🏦 SEBI clears Adani

Good morning and Happy Friyay. Hope you have a lovely weekend when it arrives 🫰 

Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 🏦 SEBI clears Adani

• 🤖 China’s DeepSeek drops a bombshell: $294K to train its AI model

• Bite-sized summaries

  • 🚢 Chabahar sanctions blow

  • ✈️ Airbus expands India bet

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

MARKETS

🇮🇳 India

• Indian equities rose for a third consecutive session, driven by post-Fed rate cut momentum and strong domestic buying. Pharma, IT, banking, and energy led gains, with midcaps up 0.38% and smallcaps 0.29%. Sentiment remained positive on hopes for future rates cuts and progress in US-India trade negotiations.

🌍️ International

• US stocks powered to fresh record highs after the Federal Reserve’s rate cut and upbeat jobless claims data. Financials and consumer staples led advances, while Intel surged nearly 23% on an Nvidia deal. The Russell 2000 also closed at a record, highlighting broad market strength.

ADANI

🏦 SEBI clears Adani

Remember January 2023? That’s when U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research dropped a bombshell, accusing the Adani Group of stock manipulation and dodgy accounting. The fallout was brutal: Adani companies lost over $100 billion in market value almost overnight, and India’s regulatory credibility was suddenly under global scrutiny.

Fast forward to September 2025: SEBI, India’s markets regulator, has officially given Adani a clean chit. After a two-year probe, SEBI ruled that the alleged money flows—where an Adani-linked private firm, Adicorp Enterprises, supposedly routed ₹6,200 crore ($87M) to Adani Power—do not qualify as “related party transactions.” In plain English: no rulebook violations, no evidence of manipulation.

Gautam Adani, unsurprisingly, struck back:

• Called the claims “baseless”

• Said those behind the “false narrative owe India an apology”

• Framed the group as committed to transparency and nation-building

Why this matters:

• For Adani: The ruling helps restore investor confidence after years of doubt, though questions about perception may linger.

• For SEBI: This was a high-stakes test. Clearing Adani signals regulatory closure, but critics may still wonder if the watchdog was tough enough.

• For India Inc: The episode underscores how vulnerable Indian conglomerates are to global short-sellers—and how much reputational damage such reports can cause, regardless of outcome.

Bottom line: SEBI’s verdict may close the legal chapter, but in the court of global investor opinion, the Adani-Hindenburg saga isn’t fully over.

Read more: Economic Times

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

🤖 China’s DeepSeek drops a bombshell: $294K to train its AI model

AI training is supposed to cost hundreds of millions. At least, that’s been the narrative from U.S. giants like OpenAI, where Sam Altman once said building a frontier model cost “much more” than $100 million.

Now? Chinese startup DeepSeek just claimed it trained its reasoning-focused R1 model for only $294,000 - a number so low it’s raising both eyebrows and alarms.

The details:

• DeepSeek says R1 was trained on 512 Nvidia H800 chips for 80 hours.

• The H800 is a “China-friendly” chip designed after U.S. export bans blocked Nvidia’s higher-end H100s and A100s.

• Yet, DeepSeek admitted in a supplementary note that it did use A100s in the early prep stage, which complicates the picture.

Why this matters:

• Cost disruption: If true, DeepSeek could challenge U.S. dominance by slashing costs—undercutting the notion that only Big Tech can afford cutting-edge AI.

• Geopolitical angle: The U.S. has tried to choke China’s AI rise with chip bans. DeepSeek’s claim suggests China is finding workarounds, whether through H800 clusters or rumored access to restricted chips.

• Investor jitters: When DeepSeek first unveiled its models in January, global markets panicked, fearing China might leapfrog U.S. players. This new claim will only intensify that debate.

The catch? Skepticism is high. Analysts doubt you can train a frontier AI for less than the price of a Bay Area condo. But even if the math is fuzzy, DeepSeek has made its point: China isn’t playing catch-up anymore—it’s rewriting the rules.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

🚢 Chabahar sanctions blow - The US has revoked sanctions exemptions for Iran’s Chabahar Port, effective September 29, jeopardizing India’s strategic gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The move exposes Indian operators to possible US penalties, threatening investments of $120M and plans to expand the port’s capacity fivefold by 2026. Chabahar, operated by India since 2018, is critical for bypassing Pakistan and countering China’s Gwadar Port influence. The decision tests India’s diplomatic balance between its deepening US ties and its strategic partnership with Iran, while raising uncertainty over regional trade, connectivity, and humanitarian aid routes.

✈️ Airbus expands India bet - Airbus will establish an R&D Centre of Excellence at Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya in Gujarat, further deepening its India footprint. The aerospace giant already sources $1B+ annually in components from over 100 Indian suppliers. Its Digital Centre in Bengaluru, the second-largest after Toulouse, anchors Airbus’ global digital transformation, supported by a 3,600-strong workforce, including 1,500 IT professionals. Airbus said India’s world-class talent and research capabilities make it a strategic hub for aerospace innovation, engineering, and training. The new centre reinforces India’s position as both a manufacturing base and innovation partner in the global aviation supply chain.

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

What’s happening in India (and around the world 🌍️)

• India pension regulator eyes boosting infrastructure investment.

• Keir Starmer says UK's migrant deal must work, Trump urges him to use military action.

• Trump says he disagrees with UK recognising Palestine.

• Japan's SMBC completes acquisition of 20% stake in Yes Bank, becomes largest shareholder.