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Mumbai-based Perplexity Alternative Has 60k+ Users Without Funding

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Groq, the AI hardware development company, shared a story on X on how it helped scale an AI-powered search engine platform called Scira AI. This brought to light a made-in-India alternative to the AI search engine startup Perplexity. 

A 22-year-old Mumbai-based developer, Zaid Mukaddam, is the solo founder of an open-source platform that now boasts over 60,000 monthly users, powering more than 1 million searches. 

Mukaddam started the project last August, initially called ‘MiniPerplx’, inspired by Perplexity. Ten months ago, the project reached 200 stars on GitHub. The platform currently has 8,400 stars on GitHub. 

Groq stated that when the platform experienced a surge in internet traffic from 500 to 16,000 overnight in December, Mukaddam was struggling to scale the platform affordably due to rising API costs. 

“Every search chipped away at Zaid’s savings; he nearly pulled the plug,” the company said, adding that this is when it stepped in to assist him with additional computing resources. 

The company provided its inference platform, coupled with Alibaba’s Qwen AI models, which helped scale the platform with ‘pinpoint’ citations. 

When Mukaddam officially announced MiniPerplx on X last August, his project instantly gained a lot of attention. His announcement post was liked by the official account of Shadcn, the user interface component library, and Vercel’s CEO, Guillermo Rauch.

“Getting 14,000 impressions was huge for me and showed people were interested in what I was building,” he said, adding that he was inspired to build an alternative to Perplexity. 

“My thoughts on Perplexity AI: being an AI search engine and giving premium features in its Pro plan doesn’t make any sense as most of them are very basic and could be better,” Mukaddam said in a blog post, outlining his journey. 

He started building the platform on top of Vercel’s SDK, which was the natural choice for creating an AI search engine. Today, the platform is powered by various frameworks, including Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Shadcn/UI, OpenWeather, and others. 

The platform utilises multiple AI models to answer user queries, in addition to using Tavily’s API to search the web across various topics.

It also uses Exa AI, an AI platform that pulls and analyses content from any URL using live crawling features, and searches for information across academic papers and YouTube videos. Scria AI can also gather information from social media platforms like X and Reddit, providing detailed insights across various themes, including entertainment, finance, travel, and more. It can also perform several code-related analyses and tasks.

Recently, Scria AI was accepted into the Vercel AI accelerator, which assists emerging founders and AI builders to scale their projects. It provides access to AI platforms and resources while allowing builders to interact with industry leaders and investors. 





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MP Govt Signs Deal with Submer to Build Eco-Friendly AI Data Centres

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 The Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation (MPSEDC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Spain-based Submer Technologies. 

The agreement will pave the way for developing up to 1 gigawatt of next-generation, AI-ready data centre capacity in Madhya Pradesh, using Submer’s advanced cooling technologies. These technologies, like immersion cooling and direct-to-chip solutions, help save energy, reduce water usage, and lower the overall environmental impact of data centres.

 “Following our visit to Submer’s facility, we are convinced of the potential for transformative collaboration. This partnership reflects our vision for sustainable technology, job creation, and positioning Madhya Pradesh as a preferred destination for global innovation,” Mohan Yadav  CM, MP said.

The deal was finalised after a high-level visit to Submer’s innovation centre in Barcelona on July 17, 2025. 

As part of the agreement, the MP government will support the project by helping with land allocation, approvals, and investment incentives.

On the other hand, Submer will offer expertise in design, training, and technical support to set up the facilities. The company’s solutions have already led to 600 GWh of electricity savings and saved over 3 billion liters of water worldwide.

“This MoU marks the beginning of a robust partnership that will catalyze local employment, skill development, and innovation while building scalable infrastructure for the AI era,” Sanjay Dubey,additional chief secretary of department of science and technology, GoMP  said.

Submer’s leadership team is expected to visit MP later this month to explore potential sites and meet with local partners.



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DAZN Opens India’s First Sports-Tech GCC in Hyderabad, Plans to Hire 3,000 by 2026

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DAZN, the world’s leading sports streaming platform, opened India’s first sports technology global capability centre (GCC) in Hyderabad on July 18, 2025 . The new centre will serve as DAZN’s largest global hub and is expected to create around 3,000 jobs by the end of 2026.

DAZN plans to invest ₹500 crores over the next three years to expand operations in Hyderabad. The centre will focus on developing advanced sports technology, using AI and real-time analytics, while also working with academic institutions for training, research, and job creation in Telangana.

Speaking at the launch, Telangana IT and Industries minister Duddila Sridhar Babu said that the move reflects DAZN’s trust in Telangana’s skilled talent, strong infrastructure, and supportive government.

He also emphasised the rapid growth of Hyderabad as a top destination for GCCs. “Nearly one new GCC is being added every week in the city,” he said.

Babu also spoke about the state’s broader growth plans, including expanding development to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. “Telangana is investing over $15 billion in infrastructure projects like AI City, sports city, EV mobility, and the regional ring road,” he said. 

DAZN has been growing rapidly in India since launching its centre of excellence in Hyderabad in 2023. In just two years, it has expanded to over 1,500 employees, including engineers, developers, and data scientists.
“Hyderabad has been a perfect destination for DAZN to grow its technology and product operations, thanks to the state government’s progressive policies, world-class infrastructure, and highly skilled talent pool,”Sandeep Tiku, DAZN’s CTO, said.



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Delta Air Lines to Expand Use of AI in Pricing This Year

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by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 8:50 AM ET, Sat July 19, 2025

Delta Air Lines is set to expand the use of artificial intelligence to determine airfare after testing a pilot program which used AI to set 3 percent of the airline’s airfare, but privacy advocates and government officials are concerned that it could lead to price hikes and discriminatory pricing. 

The airline was one of the first to consider using AI to determine airfare, a measure that was announced back in 2023 by the airline’s president, Glen Hauenstein. They’ve partnered with Israeli company Fetcherr to use AI to set prices.

According to Fortune, Hauenstein told investors during the latest financial call that Delta will expand the use of AI from setting 3 percent of ticket prices to 20 percent by the end of the year, with a goal of doing away with static pricing altogether. 

“This is a full reengineering of how we price and how we will be pricing in the future,” he said on the call. Eventually, he told investors, “we will have a price that’s available on that flight, on that time, to you, the individual.”

Yet what does that mean, exactly?

While Delta maintains that their fares are public and based on trip-related factors, travel websites have a history of changing fares based on factors like web browser or ZIP code.

The expansion of AI into determining fares, some critics say, could end fair pricing because travelers will never see a universal rate, only the rate that the AI algorithm predicts a traveler will pay based on a variety of factors about that specific traveler.  

“They are trying to see into people’s heads to see how much they’re willing to pay, Justin Kloczko, who analyzes so-called surveillance pricing for California nonprofit Consumer Watchdog told Fortune. “They are basically hacking our brains.”  

There are laws protecting consumers from being charged different rates based on their sex or ethnicity, but Consumer Watchdog and others warn that pricing could become predatory for people of different classes. 

Lawmakers are also taking note. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) tweeted this message about it on X on July 15: “Delta’s CEO just got caught bragging about using AI to find your pain point — meaning they’ll squeeze you for every penny. This isn’t fair pricing or competitive pricing. It’s predatory pricing. I won’t let them get away with this.” 

The integration of AI into businesses and travel brands has been a conversation topic that repeatedly returns to the issue of ethical implementation as worries about it replacing people’s jobs and stealing protected information becomes top of mind. 


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