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On the night of May 8–9, as Pakistan launched a wave of coordinated drone and missile attacks across India's western border, the Indian Armed Forces responded with unmatched speed and precision. Over 50 drones were shot down across key military zones including Jammu, Udhampur, Samba, Akhnoor, Nagrota, and Pathankot. At the heart of this defensive success was the Pechora missile system—a Soviet-origin surface-to-air missile platform known for its lethal accuracy. Integrated with the 4R90 Yatagan radar, the Pechora can detect and neutralize targets mid-air, even under intense electronic jamming. With a kill probability of 92% and target engagement capability at up to 35 km range and 25 km altitude, it proved indispensable during this high-tempo engagement. Despite the induction of newer systems like the Akash NG, MRSAM, and S-400 'Sudarshan Chakra,' Pechora remains a trusted asset in India's layered air defence grid.

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Indian Express

2 hours ago

• Indian Express

Why both Apple and Meta are interested in buying Perplexity AI

In Silicon Valley, what matters most is staying ahead of the competition. If you are Apple or Meta and find yourself short on talent or unable to build the technology in-house, the typical approach is to spend big. That usually means acquiring a successful company, bringing in the team behind the product, and either integrating it into your core offerings or giving the founders enough autonomy to continue innovating within your brand. It's an approach many Silicon Valley companies have embraced—some have made blockbuster acquisitions, while others have gotten burned. Last week, both Apple and Meta made headlines with news of their interest in acquiring Perplexity AI, a leading AI startup founded by Indian-origin computer scientist Arvind Srinivas. While major Silicon Valley players often work behind the scenes to quietly pursue companies they are interested in, this time two tech giants are eyeing Perplexity—at the same time. The timing makes it even more interesting, especially in the case of Apple, which typically avoids bringing in outside talent and prefers to build competing technologies in-house. Bloomberg first reported that Meta approached Perplexity about a potential takeover before the company recently invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI. Unsurprisingly, the San Francisco–based AI startup was also on Apple's radar, according to another Bloomberg report. It's not clear whether Perplexity is up for sale, whether Meta or Apple has held formal talks to acquire the company, or how close either might be to sealing a deal. We may not know until one of them makes an official announcement. While Meta has been on a shopping spree for months, Apple's name entering the mix is particularly interesting. It could signal a turning point in Cupertino's AI strategy—something many have been anticipating, especially after its underwhelming AI showing at the company's recent developers' conference. The interest from both Silicon Valley giants raises an important question: why are they eyeing a much smaller company like Perplexity? The answer may be that this rising AI darling holds the potential to supercharge their AI ambitions in the escalating battle against Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. When Perplexity was founded in 2022 by a team of AI researchers and machine learning experts—Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho—in San Francisco, the idea behind the startup was to 'democratise access to knowledge.' While the AI-driven search engine and chatbot rose quickly, Perplexity AI was initially mocked as little more than an 'AI wrapper.' Now, its greatest strength lies in allowing users to choose from a range of powerful large language models (LLMs), though it also has its own LLM called Sonar. The startup has built various services on top of these LLMs, giving consumers real choice and flexibility. This ability to rapidly develop and launch new features on top of popular LLMs is what helped Perplexity gain its user base and rise in popularity. As of mid-2024, it reportedly had around 15 million users. Perplexity's rise is especially unexpected in its emergence as a serious search engine contender. Both insiders and the general public have praised its search capabilities, with some calling it a potential challenger to Google's dominance in the space. Many have tried and failed to replicate Google over the years—Neeva, for instance, shut down in 2023 after struggling to gain traction. But Google itself appears to be on shaky ground. Users have increasingly complained that Google's search results are cluttered with low-quality, spammy websites gaining the rankings. As a result, many people have begun turning to platforms like Reddit and TikTok for more authentic answers. Neither Perplexity nor ChatGPT has replaced Google yet, but there are growing signs that user search behaviour is shifting—and new players are emerging. Even Google is trying to reinvent itself with a new feature in its search engine called AI Overviews, which offers summarised answers on the search page itself. While Perplexity is slowly gaining more users, it has also faced controversy. The company has been accused by major publishers of bypassing paywalls and plagiarizing content. That said, Perplexity has quickly become one of the most buzzing products in the tech world. The company is currently valued at over $14 billion. Cupertino took an early lead in artificial intelligence with Siri in the early 2010s, but the company is now virtually absent from the current AI race. In fact, Apple is lagging behind other FAANG — an acronym for the top tech companies: Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (now Alphabet) — companies when it comes to AI. Its much-hyped Apple Intelligence has been underwhelming at best, and the promised Siri overhaul has been delayed—with no clear timeline in sight. Apple appears to be years behind the competition, painting a picture of weak leadership, flawed decision-making, and poor integration between teams. The company's recently concluded Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote included little to no mention of AI—a clear sign that Apple failed to anticipate the generative AI boom and was caught off guard. However, Apple has been developing a version of Siri that is entirely based on large language models (LLMs), aiming to make it more conversational and better at processing information. This new version is expected to eventually replace the current hybrid Siri that Apple is using, but we will have to wait until sometime next year to see how polished the new Siri actually is. A major difference between Apple and other companies in bringing AI to the masses is that Cupertino is more open to partnerships—such as the one it has with OpenAI. The idea is that Apple will combine its own machine learning models with generative AI technologies from partners to power features within Apple Intelligence. It's a smart way to deliver the best of AI through collaboration. And since Apple has some of the best hardware on the market—and billions of active users—it makes sense to work with various AI companies and build new features on top of their LLMs. But the real question is whether Apple's hardware-first business model puts it at a disadvantage in the AI age—or whether we are simply expecting Apple to behave like Google or OpenAI and invest billions in AI as a core product. What's often overlooked is that Apple's business model is fundamentally different from the major players in AI. Apple is not (yet) an AI-first company—though it could become one in the future if its devices and software are redesigned around AI. While Google and OpenAI aim to sell their AI technologies to others and monetise them directly, Apple's focus is on serving its own customers—those who buy iPhones, Macs, and other devices—by integrating AI features into its existing software ecosystem. Apple is also morally accountable to its users, which is why it maintains a strong emphasis on building a private, user-focused version of AI. If that approach takes more time to deliver, Apple is willing to wait—and that's okay, even if it takes longer than expected. Apple has made a choice, and its partnership-driven approach comes with both pros and cons. The company can either compete directly with OpenAI and Google by developing its own large language model (LLM) as advanced as theirs and integrating it into Apple Intelligence, or it can give consumers the option to choose between assistants—like Siri and Gemini, for example. However, taking the latter route risks complicating Apple's business model and could create a confusing user experience, such as having two voice assistants running on the same iPhone. For Apple, its current position in the AI age is a high-risk battle. The company could open its wallet to acquire a major AI company or poach the brightest software developers to build a team of AI experts. Apple might already be quietly doing this behind the scenes. Apple rumoured move to acquire Perplexity AI suggests a potential shift in its AI strategy. In some ways, Perplexity AI and Apple share similarities, and the long-term impact of integrating Perplexity's technology with Apple's hardware and software could be significant but in a positive way. Perplexity's search tool—with its text interface, voice controls, and Apple-like design—resonates more strongly on iOS than on Android. Perhaps the secret to Perplexity AI lies in how it is redefining the search engine experience. While traditional search engines like Google (built on crawling, indexing, and ranking) constantly scan and catalog the internet, Perplexity AI takes a different approach. Instead of relying solely on static results, its search engine transforms search into a natural conversation. Users can phrase questions as they would when speaking to another person, rather than using keyword strings. This conversational flow allows users to ask follow-up questions, refine queries, or explore related topics without starting over. Additionally, Perplexity AI's responses include numbered footnotes that link directly to original sources, improving transparency. It scans the web rapidly to find the latest information, and thanks to its multimodal capabilities—supporting text, speech, and more—users can even upload images to receive detailed explanations of visual content. The result is a more user-friendly, transparent, and informative search experience. Perhaps Cupertino is exploring the idea of creating its own AI-based search engine to reduce its long-term reliance on Google. While talk of Apple acquiring Perplexity AI may still be just a rumour, the reality is that Apple needs both top-tier AI talent and a clear long-term strategy for integrating AI into its products. Maybe Apple wants to move beyond its current partnership strategy and is now aiming for full control over the user experience. Gaining access to Perplexity AI's talented team and its ready-made alternative to Google Search could mark the beginning of what Apple has long envisioned as the core experience behind Apple Intelligence. In May, Apple's Senior Vice-President Eddy Cue revealed that the company had discussed a possible Safari integration with Perplexity during Google's ongoing search antitrust case. Apple has been under increasing pressure to end its partnership with Google, which currently pays Cupertino billions of dollars each year to remain the default search engine on the iPhone. While that could mean the end of the billions Apple receives from Google if regulators apply pressure, Cupertino also needs an alternative—and a long-term bet on Perplexity AI makes a lot of sense. Though it remains to be seen whether Apple will invest in Perplexity AI or move to acquire the startup outright, one major hurdle could be regulatory approval. Apple has already faced accusations of creating a monopoly through its App Store and its dominant role as a gatekeeper—concerns that could intensify if it attempts a multi-billion dollar acquisition. However, Apple has generally avoided high-profile acquisitions. Its last major deal was the $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014. Historically, the company prefers smaller acquisitions, usually aimed at bringing talented teams on board to kickstart new projects or to fill talent gaps in existing internal efforts. While Apple is rather cautious with acquisitions, Meta is known for large-scale deals. Meta has made a number of high-profile acquisitions in the past, and in many cases, it has allowed those brands to shine on their own. Take, for example, the photo-sharing platform Instagram or the messaging service WhatsApp—both highly successful deals that continue to pay dividends today. However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now under pressure and must answer to shareholders about how the company plans to win the AI race against OpenAI and Google's parent company, Alphabet. That explains why Meta is on a spending spree and actively eyeing AI companies, even though the cost of acquiring them during the peak of the AI boom is astronomically high. Just recently, Meta made a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, gaining access to star developer and startup founder Alexandr Wang—a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropout who founded the company at age 19. The 41-year-old Meta CEO has also reportedly attempted to acquire Perplexity AI and Safe Superintelligence, the latter launched a year ago by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Meta is now reportedly planning to hire former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and his business partner Daniel Gross, who had been leading the $32 billion AI startup Safe Superintelligence. In recent months, Meta has upped its spending on data centers investments and potential the added cost of AI hardware. Cash isn't a problem for Meta; what the company is focused on now is assembling a dream team to develop AI technology that aligns with Mark Zuckerberg's vision. Unlike Apple, which is a hardware-first company, Meta's business is more diversified—spanning its core advertising unit, Instagram's algorithm-driven content, as well as VR and smart glasses initiatives. Mark Zuckerberg often talks about the company's ambition to build a new computing platform that will one day replace smartphones, and to achieve that, Meta needs better AI models and the technology to power them. It's a massive undertaking, given Meta's presence across social media, advertising, and now hardware. It requires not only significant capital but also a long-term vision—and, more importantly, a 'superintelligence team.' But compared to OpenAI and Google, Meta has made slower progress in artificial intelligence, despite having vast resources and top-tier talent. The company's current AI strategy centers around an open-source approach built on its Llama family of models. In April, Meta announced the Llama 4 AI models, which were not well received by developers. So far, Meta has only released two smaller versions of Llama 4 and has stated it will eventually release a larger and more powerful 'Behemoth' model. This suggests that Meta remains behind Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic in the AI race. That leaves Meta with no choice but to speed up its efforts to hire the right talent. It's well known in Silicon Valley that star developers are few—and they come at a high cost. In the latest episode of the Uncapped podcast, hosted by his brother, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta has attempted to recruit OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, along with even larger annual compensation packages. This underscores just how desperate—Meta is to secure top-tier AI talent. Poaching is normalised in Silicon Valley – and certainly not new. With Perplexity AI reportedly on the radar of both Meta and Apple, it's clear that both companies are keen to acquire the Arvind Srinivas–led startup. Meta has previously been in talks to acquire the company, highlighting just how much it values Perplexity's potential. For Meta, the acquisition would be strategically important in improving its Meta AI assistant—which already serves over a billion monthly active users across the company's family of apps—by making it more personalised and better tuned for voice-based conversations. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More

Time of India

3 hours ago

• Time of India

Over 21,000 jobs in audio electronics segment at risk due to China's rare earth curbs: Elcina estimates

Over 21,000 jobs are at risk in the country's audio electronics segment due to restrictions imposed by China on the export of rare earth metals, according to an estimate shared by industry body ELCINA with the government. In April, China implemented strict export licensing on rare earth elements like terbium and dysprosium which are key inputs for high-performance NdFeB (Neodymium-Iron-Boron) magnets used in consumer electronics. The country's oldest electronics industry body said that the move has disrupted global supply chains, hitting India's fast-growing hearables and wearables sector hard and the device makers are switching to import fully assembled speaker modules from China. "This creates a regressive trend-from component manufacturing back to finished good imports dependency. Over 5,000-6,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs are at risk in speaker and audio component manufacturing especially in Noida and South India," Elcina stated in the report. Elcina estimates that the rare earth metal-based magnets account for around 5-7% of the bill of materials and India imports nearly 100% of its NdFeB magnet requirement with China accounting for 90% of the total imports. The industry body said that prices of China-origin magnets have increased due to tightened supply and administrative bootlenecks and other sources such as Japan, EU and the US are 2-3 times more expensive and also lack sufficient capacity to meet India's rising demand. Electronics manufacturing services firm Videotex, which produces televisions, said rare earth-based magnets are critical in TV manufacturing, particularly for speakers, due to their superior performance and compact size. "As the country remains heavily reliant on imports for these components, this presents a clear challenge. However, the specific impact on the television manufacturing segment is expected to be relatively limited. We are working closely with our suppliers to ensure adequate stock for the upcoming season, thereby maintaining production continuity," Videotex Director Arjun Bajaj said. Videotex makes TVs for Havels (Lloyd), Reliance Group (BPL & Reconnect), Vijay Sales, Toshiba and over 25 other brands. "Additionally, based on supplier guidance, we are actively exploring alternative solutions such as ferrite magnets, which offer reasonable performance trade-offs. While the disruption is significant, it also underscores the importance of long-term strategies to localise and diversify our component sourcing," Bajaj said. Elcina has urged the government to initiate government-to-government (G2G) dialogue with China, explore industry-specific exemptions similar to those seen in semiconductor trade channels, boost local research and development and manufacturing of rare earth magnets under the electronics component manufacturing scheme. The industry body has recommended government explore the possibility of rolling out a production-linked incentive scheme for critical minerals.

Indian Express

18 hours ago

• Indian Express

Why Israel-Iran conflict may not immediately affect Indian military supplies

The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict may not have an immediate impact on Indian military hardware and maintenance support, except if it turns into another protracted conflict lasting several months, officials closely monitoring the conflict told The Indian Express on Sunday. 'The war is too new as of now to show any displayable impact on Indian military spares or hardware,' a senior military official said, adding that any diversion of weapons stock could take place in the instance of a long-drawn conflict. This is significant as India is actively working on replenishing much of its Israeli-origin weapons which were extensively used in Operation Sindoor against Pakistan last month. Over the last decade, India has purchased from Israel a range of military equipment and weapons including missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors and radars, air defence systems, and small arms. Many of these Israeli weapons and platforms—particularly loitering munitions and air defence systems—were used in Operation Sindoor launched by India inside Pakistan last month. This includes SkyStriker loitering munitions, Heron and Searcher UAVs, Derby Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missiles, SPICE 2000 guided bombs, Spike anti-tank guided missiles, Spyder surface-to-air missile system, Barak 8 air defence system, and Negev light machine guns and network radio communication equipment. Several Israeli companies have partnered and formed joint ventures with Indian companies and that will also help keep supplies to India going despite the war. 'A range of high-precision engineering companies in India carrying out contract manufacturing for Israelis is likely to ensure sustenance of Israeli-origin equipment remains unaffected,' an official said. This is in contrast with the impact another major ongoing global conflict—the long-drawn-out Russia-Ukraine war— initially had on Indian military spare supplies and delayed delivery schedule of the S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile system units. Officials explained this was because many of the big platforms in the Indian military such as fighter aircraft, transport aircraft, warships, air defence systems, and small arms are of soviet origin, requiring huge maintenance support from Russia, compared to the Israeli military hardware India has acquired over the years. The impact was significant even as India had started the maintenance of many Soviet-era military equipment indigenously. Another big factor that affected Russian military supplies to India was that the country was facing the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) in 2017. Russia was subjected to more stringent economic sanctions from the West after the war started. The Indian Air Force used the Israeli SPICE 2000 guided bombs in the Balakot air strikes in February 2019. The Army has procured advanced Heron drones from the country in the last two years to amplify surveillance along the Line of Actual Control amid the military standoff with China. According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Israel was the world's eighth largest arms exporter in 2020–24, accounting for 3.1 per cent of global arms exports. The single-largest importer of Israeli arms was India at 34 per cent, followed by the US at 13 per cent and the Philippines at 8.1 per cent.