iWorld
Edtech newbie Practically sets 1 million users as next milestone
KOLKATA: 2020 has broken all the barriers for edtech players in India, especially the start-ups. With educational institutes being shut for most of the year, a number of new players have gained momentum in their growth journey. Investment by venture capital (VC) in e-learning firms has quadrupled between January and November reaching $1.8 billion.
Practically is one such edtech platform that has come up by leaps and bounds in the last one year to tap into the growing segment. The learning app, which has crossed 330,000 users, raised $4 million in a pre-Series B round this January. With a pan India expansion plan in the works, it aims to surpass one million users within the next year, revealed Practically marketing & brand strategy vice president Mahadev Srivatsa. After reaching this goal, it might take a shot at five million users in the next financial year.
The platform started operations during the pandemic with its b2b solution in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Under this initial line of business, the product was sampled to schools and institutions across the two southern states. However, the brand later realised the need for a b2c model given the geographical limitations of b2b expansion.
“We are a unique solution. We are working under the b2b2c model,” quipped Srivatsa.
Both the formats are important from a business point of view, added he, but the b2c push will drive Practically going forward. Under the blended model, b2b solution can be accessed by students without any cost as it will be directly provided by their schools. If users want to access content beyond what has been offered by schools, then they will have to pay, he detailed.
For the direct-to-consumer segment, the app works under a subscription model. The app consists of a universal curriculum targeting grades six through 12. Users also get access to free 30 minutes of content every month – a freebie that helps drive engagement, said Srivatsa, terming the app as a one-stop shop as it has live classes, doubt resolution and even assigns mentors to students.
One of the growth accelerators for the brand has been the marketing campaign it did in December last year. It had a two-pronged strategy: ATL was focused on the home market while the digital campaign drove pan-India expansion. The former was targeted to generate more awareness and more conversion. Through the digital campaign, it wanted to test responses from 40 cities identified as potential regions for the future.
ATL activations included a two-week associate sponsorship on Big Boss Telugu alongside a couple of rounds of print ads. Social media messaging had company, features and campaign-led communication amplified throughout the campaign period of December 2020 to February 2021.
The campaign has set a lot of milestones for the app like sparking 3X growth, and improvement in social media metrics. As Practically plans to make inroads into more markets, Srivatsa added that they want to make the platform a household name; the latest advertising blitz gave confidence in that direction.
“At this juncture, considering the learning from the digital campaign and looking at the way business is expanding, the south and western region of India would be our initial foray. You will find us immediately entering this market. We have an eventual entire year plan for further expansion,” he commented. The app may even get into vernacular content and K-5 curriculum in the future.
With so many players eyeing the booming market, experts have already predicted a spurt in mergers and acquisitions, and consolidation in the sector in the next three to four years. Srivatsa said the similarities between telecom at its early growth phase and ed-tech is significant. It is evident that 3,000-4,000 players will not be able to survive, with media spend being the biggest differentiator. There are certain players who are dominating media spend, brands that have been here for close to a decade and aggressively expanded in the last few years. In this space of cut-throat competition, investment in branding is critical for ed-tech players. It's necessary to communicate the USP of the platform and what it is as a brand, he explained.
eNews
India uses ChatGPT for technical tasks nearly 4 times the world average: OpenAI
From classrooms to code, India’s AI use is increasingly skill-driven and youth-led.
MUMBAI: If code is the new currency, India is already minting it by the million prompts. In the world’s largest democracy, artificial intelligence is no longer a distant abstraction or a boardroom buzzword. It is a daily companion, drafting emails in Hyderabad, debugging code in Bengaluru, polishing essays in Delhi, and fielding life advice in towns far beyond the metros. Fresh data from OpenAI’s “Signals” initiative offers a rare, granular glimpse into how India is using ChatGPT, and the numbers suggest the country is not just adopting AI; it is actively shaping its use.
India is one of the largest markets globally for ChatGPT’s weekly active users and ranks among the top five countries for API usage. With OpenAI’s global consumer base exceeding 800 million users, most of them on free tiers, the dataset captures adoption patterns that go far beyond enterprise subscriptions.
Indian users, notably, are punching above their weight when it comes to advanced capabilities. Among ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers, usage of the data analysis tool is roughly four times above the global median. Use of Codex, OpenAI’s coding platform, is about three times above the median. Indians are nearly three times more likely than the global median to ask coding-related questions and almost twice as likely to seek help on education and learning.
This matters because it signals something economists call a shrinking “capability overhang”, which is the gap between what AI tools can do and how fully users exploit them. In India, that gap appears to be narrowing rapidly.
The geography of this coding intensity tracks the country’s technology hubs. Telangana, which is home to Hyderabad, ranks first in usage of OpenAI’s coding capabilities. Karnataka, home to Bengaluru, follows in second place, while Tamil Nadu comes third. In other words, the prompt traffic mirrors the tech corridors.
Nearly two-thirds of consumer ChatGPT messages in India are now non-work related, while slightly over one-third are tied to work. That marks a significant shift. In earlier phases of adoption, work was the dominant use case. It was only in early 2025 that non-work messages overtook professional use, and the divergence widened throughout the year.
Even so, India remains slightly above the global average in work-related usage. Around 35 per cent of consumer messages in India relate to work, compared with roughly 30 per cent globally.
At work, the emphasis is squarely task-oriented. Around 45 per cent of work-related conversations fall into “doing” behaviours such as drafting documents, transforming text, and completing tasks, compared with a much smaller share in non-work contexts. Technical help and writing dominate. In offices across the country, ChatGPT functions as a digital co-pilot that debugs code, polishes presentations, and unblocks stalled workflows.
Outside work, the tone shifts. Over 35 per cent of non-work messages revolve around practical guidance, which includes everyday advice and how-to queries. Roughly 20 per cent relate to seeking information. Nearly one-fifth involve writing tasks such as drafting or editing. Self-expression and learning loom large. In personal life, Indians appear to use AI less as an executor and more as an explainer, sounding board, and study partner.
India’s demographic dividend is clearly reflected in its AI habits.
Users aged 18 to 24 now account for just under half of all ChatGPT messages sent in the country. They surpassed the 25 to 34 age group in mid-2024 and have held the lead ever since. Globally, the 18 to 24 cohort accounts for about one-third of messages; in India, the share is markedly higher.
Combined, users aged 18 to 34 generate roughly 80 per cent of total consumer ChatGPT messages in India. Given that around 40 per cent of India’s population is under 25, the youth skew is unsurprising, but its implications are profound. Education-related queries, early-career problem-solving, and skills development are likely to dominate near-term AI impacts.
Usage patterns also differ by age. The 18 to 24 cohort accounts for a near majority of messages seeking practical guidance, technical help, and self-expression. Meanwhile, the 24 to 34 group sends a slightly higher share of multimedia and technical help queries relative to its overall share of usage.
If AI norms are being written in real time, it is young Indians who are holding the pen.
OpenAI does not collect gender data, but inferred patterns based on typically masculine and feminine first names reveal a measurable gap in India. A little under 60 per cent of users have typically masculine names, and just over 40 per cent have typically feminine names. This skew is more pronounced than the global average.
Worldwide, users with typically feminine names now account for slightly more than half of all messages. This shift occurred only in the summer of 2025, when feminine-name usage overtook masculine-name usage globally. In India, the gap persists, although it has been narrowing over the past year.
There are also topical differences. Users with typically feminine names are more likely to send messages related to self-expression, practical guidance, and writing. Those with typically masculine names lean more towards seeking information and technical help.
The data does not capture motivations, but it does highlight where inclusion efforts and digital literacy initiatives could focus if AI is to broaden opportunity rather than deepen divides.
The consumer story aligns with India’s broader AI momentum. The country ranks second globally in AI skills penetration and has one of the fastest-growing AI talent pools. It accounts for 9.2 per cent of global AI publications in computer science as of 2023, which represents a substantial contribution to research output.
At the same time, investment in AI data centres and digital public infrastructure is expanding, promising to knit together datasets and resources at scale. Enterprise adoption is also robust, which suggests that consumer experimentation is unfolding alongside institutional integration.
OpenAI’s “Signals” project is built with aggregated, privacy-preserving data and released with a time lag. It aims to provide a durable measurement layer for the AI era. The idea is not to track individuals, but to surface patterns such as where adoption is accelerating, who is using the tools, and what they are actually doing.
In a country as vast and varied as India, such evidence is more than academic. It shapes decisions about workforce training, small business support, education policy, and safeguards.
For now, the numbers paint a picture of a nation that is not merely consuming AI, but conversing with it in an energetic, experimental, and increasingly skilful manner. In India, the future of work and learning is not being downloaded. It is being drafted, debugged, and rewritten in real time.
