On 31 July 2023 SEBI, India’s securities regulator, sent disputes between investors and brokers, listed companies, and other market intermediaries online: conciliation first, then arbitration, on the SMART ODR portal. CADRE ODR, a Bengaluru institution on that portal, had taken 1,772 conciliations and 243 arbitrations by its own count of 10 November 2026. The economics are Ronald Coase’s. Writing about AI in “How AI could create the first one-person unicorn” (11 August 2025), The Economist recalled his 1937 argument that the large firm was “a testament to the efficiency of consolidating and managing work within the confines of a business, rather than outsourcing activities to the market.” What it costs to transact decides how work gets done, and disputes obey the same rule. A small claim was rarely worth the cost of reading its record, so it was dropped or settled blind. When that reading costs almost nothing, the two sides can bargain to a fair result quickly, online. CADRE’s standard: “A ₹10,000 claim gets the same care as a ₹10 crore one.”
In 2025 CADRE ran a paid, three-month pilot with jhana. Its letter of recommendation described “an AI-powered support initiative in collaboration with jhana.ai to strengthen case preparation for our empanelled arbitrators and mediators,” and said its internal testing “has been extremely encouraging particularly through accurate pre-hearing case summaries, chronology-based factsheets, and issue-wise analysis.” Our service level for that preparation was 36 hours, and it was met. On 22 January 2026 the two announced a partnership “to integrate AI-powered legal research tools into digital arbitration and mediation proceedings,” beginning with “securities markets matters through SEBI’s SMART ODR framework, along with a limited number of corporate commercial cases.” Smita Gupta, jhana’s Director, Public Sector, said in the release: “By working closely with CADRE ODR and its network of dispute resolution experts, we aim to meaningfully contribute to the evolution of digital dispute resolution in India.” The same line, from a claim’s arrival to its close, is drawn in our orchestration, and it is what we now offer banks and lenders defending claims.
“We found the AI to be intelligent, reliable, and remarkably effective in extracting key facts and structuring complex legal materials from large case records with strong potential to significantly reduce preparation time. … Overall, the solution shows great promise in reducing cognitive load and enabling more structured, efficient online proceedings.”
CADRE ODR, letter of recommendation
“As online dispute resolution gains momentum in India, technology-enabled research and analysis tools are becoming essential. Partnering with jhana allows us to further develop our Dispute Resolution Operating System (drOS) ecosystem with advanced legal intelligence, ultimately improving the quality and efficiency of dispute resolution outcomes.”
Rajneesh Jaswal, CEO, CADRE ODR, in the announcement of the partnership, 22 January 2026
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