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New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
Sorry state of affairs: Cadet judokas to miss World Championships
CHENNAI: Indian judokas, especially those competing in the cadet category, continue to suffer as they may be forced to miss the World Championships scheduled in Sofia, Bulgaria from August 27 to 30. The athletes in this category missed three international tournaments last year and the upcoming World Championship will be their fourth and the biggest miss. Notably, the Judo Federation of India (JFI) has been governed by an administrator appointed by the Delhi High Court since June 2022. The latest heartbreak in the series of misses for cadet judokas meant most of them would now be unable to compete in the next World Championships as they will turn 18 by the time the 2026 edition would be held. It was learnt that the Sports Authority of India (SAI) didn't sanction the tour citing selection policy which makes it mandatory for every national sports federation to hold selection trials to pick a team for an international tournament. The JFI selected judokas, who won medals at the Taipei Cadets Asian Cup held last month for the Worlds, but the SAI didn't approve the list and in turn directed the federation to hold trials. Interestingly, the JFI held ranking trials for the Asian Cadets Championships scheduled in Jakarta, Indonesia on September 11 and 12 last week but chose the judokas for the Worlds on the basis of their performances at the Taipei event. There were many judokas who won medals in Taipei and also the ranking trials and one among them is Rahi Ghelani. She won a gold medal each in the Tashkent Asian Cup held in May, Taipei Asian Cup and the ranking trials in the -44kg weight category and could be a medal contender at the World Championships if given an opportunity. Linthoi Chanambam created history in 2022 when she won a -57kg gold at the Cadet World Championships and became the first from the country to win a medal at the event across age groups. Next year, Oliviya Devi Huidrom clinched -44kg bronze at the event and Rahi could have continued the legacy in the 2025 edition. Incidentally, Rahi is from Bhavnagar in Gujarat and the union sports minister also hails from the same district. Besides, these cadet judokas will graduate to senior level by the time India gets ready to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and 2036 Olympics if their respective bids come to fruition.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Taking the bull by its horns
Mumbai's finance community often comes together in ballrooms of five-star hotels and valorises the Indian investor. The financially influential community often speaks in words tinged with nationalistic pride about the continuous increase in registered investors. In 2024-2025, up to 2.09 crore Indians were registered as investors. This number was just 38.5 lakh in 2019-20, before the pandemic. That's a five-fold increase. The suit-clad mutual-fund managers and stock analysts say that this is a reflection of the average Indian's trust in the potential of the nation. Terms like 'financial inclusion' and 'economic democratisation' are often used. In July 2025, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which regulates the capital markets, alleged that Jane Street, an American trading firm, had manipulated the derivatives market, a segment of the financial market. Derivatives are a set of financial products that lock the prices of stocks or indices (groups of stocks such as Nifty 50), for a future date. SEBI halted Jane Street's operations until it paid ₹4,843.7 crore, the profit that the firm had allegedly made. Now, the matter is under investigation. India is the largest derivatives market in the world. In June this year, Reuters quoted the Futures Industry Association as saying that the country 'made up nearly 60% of global equity derivative trading volumes of 7.3 billion in April'. It also said that at least six global trading giants 'are ratcheting up their presence' in India. In September 2024, SEBI brought out a report stating that the aggregate losses from 2022-2024 in the derivatives market were to the tune of ₹1.8 lakh crore. 'Despite consecutive years of losses, more than 75% of those who lost continued trading in F&Os (futures and options, a part of the derivatives market),' the report stated. While there are many reasons for this, analysts say that people look at F&Os for quick returns, since the contracts expire on a weekly or monthly basis, unlike stocks, which are long-term investments. Pump and dump Jane Street, which began operations in 2000 in New York, had a net trading revenue of $10.4 billion as of June 2025, as per Bloomberg, the business news network. Its website claims to have five offices and over 3,000 employees, trading in 45 countries (India is not listed). Nuvama Wealth Management was a company executing Jane Street's trade in India. It is now under the scanner of the Income Tax Department. In April 2024, SEBI carried out an analysis of 'the alleged unauthorised use of their (Jane Street) trading strategies in Indian options markets' and asked the National Stock Exchange to monitor it. Later that year, SEBI issued a circular announcing a series of policy steps to address problems in the derivatives market. These included overtrading in index options on expiry days (Thursdays). Options are financial contracts, a type of derivative. The buyer is simply purchasing the 'option' to buy an underlying asset at a fixed date at a certain price. 'Call options' expect prices to rise, and 'put options' expect prices to fall. SEBI alleged that Jane Street pumped up the price of Bank Nifty — which consists of stocks of 12 large banks — by buying them in the morning. Seeing this, other traders would also buy in, further pushing up the price. The company would simultaneously buy put options on the same stocks/index, which other traders were unaware of. Towards the end of the day, Jane Street would dump the stocks, profiting from the resultant fall. Complexity and drive The complexity of the derivatives market makes it difficult to navigate even for professional traders like Preeti K. Chhabra, founder of Surat-based Trade Delta, a trading firm. 'After having studied the entire subject thoroughly, and trading for nearly one and a half years, I realised that this is a game where nobody knows 100%,' says Chhabra, who started her derivatives trading firm in 2018-19 after almost two decades of working in stock brokerages. Ms. Chhabra began with a capital of ₹90 lakh and lost about half of it in the first few months, she says. Following the loss, she took a year's break to understand the instrument better before she got back to it. She is among the many traders in India who execute futures and options trades for their clients. Social media platforms and even messaging apps like Telegram are rife with futures and options courses for children. In fact, on the days when the Bank Nifty dipped, analysts online gave different reasons for this, not citing possible market manipulation, SEBI said, in its order. Financial influencers are major contributors to financial market education and investment. Street oversmart With a spurt in online trading apps, which charge low commissions, during COVID-19 in 2020, many, including the youth, began accessing financial markets. The entry of new investors at this time drove a bull rally that lasted about four years before the slump to current levels began in September 2024. Bodies like the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) say that increasing financial literacy and awareness is the reason behind the proliferation. The awareness of financial instruments, however, does not translate into an understanding of markets. In its 2024 report, SEBI said that 43% of the people who had lost money were below the age of 30, and 93% of the people in this age group lost money trading in derivatives. Akshay Chinchalkar is the head of research at Axis Securities and actively writes on the professional-networking platform LinkedIn about market trends. He feels that there is too much information out there, which makes it difficult to separate the knowledge from the noise. 'It makes us ponder whether the sheer volume of analysis directly leads to consistent, profitable F&O trading for everyone,' he says. The Association of National Exchanges Members of India said in early August that it's studying ways of helping people move away from derivative trading. One of the suggestions they made was to increase the barriers to entry, so that uninformed or undercapitalised traders don't lose on a gamble. Markets like South Korea and Singapore have such barriers, the association said at a media briefing. SEBI has taken certain measures to control the enthusiasm, like doing away with weekly expiries of derivative contracts for all indices except the main Nifty 50 and the 30-stock Sensex, expecting that this would reduce speculatory trading. This means that contracts need to be held for longer periods in all other indices. However, a SEBI study showed that 91% of individual traders continued to lose money even after reforms. This was down from 93% before the Jane Street episode.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Rajeev Ram reflects on his unique journey, tennis success, thoughts on doubles and mentoring young talent.
For Indian tennis fans, Rajeev Ram at once seems a close cousin and a distant relative. The 41-year-old's parents were from India and his biggest doubles successes — Australian Open 2020 and a hat-trick of US Opens from 2021 to 2023 — have resonated in the sub-continent. But he is also proudly American, and is mentoring the next generation there. He sat courtside as fellow Indian-American Nishesh Basavareddy, then 19, took on Novak Djokovic in the first-round of the 2025 Australian Open. Incidentally, Rajeev and Venus Williams beat Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in a close semifinal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and Rajeev [with Joe Salisbury] also overcame Bopanna [and Matthew Ebden] in the 2023 US Open final. The six-time Grand Slam champion and two-time Olympic medallist spoke to The Hindu on his tennis journey, the state of doubles, the mixed doubles rejig at the upcoming US Open and more. Excerpts: ALSO READ | Open and shut case: Jaiswal and Rahul making headway as a partnership at the top How do you assess your year so far? In professional sport, it's a lot of up and down. My results this year haven't been what I've gotten used to over the last few years. But I'm 41 and have been very fortunate to have played at a pretty high level for the better part of 20 years. So, I'm taking it in my stride. The US Open is my favourite tournament, so I am really looking forward [to it]. What has kept you going for so long? I played singles as a priority until 2017. We, as tennis players, begin with aspirations to play at the top level in singles. I'm very proud of the fact that I became a top-60 player and won two titles on the Tour. My doubles-only career started in 2017, and even though it was much after I turned pro, it still was fresh when Joe and I won the Australian Open in 2020. It's a lot about attitude. The thing that's always been important is consistently trying to improve. If you have that attitude, you can sometimes take even losses as a positive. As heartbreaking as some of them are, sometimes they're the biggest motivators. I used them as fire and fuel. I've actually had to be more aware of myself when I've been winning a lot because you get a little bit satisfied. How has the doubles game evolved? It's changed a lot. When I started, players, especially those who transitioned from singles, would try to develop their net game a bit more. In the last three or four years, I've seen a big shift where that's really not the case. Most teams now have at least one player who serves and stays back all the time. There's more comfort from the baseline. A lot of the players don't really worry about serving and volleying anymore. From the returner's perspective, it's a lot more about pace, being aggressive and trying to get a hold on the point straight away. Whereas, when I started playing, there was a little bit more feel, more finesse. Doubles is very entertaining and popular as a recreational sport. But it doesn't get good broadcast slots or matches on the show courts, especially in the first week of a Major. Are these hindering the growth? Absolutely. Anything that is put on the back-burner in terms of promotion and marketing is going to be treated that way by people who watch it. I'm not saying by any stretch that it needs to be at the same level as singles. But there are definitely stories that could be marketed a lot more. Like Rohan having so much success at such a late age [World No. 1 and 2024 Australian Open title]. Croatia's Mate Pavic won the French Open last year and completed the career Golden Slam [along with Tokyo 2020 Olympics gold]. But I don't think it got the push that a truly rare achievement in our sport should have got. Next is to highlight the partnerships. There could be quite a bit more of that, just to get to know the players at the personal level. ALSO READ | Sai Sudharsan: 'It was clear that we were in England to create history' In such a scenario, how does the move by the US Open to completely transform its mixed doubles feel? It is being played in the week before the Slam and has more singles players than doubles. It's two parts for me. I applaud their idea to innovate. As much as doubles was on the back-burner, mixed doubles was behind even more. So putting it in its own week, with fanfare, is great. Tennis could use mixed doubles as the flag-bearer, as men and women play men and women for Olympic medals and Grand Slam titles. But they [US Open] made it such that doubles players couldn't even enter. You can't unless you have a singles ranking. That's where I feel opposed. They should [have] just let everybody enter. A lot of the players that got in from singles would have still gotten in. It would have been a bit more legitimate to give a Grand Slam trophy for. If you were in a position of power, what would you do to increase traction for doubles? I mentioned Rohan winning so late. Joe and I won three US Opens on the trot. So the stories are there. They just need to be told. Secondly, social media is such a big part of our world. We have exciting points happening every day. They don't need to be necessarily in the main stadiums or even on TV. If we could do a better job of showcasing them, people would be drawn to the game. Most of those who are watching are doubles players themselves and they can have a little bit of a relationship there. The third thing is to just tell the story of the partnerships. Joe and I played together for six years. We can do a little bit more of getting outside tennis and highlighting the personalities. ALSO READ | Injuries are a part of cricket; injury substitutes are unnecessary You have been mentoring Nishesh, among the brightest talents to emerge from the United States. What do you think India can do to develop such a player? I wish there was some magic recipe. Nishesh and I… our relationship is unique. Of all the places in the US, he moved to the little town that I'm from [Carmel, Indiana]. We have the same coach, Bryan Smith, and I have to give him a lot of credit. He not only teaches us to be good tennis players but also teaches us to give back to the next group. It was always something I was going to do for him [Nishesh] and a few others. Also, coming from the exact same background as I have, an America-born kid with Indian heritage… a lot of pieces came together. What India can do… I think it is very important for a player to feel that he or she is not alone and not feel like they have to reach a certain level for it to be successful. Just the effort of trying to be the best you can be is success in itself. I was really lucky that my dad had the foresight to realise that in the US, sports can actually open doors. I would have never gone to the colleges that I went to if I wasn't a tennis player. So, maybe, just a slight shift in mentality for what it really means to be a high-level athlete and what success really is [can help India].
