Doha

Students from more than 20 schools are expected to compete in the 19th Indian Women's Association's (IWA) Qatar Quiz at Birla Public School on Friday.

This year's event is to be anchored by well-known Indian quizzing personality Siddhartha Basu. At least eight of the competing schools are Indian. Gulf Times is the official newspaper of the much-awaited event.

"Indian ambassador Sanjiv Arora will be the chief guest at the nearly 90-minute event," IWA Qatar president Jotshna Dey told a press conference on Wednesday.

The contest will feature six rounds of competition covering a wide range of topics such as literature, science, geography, sports, music, and current affairs.

Students of classes 7, 8 and 9 will be part of the competing teams, said Dey while informing that this year's event has attracted considerable attention from different sections as this is the first time Basu is anchoring the event.

Over the years Basu has hosted well-known competitions in India such as a SAARC Quiz, The India Quiz, Beanstalk Quiz Summit, Mastermind India, University Challenge on BBC World, and India's Child Genius on Star World.

The ace quiz master, however, is still remembered by a considerable number of Indians for his immaculate presentation of the Quiz Time, a widely received show of the mid-1980s on India's national television network Doordarshan.

Basu also made his presence in such movies as Madras Cafe (2013-Hindi), How Old Are You (Malayalam) and its Tamil remake 36 Vayadhinile.

The preliminary rounds (written) of the show will be held between 1.30pm and 5pm. The final featuring the top six teams will start at 5.30pm.

IWA Qatar secretary Renu Malhotra, Britannia Biscuits' Qatar distributor Dohatna Innovative Distribution general manager Mohamed Imran, and GRB's Ajit Kumar Pillai were present at the briefing.

Britannia and GRB are the main sponsors of the event.