FACE TO FACE: Sudipta Sengupta, Founder & CEO, The Healthy Indian Project

In a freewheeling conversation, Sudipta Sengupta, Founder & CEO of The Healthy Indian Project (THIP) discusses the various aspects of disinformation in healthcare with Rahul Koul, Chief Editor, BioVoice News. As a healthcare information startup in India, THIP has been fighting the infodemic in the healthcare space and its efforts have been recognized by Google and Facebook.

THIP is a signatory of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), reiterating its non-partisanship, and works with Facebook as a third-party fact checker to fact check health misinformation in multiple Indian languages.     

Key Questions

♦ Tell us how you define the term “infodemic” in the context of healthcare and what are its far-reaching consequences on public health?

♦ With the fresh incidents being reported in Kerala and Karnataka, there is a growing fear about re-emergence of the pandemic. What steps can be taken to prevent the spread of myths, fake news and misinformation?

♦ What specific types of misinformation or myths are you targeting through your platform? Challenges encountered during efforts to combat the infodemic. Your experiences and possible solutions

♦ Are there specific demographics or regions that your platform aims to reach?

♦ Technological tools or strategies that could be employed to monitor and counteract the spread of misinformation

♦ Success stories or examples of the positive impact website has had on individuals or communities.

About Sudipta Sengupta: Sudipta Sengupta, a stalwart in digital media with a rich background at The Times of India, Economic Times, and BW Businessworld, founded The Healthy Indian Project (THIP) in 2019. Under his leadership, THIP has gained global recognition, joining the International Fact-Checking Network in 2020 and partnering with Facebook and WhatsApp to combat health misinformation in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Recently, THIP also became a member of the Vaccine Safety Net (VSN), a WHO initiative to spread scientific and evidence-based information about vaccines. The introduction of RAKSHA, a WhatsApp chatbot handling daily inquiries for health information and fact-checking, marked a significant milestone in 2022.

Click here now to watch the full interview for detailed insights.