Delhi Teachers University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dhananjay Joshi said that India is a country which gives due importance to teachers as it is a Guru Pradhan country.

Speaking at the session Education Without Borders at the Bharat Shiksha Summit 2025, Prof. Joshi said the need of the hour is to train teachers in the country. “Today there is a need to save teachers. We need to work on teachers,” he said.

On the critical importance of teacher-centric reforms within the New Education Policy 2020, Prof. Joshi argued that focusing on the development of teachers is essential to creating a Viksit Bharat through a well-equipped and motivated teaching workforce.

Prof. (Dr.) Prabhat Ranjan, Vice-Chancellor of DY Patil International University, noted the importance of the NEP in veering away from the focus on English and to mother tongues in the country. He shared his university’s innovative approaches aimed at redefining education in India and emphasized the importance of bridging gaps between traditional and digital learning methodologies.

Dismissing university rankings put out annually by publications, Prof. Ranjan said the work of an educator is to ensure students learn leaving all such attempts at publicity on the wayside. There is no other focus required for an educational institution apart from focusing on students and research, he added. Rankings will come and go, he said.

Underlining the importance of being open to learning at any stage in life, Prof. Ranjan said that there is a need to learn new things every moment.

IGNOU Sanskrit Professor Kaushal Panwar, a Bharat Shiksha Sammelan awardee, said he was proud to be an Indian and what is present in this country cannot be anywhere else. 

Educators at the summit underscored how access to online tutorials and educational content has transformed learning. They highlighted that the students, even in rural areas, now have unprecedented access to knowledge. However, they also stressed the evolving role of teachers, particularly in “flip classrooms,” where students engage in discussions after reviewing study materials on their own.

Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying SP Singh Baghel on Thursday said students should aim for joining the Civil Services and seek posts in serving the country.

He said the blue beacons, which are used on cars of civil service officers, lasts long with promotions thrown in and is longer than the red beacons of politicians.

Speaking at the Bharat Shiksha Summit 2025, Baghel noted that the knowledge of English has been unevenly distributed across the country and this is what the National Education Policy 2020 seeks to rectify.

The focus on equal, quality education should have been there since Independence. But since that has not been the case, the children in rural areas have to suffer for the grave mistake perpetrated by the powers-that-be of Delhi, Baghel said.

Dwelling on the value of education, Baghel said education is such a key which can open even locks eaten away by rust. He noted that many generations of parents had sacrifices their lives and themselves for the education of their children.

Being literate is not enough, which is what most families insist on, and just degrees won’t help, he said. One should learn in good institutes, such as IITs and IIMs. We talk of Oxford and Cambridge but this is a country that produced the ancient seats of learning in Nalanda and Taxila, which were running to aplomb when the foundations were being laid in Oxford and Cambridge. Leaders of the independence movement studied abroad because the system in India had been bound under the Macaulay-introduced system, Baghel said.

Addressing the gathering, historian Vikram Sampath said that if you want to destroy a country, then all one needs to do is to give them a wrong understanding of their history. The distorted understanding of history is a gift of the British. History needs to be written from the perspective of India. Our Puranas tell how old the history of India is. This country is not a country built by the British, Sampath maintained.

Poet, lyricist and journalist Alok Srivastava said that in today’s time we have become very self-centred. In such a situation, talking about education is very commendable.

Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women VC Ranjana Jha, GTC Group Chairman RK Mahato and NLU Delhi Founder Ranbir Singh also addressed the programme.

Bharat Shiksha Samman awards were given to Prof. Ram Singh, Dr Rama of Hansraj College, Sanskrit scholar Dr Kaushal Panwar and veteran journalism teacher Dr Ramji Lal Jangid.

Air India has taken delivery of its first legacy Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft after a major refurbishment, as part of its broader plan to revamp its aging wide-body fleet. The upgrade comes in the backdrop of delays in the full retrofitting programme, which was initially slated to start last year but got pushed due to persistent supply chain challenges.

Heavy refresh underway as retrofit gets delayed

With the retrofitting of its legacy B777 aircraft facing setbacks, Air India opted for a “heavy refresh” — a mid-level upgrade involving replacement of carpets, seat covers, cushions, and repairs to broken seats. The first such refurbished aircraft was upgraded in Singapore over a period of approximately 50 days.

According to airline officials, similar work on the remaining 12 legacy B777-300 ERs is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. The newly refreshed aircraft will initially be deployed on domestic routes for brief testing before being put back into service on ultra-long-haul flights.

Focus on ultra-long-haul operations

Air India primarily uses the Boeing 777-300 ER fleet for long-haul operations to destinations such as Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago, Newark, and New York. These routes often exceed 14 hours in flight duration, placing them in the ultra-long-haul category.

The carrier currently operates 13 legacy B777-300 ERs as part of a total fleet of 198 aircraft, including a mix of wide-body and narrow-body jets. Some of these legacy aircraft also feature first-class cabins, though it’s not confirmed if those are part of the refresh programme.

Broader fleet overhaul in progress

The airline’s total wide-body fleet comprises 67 aircraft:

• 19 B777-300 ERs (including 6 leased from Etihad Airways)
• 8 B777-200 LRs (5 leased from Delta Air Lines)
• 27 B787-8s
• 7 B787-9s
• 6 A350-900s

Air India has also scheduled its first legacy B787 aircraft for retrofit in April this year. Narrow-body fleet upgrades are also in progress under a $400 million programme, with the first retrofitted A320 neo already back in service. The airline targets completion of A320 neo refits by Q3 2025 and full retrofitting of legacy wide-body aircraft by mid-2027.

Supply chain constraints affect timelines

The delay in retrofitting plans has largely been attributed to global supply chain disruptions. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson recently highlighted that issues persist across the aviation supply ecosystem — from engine shortages to seat supplier delays and fuselage part unavailability.

“It is going to remain a supply-constrained market, not just for Air India or India, but globally, for another four to five years,” Wilson remarked, underlining the widespread impact of these disruptions.