Full Analysis Summary
Racist Backlash Against Indian Tech Founders
Two Indian-origin tech leaders, Varun Vummadi and Esha Manideep, co-founded the San Francisco-based AI startup Giga.
They recently announced a $61 million funding round for their company.
Following the announcement, they faced racist trolling online.
The attacks targeted their appearance, accents, and the startup's focus on customer service AI.
Supporters quickly rallied to condemn the trolling, attributing it to envy.
Business Today highlighted the founders' impressive credentials, including IIT Kharagpur and Forbes 30 Under 30 recognitions.
The publication framed the backlash as offensive trolling that was met with strong community support.
This episode was positioned within a broader narrative of innovation and resilience.
The Times of India included the incident in a news roundup about Indian-origin CEOs facing racist trolling after funding announcements but provided limited additional details.
Coverage Differences
tone
Business Today (Other) characterizes the online attacks as 'racist trolling' and 'offensive remarks' and explicitly highlights supportive backlash against the trolls, adding a sympathetic, resilience-focused tone around the founders. In contrast, The Times of India (Asian) mentions the trolling briefly within a multi-topic digest without elaborating on the nature of attacks or the supportive response, resulting in a more neutral, headline-level tone.
specificity
Business Today (Other) provides specific founder names, credentials, and the nature of the trolling, whereas The Times of India (Asian) keeps it at a summary level without detailing who the founders are or what aspects were targeted.
narrative
Business Today (Other) frames the event as a story of innovation and grit in the face of racism, highlighting community support. The Times of India (Asian) situates the incident within a wide-ranging news wrap, positioning it as one item among many U.S.- and global-centric updates, without developing a narrative around the founders.
Overview of Giga's AI Startup
Beyond the harassment, Business Today outlines what Giga builds and why the funding round matters.
Founded in 2023, the company develops advanced voice AI capable of simultaneous speech and chat in multiple languages.
Giga is already partnering with DoorDash and targeting Fortune 100 companies.
The founders turned down lucrative jobs to pursue the startup, highlighting their commitment and achievement.
The Times of India, however, does not expand on the product, partners, or background in its brief mention.
This leaves Business Today as the primary source of operational details about Giga.
Coverage Differences
missed information
Business Today (Other) details the product’s capabilities, partnerships, and target customers, while The Times of India (Asian) does not, focusing only on the existence of racist trolling tied to the funding news.
specificity
Business Today (Other) provides concrete operational markers—founding year, product specifics, and enterprise targets—while The Times of India (Asian) stays high-level without identifying partners or technical scope.
Media Coverage of Online Abuse
Business Today highlights the severity of the abuse faced by the founders.
The publication describes trolls mocking the founders' appearance and accents.
It also notes attempts to belittle their success with offensive remarks.
Business Today documents a counternarrative of solidarity as supporters condemned the attacks as envy-driven.
The Times of India avoids characterizing the nature of the trolling or the community response.
Its coverage is limited to a brief mention within a multi-topic summary.
Coverage Differences
tone
Business Today (Other) uses direct language like 'racist trolling,' 'offensive remarks,' and notes the community’s defense of the founders, portraying the incident with severity and moral clarity. The Times of India (Asian) avoids descriptive detail and moral framing, offering only a matter-of-fact headline-level reference.
narrative
Business Today (Other) frames the story as resilience-in-the-face-of-racism, while The Times of India (Asian) presents it as one headline among many without a developed narrative arc.
Media Coverage of Trolling Incident
Coverage context also differs between the two publications.
The Times of India places the trolling episode alongside a broad mix of political, business, and entertainment items.
These items include the xQc/Hasan Piker discourse, Twitch controversies, Michael Burry’s market bets, and MrBeast’s theme park.
This placement signals a general-news snapshot rather than an in-depth technology or discrimination report.
Business Today, by contrast, concentrates on the founders’ backgrounds, product, partnerships, and the racist nature of the trolling.
This approach gives the incident a focused, technology-industry perspective.
Coverage Differences
scope/placement
The Times of India (Asian) situates the incident in a sprawling roundup that includes creators, markets, politics, and global culture, while Business Today (Other) highlights and details the Giga story as a standalone focus.
unique/off-topic elements
The Times of India (Asian) uniquely includes unrelated items such as Twitch policy backlash, MrBeast’s theme park, and geopolitical or social-policy notes (e.g., UAE’s 'Year of the Family'), which are absent from Business Today’s focused account of the Giga incident.