binding. They are documented at depth in §8 of the Compliance Whitepaper. Any future change to this list requires advance disclosure in this Terms document plus a fresh advisory roundtable review.

12. Governing law & disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India. Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of bharathshiksha.com is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Before initiating legal proceedings, you agree to attempt resolution via the grievance redressal procedure at grievance-redressal.html. The internal redressal path takes ~22 working days end-to-end; most disputes are resolved at Stage 1 or Stage 2 without escalation.

Contact

Questions about these terms: legal@bharathshiksha.com.

These terms of service are the canonical agreement between Bharath Shiksha and its students as of 2026-05-08. Reviewed annually. v1 archived at /terms-v1.html. Disputes governed by Indian law; jurisdiction Bengaluru.