OpenAI names ex-Coursera chief Raghav Gupta as Education Head for India and APAC

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has appointed Raghav Gupta as head of its education vertical for India and the wider Asia-Pacific region. Gupta previously served as managing director for Asia-Pacific at online learning platform Coursera.

The announcement was made in New Delhi on Monday by Leah Belsky, OpenAI’s vice-president and general manager for education. The move comes as OpenAI prepares to establish its first office in India later this year, underscoring the country’s growing significance as one of its key markets.

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Gupta joins a small but growing team in India. At present, OpenAI has one other full-time employee in the country, Pragya Misra, who has been overseeing public policy and partnerships since 2023. In addition, former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly was appointed last year as a senior adviser to facilitate government engagement on artificial intelligence policy.

Belsky confirmed that OpenAI is collaborating with education technology start-ups in India and the US to develop products on top of ChatGPT via its APIs. She also outlined India-specific initiatives, including a learning accelerator in partnership with IIT Madras, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Ministry of Education. The accelerator is designed to drive adoption of AI tools among educators.

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As part of its push, OpenAI announced a $500,000 grant for IIT Madras. The funding will support long-term research into the impact of AI in classrooms and its potential to improve cognitive outcomes.

Alongside its education initiatives, OpenAI is recruiting for three sales roles in India: Account Director, Digital Natives; Account Director, Large Enterprise; and Account Director, Strategics.

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