Airtel-Perplexity to Jio-Gemini: Why global AI giants are offering free premium access in India

Over the last few months, Big AI has made big moves in India. First it was Aravind Srinivas’s Perplexity, which partnered with India’s second largest mobile network Airtel to offer their premium Pro version for free in India. They gave away a subscription priced around Rs 17,000 annually. That was in July. It set the ball rolling for more such deals.

The country’s largest mobile network, Jio, partnered with Sundar Pichai’s Google to offer for free 18 months of Gemini Pro—on paper worth around Rs 35,000—to users aged between 18 and 25…