iWorld
Siddhartha Basu’s ‘Quizzer Of The Year’ to air its championship rounds from 15 April only on Sony LIV
Mumbai: Get ready for the ultimate quiz championship of the year! Sony LIV’s Quizzer Of The Year (QOTY), a nationwide challenge is all set to air and capture the imagination of quiz enthusiasts across the country. As the competition heats up, the platform is excited to announce the launch of its final rounds, promising edge-of-your-seat excitement, and fierce competition like never before! Presented by India’s grand quizmaster, Siddhartha Basu, the show is conceptualised by Anita Kaul Basu and the team at Tree of Knowledge Digital (Digitok).
Quizzer Of The Year aims to give an exciting twist to traditional learning and explores the format of infotainment in India. In today’s world, students are not just focused on academic excellence; they also crave new experiences and knowledge beyond their textbooks, from the world around them. QOTY provides students of class IX to XII a platform to test their abilities and knowledge against peers from across the country.
QOTY is divided into three phases, with phase one of daily quizzes already concluded. 64 teams, progressed to represent each zone, that emerged from a pool of over 2000 schools, spanning across more than 300 cities. Later, top teams from each zone will eventually move ahead and fight to win the National Championship, ‘Quizzer Of The Year’ title and stand a chance to win an educational scholarship of rupees 1 crore. The team that comes second and third will also stand a chance to win an educational scholarship of rupees 50 lakhs and 20 lakhs respectively.
QOTY will begin streaming exclusively on Sony LIV from 15 April, kick-starting with episodes from the Zonal rounds hosted by seasoned quizmasters Joy Bhattacharjya and Col Vembu Shankar, Indian Army veteran. Winning teams will advance to the quarterfinals, semi-finals, finals hosted by Siddhartha Basu, with the ultimate winner being crowned the Quizzer Of The Year.
Presenter and creator Siddhartha Basu, “For the past year, our team at Tree of Knowledge Digital (Digitok) has diligently worked to engage with the top high school quizzers from across India to select teams for the national play-offs. We aimed to make QOTY inclusive, allowing everyone to play, test, and expand their knowledge through quizzing. Even those who didn’t qualify for further rounds can continue playing on the app round the year. With my four decades-long involvement in infotainment, I am excited to venture into the world of OTT with Sony LIV to reach students beyond all barriers. We hope QOTY becomes a tool for fostering a factual culture and building a strong knowledgeable community among young minds.”
Watch Quizzer Of The Year exclusively from 15 April, Mon-Sun at 11 am only on Sony LIV!
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
