perf: optimize main route rendering by caching parsed projects.json structure

[komalharshita]

Description

The application reads and parses projects.json repeatedly across route contexts. Parsing JSON from the filesystem on every request wastes CPU cycles and adds I/O overhead. We should load and parse the file once on application start and cache the Python structure in memory.

Current Behavior

projects.json is re-read and parsed repeatedly.

Proposed Solution

1. In src/utils/data_loader.py, introduce a global cache variable _projects_cache protected by a thread lock.
2. Fetch from the cache if it is initialized, otherwise read the file, validate it, and store it.
3. Expose a clear_projects_cache() function for testing.

Implementation Guidance

• Modify src/utils/data_loader.py.

Acceptance Criteria

• Parsing is executed only once per process lifecycle.
• Pytest suite can invalidate/reset the cache between test classes.
• Application behaves correctly and serves correct results.

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[pisum-sativum]

/assign

[pisum-sativum]

@komalharshita I want to work on this project as a part of Gssoc 2026 kindly assign me this issue.

[github-actions]

Hey @pisum-sativum, this issue is already assigned to @komalharshita. Please find another open issue!