The Jane Street scandal: Foreign hand in Indian markets

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

The Jane Street scandal: Foreign hand in Indian markets

Who is Jane Street? Founded in 2000, it is the largest stock trading firm that uses quantitative analysis to make its bets. The Wall Street giant is known for its sophisticated algorithms and lightning-fast trades. The firm began trading in Indian markets in December 2020 and quickly became a major player in the derivatives space.

Relevant background to note: Derivatives are financial contracts that let traders bet on whether assets like stocks or indexes will rise or fall. Their prices usually track the actual asset. But if someone manipulates the asset’s price, it can throw the whole system off—creating unfair gains for some and losses for others.

On to the allegations: India’s market regulator SEBI has accused Jane Street of manipulating stock indices to make Rs 36,671 crore ($4.3 billion). According to the regulator, the firm manipulated index levels—particularly the Bank Nifty and Nifty 50 indices—between January 2023 and May 2025. According to SEBI, this is how they did it:

Jane Street allegedly bought large quantities of Bank Nifty stocks and futures early in the day, pushing the index higher. Later, it sold off these positions aggressively, depressing the index by closing time. According to the SEBI, this strategy gave a false impression of market strength, misleading other traders—particularly retail investors—into believing the index was rising.

The result: Rs 36,671 crore profit—of which Rs 4,843 crore has been flagged as unlawful. Notably, Jane Street allegedly ignored warnings from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in February. Hence SEBI’s conclusion that Jane Street is “not a good faith actor that can be, or deserves to be, trusted.”

The punishment: SEBI has banned Jane Street and its affiliates from Indian markets and ordered them to return Rs 4,843 crores ($566.7 million). The company has 21 days to file its reply or challenge the SEBI order in court. Meanwhile, its accounts have been frozen, and SEBI has ordered the Rs 4,843 crore in profits to be placed in an escrow account. It is SEBI’s toughest action ever against a foreign trading firm.

Why this matters: India is the world’s largest equity derivatives market—accounting for nearly 60% of the global volume in April. Any kind of market manipulation affects a great number of individual investors—who now account for 40% of all trades today.

Reading list: Indian Express and Hindustan Times have the best explainers on SEBI’s accusations. Reuters was the first to report the allegations. SEBI’s order itself can be found here.

Will Kabul become the first big city without water?

According to a new report, the Afghan capital could become the first major city to run out of water by 2030—endangering its 7 million residents. Kabul’s groundwater levels have fallen by 25-30 metres in the past decade. The difference between the amount of water extracted—and how much seeps naturally into the ground—is 44 million cubic metres per year. Half of Kabul’s borewells are already dry.

Making things worse: 80% of groundwater is likely unsafe—with high levels of sewage, salinity and arsenic.

Why is it so bad? One reason is a population explosion—Kabul’s residents have grown 7X since 2001. The other is climate change:

Between October 2023 to January 2024, Afghanistan only received only 45 to 60% of the average precipitation during the peak winter season compared to previous years… Climate-related events such as repeated droughts, early snowmelts, and reduced snowfall have clearly diminished groundwater recharge opportunities.

The primary villains: It has been impossible to find any long-term solutions in a nation torn apart by inept governments and the US military. But lesser known culprits are 500 beverage companies that raid Kabul’s groundwater: “Alokozay, a popular Afghan soft drinks company, alone extracts nearly one billion litres (256 million gallons) of water over a year — 2.5 million litres (660,000 gallons) a day.”

Quote to note: Water shortage, of course, affects the poor far more than the rich—who are busy sipping their Alokozay:

Poorer residents, often children, are forced to continually search for sources of water. “Every evening, even late at night, when I am returning home from work, I see young children with small cans in their hands looking for water … they look hopeless, navigating life collecting water for their homes rather than studying or learning,” [Najibullah Sadid, senior researcher and a member of the Afghanistan Water and Environment Professionals Network] said.

The big picture: The Americans spent $2.3 trillion on Afghanistan—and yet did nada to build dams, fix canals and create reservoirs. The Taliban are poorer but no better. Al Jazeera has a detailed guide to the crisis. Check out the full report here.

Savdhan: Elon Musk got himself a party

In an (un)surprising turn of events, Elon Musk announced—on X, of course—that he’s formed his own political party—all because of a poll:

[O]n Friday, when the US celebrated the 249th anniversary of its declaration of independence from the UK, Musk published a poll asking his X followers whether he should advance on his previously stated idea of creating the America party to contend against both Republicans and Democrats. More than 65% of about 1.25m responses indicated “yes” as of Saturday morning.

Well, what’s a bored, ketamine-addled billionaire to do…

Trump trumpets in response: Of course, the move was designed to piss off the Donald—who said on cue: “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a train wreck over the past five weeks.”

Is any of this real? Hard to say since both sides of this battle have the attention span of a flea. But if you want a new party, Musk is clearly the man to do it:

Since Musk decided to launch a new political party, he'll need to contend with a thicket of complicated state laws, time-consuming ballot access rules and intense litigation. "Only the richest person in the world could make a serious effort at creating a new American political party," Brett Kappel, a veteran election lawyer, told CBS News..

Each state has its own set of complicated laws—difficult to navigate and ripe for lawsuits filed by the Dems or Republicans. A national party is unlikely. Musk himself wants to "laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts," arguing, "that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws." The Guardian looks at whether the party can move the political needle. (CBS News)

what caught our eye

business & tech

After mass layoffs at Xbox, a top exec suggested employees turn to AI tools like ChatGPT for emotional support, career advice, and help with job hunting.
After 25 years in the country, Microsoft has shut down its operations in Pakistan—citing global restructuring and a move toward a cloud-based, partner-led model.

sports & entertainment

The hiphop duo Bob Vylan have been removed from the Radar festival lineup—likely because of stirring trouble at Glastonbury last week where they made the crowds chant pro-Palestinian slogans—“free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF.”
‘The Last of Us’ co-creator Neil Druckmann has exited the show. This comes on the heels of two key writers leaving the show before season 3.
Ed Sheeran’s hit single ‘Shape of You’ is the most played song on Apple Music.
Captain Shubman Gill’s 430 runs and Akash Deep’s 10 wickets ensured that India smashed England by 336 runs to level the Test series at 1-1.
Sakshi, Jaismine, Nupur clinched gold at the World Boxing Cup in Kazakhstan on Sunday. The Indian contingent finished with 11 medals, including three gold, five silver and three bronze medals.
After beating Thailand 2-1, the Indian women’s football team have qualified for next year’s Asian Cup. ESPN India has more on the significance of the achievement.
Viral ‘band’ Velvet Sundown comes clean—yes, they’re artificial, and proudly call themselves “an ongoing artistic provocation.”

health & environment

A new study debunks the myth that our brain cells stop growing when we become adults.
Say hello to the first-ever microlaser made entirely from edible materials. The best cooking oil to emit a photon of light when subjected to a certain amount of energy was… olive oil.
Get happy, pet owners. Ready-made stem cell therapies for your furry companions could be coming soon. It could, for example, help dogs with arthritis.

meanwhile, in the world

The White House’s top source for pro-Trump news? Its own YouTube channel.
Parisians dove into the Seine for the first time since 1923, after a massive clean-up spurred by its use as a venue during the Paris Olympics.
Another day, another shifting of goalposts by the Donald and company—tariffs are now delayed until August 1.
A new wave of Israeli airstrikes on Sunday have killed 38 Gazans—amid continued talks over a ceasefire.
Chinese mining giants are on a buying spree—2024 saw their biggest overseas investment push in over a decade, with ten $100 million-plus deals sealed amid rising geopolitical heat.
French intel says China used its embassies to run a disinfo campaign against Rafale jets—trying to tank sales and push buyers toward Chinese-made fighters instead.

meanwhile, in India

In a must-read, The Wire offers a strong rebuttal to misleading media reports claiming India is the world’s fourth most equal country—tracing the error back to a flawed PIB release and a misread of World Bank data.
Reuters’ X account was withheld in India over a “legal demand”—but the government said, “There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold Reuters” and was working with X to resolve it. Soon enough, it had. The account was restored on Sunday.
India has launched an ambitious shipbuilding plan—aiming to establish eight clusters along the coastline that are expected to cost Rs 2 trillion (2 lakh crore).

Four things to see

One: Flash floods in Texas have claimed the lives of 78—including 28 children:

The flash flooding began around 4 a.m. Friday after heavy overnight rain swelled the Guadalupe River, causing it to surge by more than 20-26 feet within 90 minutes.

About 850 people have been rescued so far but the worst affected area was Kerr County where 68 people have died and 27 girls have gone missing from a Christian youth camp located along the River Guadalupe. Many of these girls are under the age of 12.

See the timelapse of flash flood below. (NBC News)

Two: Bad Bunny dropped a music video for his song ‘NUEVAYoL’ off his latest album. He celebrated the Puerto Rican diaspora and immigrant community by adding the Donald’s voice over the radio in the song announcing: “I made a mistake. I want to apologize to the immigrants in America.” You can hear the rest of the message in the music video below—at the 2 minute 40 mark. (USA Today)

Three: Heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath—led by Ozzy Osbourne—called time on their 55-year career with a farewell concert in their hometown Birmingham on Saturday. Titled ‘Back to the Beginning’, the epic nine-hour gig featured over a dozen metal bands who paid tribute by performing covers of Sabbath songs. But, but, but: the 40,000 fans at Villa Park—and the nearly 6 million watching on the live stream—had to wait until the end of the night for Black Sabbath themselves to take the stage. You can relive the 35-minute set here. Below is a clip of Ozzy and co performing their final track, ‘Paranoid’. (The Guardian)

Four: Ranveer Singh fans, rejoice! The trailer for his next movie ‘Dhurandhar’ just dropped. The plot details haven’t been revealed but he is back in his Alauddin Khilji avatar, at least in terms of looks. The hyper masculine revenge-drama is helmed by Aditya Dhar, best known for ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, and the ensemble cast includes Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, and Arjun Rampal. The film is slated for December 5. Check out the trailer below. (Indian Express)