New Delhi, Sept. 19 -- Teachers have always been accorded a high pedestal in Indian society. From ancient times, the revered Guru-Shishya tradition elevated teachers to the status of divinity, embodied in the timeless Sanskrit shloka, "Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu." In the age of rapidly advancing technology, however, a new question is emerging in India's education corridors: will we soon be speaking of 'Gurur-AI' in our classrooms?

This question has jumped from abstract debates to real-world urgency with OpenAI's recent announcement of a landmark initiative in India: the distribution of 500,000 paid ChatGPT licences for schools and technical institutes, packaged with teacher training and research tie-ups. For a country where education is ...