ETFs are the natural building blocks of low-cost portfolios, so the question of which Indian ETFs are halal comes up constantly. The answer is short enough to be startling: India lists exactly one Shariah equity ETF, plus a subset of gold and silver ETFs that pass private screening. That is the complete shelf. This guide covers what exists, how to verify each piece, and what conspicuously does not exist, so you can plan around reality rather than assumption. Verified 2026-08-06.
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The equity side: one fund
Nippon India ETF Nifty 50 Shariah BeES (NSE: SHARIABEES, listed March 2009) is India's only Shariah equity ETF. It tracks the Nifty50 Shariah TRI, whose constituents are screened monthly by TASIS under contract to NSE Indices, applying India's strictest mainstream thresholds: interest-based debt at or below 25% of total assets, interest income at or below 2.5% of total income, receivables plus cash at or below 90% of total assets. The vitals as on 30 Jun 2026: 0.82% base expense ratio, Rs 55.34 crore fund size, 0.09% tracking error on a 36-month basis, no exit load, single-unit entry (around Rs 474 at the 06 Aug 2026 NAV). The honest limits, covered fully in our dedicated review: 17 constituents, over a third of the weight in IT, a thin trading book that wants limit orders, and no AMC-level Shariah governance (the compliance lives in the index contract). It remains the cleanest single trade in Indian halal investing, sized correctly.
The commodity side: screened gold and silver ETFs
Gold ETFs look compliant (vaulted physical metal) but require verification on two axes, as our halal gold guide explains: certification, which no Indian gold ETF claims for itself, and derivatives, since Indian gold ETFs may hold Exchange Traded Commodity Derivatives within SEBI limits, which breaks the physical-backing logic scholars rely on; Tata Mutual Fund's own FAQ says exactly this about its product. The workable path exists because TASIS publishes a list of Shariah-compliant gold and silver ETFs and fund-of-funds, the only screening of Indian commodity ETFs anywhere. The verification routine before buying any commodity ETF: check the current TASIS list for the specific scheme, then check the scheme information document for ETCD allowances, then re-check both annually, because lists and mandates change. We deliberately do not reprint the list here: it is TASIS's living document, and a stale copy would be worse than a pointer to the source.
What does not exist, so you stop looking
No broad-market Shariah ETF (nothing tracks the 198-stock Nifty500 Shariah; the index exists, the product does not). No Shariah midcap or smallcap ETF. No sukuk or Islamic fixed-income ETF (India has no retail sukuk market at all). No Shariah international-equity ETF listed domestically. No Shariah index fund in mutual fund form on the domestic shelf either: TASIS's site names a UTI Nifty 500 Shariah Index Fund among its certified clients, but no such scheme exists on UTI's domestic shelf at our crawl, and the reference likely concerns an offshore UTI International product, so nothing there for resident investors to buy. If you want the broad screened universe, the vehicles are active funds (Tata Ethical, benchmarked to the Nifty 500 Shariah) or direct stocks through a screener, not ETFs.
Building the ETF-ish halal portfolio anyway
Within these constraints, a passive-leaning Indian halal investor can still assemble something coherent: SHARIABEES for large-cap equity (position-sized for concentration), a TASIS-listed gold ETF for the commodity sleeve (verified per the routine above), and the balance in either a low-cost active fund (Tata Ethical direct at 0.61%) or screened direct stocks via IslamicTijarat or Musaffa. That is genuinely as passive as compliant investing currently gets in India. SenSage's Power of 3 ETFs strategy (Rs 1 lakh minimum) packages roughly this same construction with advisory oversight, and its own materials acknowledge the constraint honestly: the domestic Shariah ETF shelf is so thin that the strategy is closer to a three-instrument allocation than a diversified fund-of-funds.
Why the shelf is this thin, and what would change it
The emptiness is economics plus regulation, the same story told in our guide to why India has no Islamic banks: no Shariah regulatory framework means no product category recognition, fund houses launch ethical products cautiously (three active funds in thirty years), and the one ETF that exists holds Rs 55 crore after seventeen years, which does not invite imitators. The demand signals are improving (the compliant universe hit 44% of BSE listings in 2025; Quantum's launch showed new entrants will come), and a Nifty500 Shariah tracker is the obvious white space: the index exists, TASIS screens it monthly, and the first AMC to list a product on it would own the broad-passive halal category outright. Until someone does, the complete halal ETF list in India remains: SHARIABEES, plus whatever the current TASIS gold and silver list says. Short enough to memorise, and now you have. Verified 2026-08-06.
ETF, index fund or active fund: the halal investor's version
The generic passive-versus-active debate changes shape under Indian halal constraints, because the menu is asymmetric. Passive equity means SHARIABEES, full stop: one large-cap, 17-stock, IT-heavy index product; there is no compliant index fund and no broad-market tracker, so passive purists cannot actually build a diversified passive portfolio domestically. Active means Tata Ethical (certified, 198-stock benchmark universe, 0.61% direct) or its two caveated peers, which is where broad-universe exposure actually lives. The sensible resolution for most investors inverts the global default: the active certified fund as the core (because only it offers the broad screened universe), the ETF as the passive satellite (for structural discipline and intraday liquidity), rather than the ETF-first construction conventional wisdom suggests. Cost supports the same conclusion: at 0.61% direct, the active core is cheaper than the 0.82% passive product, an inversion almost unique to this market.
Frequently asked questions
Why is SHARIABEES more expensive than giant Nifty 50 ETFs? Scale and licensing: a Rs 55 crore ETF spreads fixed costs over a tiny base, and the screened index adds methodology costs; competition, not complaint, is the fix. Are international halal ETFs (HLAL, SPUS and peers) an option? Not on Indian exchanges; buying them means international investing routes with their own regulatory, tax and transfer questions beyond this guide's scope, plus screening apps to verify the products themselves. Is there a halal ELSS or tax-saving ETF? No compliant tax-advantaged equity wrapper exists; the tax benefit forgone is another honest cost of compliance, like the SGB coupon and savings interest. How do I check if a new ETF launch is halal? The same framework as any fund, per our are-mutual-funds-halal guide: mandate, underlying index and its screening contract, certifier, date; an ETF is only as compliant as its index. What single development would most change this article? A Nifty500 Shariah tracker: the index exists, TASIS screens it monthly, and the first AMC to launch would give Indian halal investors their first genuinely diversified passive vehicle. We check for one every sweep. Verified 2026-08-06.
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The order of operations for an ETF buyer
If you have decided ETFs are your vehicle, the sequence is straightforward. Open a demat account with any low-cost broker. Buy the Shariah equity ETF for your stock exposure, checking the live market price against the fund's published iNAV so you do not overpay in a thin market. Add a TASIS-screened gold ETF if you want the metal in your allocation. Then leave it alone, rebalancing at most once or twice a year. The liquidity caveat cuts both ways: thin trading hurts impatient sellers, but a patient accumulator using limit orders near iNAV is barely affected. Verified August 2026.