Quiz master Siddhartha Basu's take: Contextual knowledge, information important in age of misinformation

Hans India

05-07-2025

New Delhi: Contextual knowledge and information have become 'terribly important' amid the prevalent 'misinformation and propaganda', veteran television personality and quiz master Siddhartha Basu has said, according to a blogpost by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O'Brien.
In the blogpost based on an interaction between O'Brien, who hosted the 'Bournvita Quiz Contest' on television, and Basu, who was behind popular television shows like 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', the two quiz masters discussed the country's quizzing scene over the years. 'What has become terribly important now is to have contextual knowledge and information. See how much misinformation and propaganda is out there. And WhatsApp University. How do you train, particularly young people, but also ourselves to have our antennas up?' Basu, who also hosted 'Quiz Time' on Doordarshan in the 1980s, was quoted as saying in the blogpost.
The two quiz masters stressed the importance of verifying information and 'fact check'. O'Brien said his father, Neil O'Brien, also a well-known quiz master often credited with conducting the first formal well-organised quiz contest in Kolkata, used to write down questions in a diary. 'So, you never have to prepare for a quiz when you are setting a quiz. For all the research you do, whether for a quiz or in Parliament, there is a simple rule: You need three authentic sources,' the TMC leader said. Basu said, 'It is incumbent on everybody to be sure of the facts before they spread it or just forward it.'
'Fact-checking for anything that is shared publicly has now become very important and everybody needs to be able to do it at their level,' he added. 'You receive a piece of information, you put it on your family WhatsApp group without checking and you are the editor who is putting it out. So, you have to be careful,' O'Brien said.