An Indian version of the BBC TV quiz University Challenge which launched on August 7th 2003 has proved a major winner with its online promotion receiving over 2 million responses. University Challenge India will run on BBC World for twenty-eight weeks from 7 August, during which time a new series of the UK version of the show - presented as usual by Jeremy Paxman - will be broadcast in the UK on BBC2.

The British Council will then take the winning team from the UK series to India to compete against the team that wins the first version of UC India. This international finale will be broadcast on BBC World in March 2004. The British Council will reward the team emerging victorious from the international final a "study tour" of the opposing team's country.

Cultural exchange between India and the UK has rarely been so intense. Even so, it would be hard to imagine a TV programme as quintessentially British as "University Challenge" - first broadcast here in 1962 with the iconic Bamber Gascoigne - being transplanted to the Subcontinent. Yet this is just what the British Council in India, working with BBC Enterprises and Indian media mogul Siddhartha Basu - who also brought "Mastermind" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" to India's screens - has achieved. Mr Basu's company Synergy Communications produces University Challenge in India and he also presents the show.

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE

Transmission Times - Thursdays @ 2200 IST / 2030 Dubai
repeated Sundays @ 1000 IST/ 0830 Dubai

India has some of the most fanatical “quizzers” in the world. And nowhere is this more in evidence than in the country’s colleges and universities. The students face a tougher time though, because the show's backers think Indian students are more diligent than their UK counterparts. Many of the Indian participants will be doing their homework before they appear on the show, producers predict.

"The mindset is different. The contestants will be very dedicated - they will swot up," said commissioning editor, Nahendra Morar. The set is also be more colourful to fit in with Indian tastes after the British red and grey desks were deemed too bland. The show's host Siddhartha Basu said quiz programmes were extremely popular across all areas of society. "We have quizzes all over the place; in temples and even one in South Asia's largest jail," he said.

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE RESULTS

Results: 25th September 2003
RV College of Engineering - 65 points
Government Medical College - 105 points

Results: 18th September 2003
IIT Chennai - 125 points
Hindu College, Delhi University - 75 points

Results : 11th September 2003
SP College of Engineering - 115 points
Maharaja's College - 110 points

Results : 4th September 2003
IIM Kolkata - 140 points
IIT, Mumbai - 75 points

Results : 28th August 2003
RV College of Engineering - 115 points
Queens' University, Belfast - 120 points

Results : 21st August 2003
Government Engineering College Thrissur - 75 points
Aberystwych College, University of Wales - 80 points

Results : 14th August 2003
Jadavpur University - 60 points
Edinburgh University - 120 points

Results: 7th August 2003
IIT, Madras - 150 points
Birkbek College, University of London - 85 points

Click here to visit the BBC World online website for latest news about University Challenge India.

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