New Delhi: In the past few weeks, the world’s biggest tech companies have turned their gaze firmly toward India and this time, they are not selling anything. They are giving it all away.

OpenAI has rolled out a year of free ChatGPT Go. Google is offering 18 months of Gemini 2.5 Pro through Jio. In addition, Perplexity AI is extending free Pro access to Airtel users. Together, these three moves have quietly made India the world’s largest experiment in mass AI adoption, a billion people being handed premium AI tools at no cost.

But make no mistake, this isn’t charity. It’s one of the most calculated strategic plays in the history of technology.

India: From Market to Mission

For decades, India was seen as a “next big thing” market, promising but secondary. That story has changed.

With o

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