Department of IT, BT and S & T

Government Of Karnataka

Projects on anvil : ITIR , BT Finishing School, IT Parks in Tier-II cities, BT Parks in Tier-II cities, Rural BPO Scheme, Bangalore Helix

RURAL IT QUIZ 2009

The Rural IT Quiz organized by the Dept. of IT, BT, Science & Technology, Govt of Karnataka in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) saw a huge participation, with over 14 lakh students participating in the program.

The event celebrated its 10^th anniversary this year and was conducted for students from Std 8-12. The quiz was part of the event BangaloreIT.biz 2009. For a decade now the program has helped to enhance IT awareness amongst students, keeping them abreast of the latest developments in the world of IT, besides trying to narrow the gap between the urban and rural students.

The program was conducted in four phases. Preliminary round was held on 19^th September, 2009 at all schools/colleges located in rural areas. The program gathered momentum in October, 2009 with best teams from schools/colleges participating at the District Level Quiz where the top 50 teams were selected for the Regional Rounds which was conducted across 6 districts in Karnataka from 20^th October - 4^th November. The Regional Rounds were conducted at Gulbarga, Dharwad, Davangere, Tumkur, Udupi and Mysore.

The six teams who qualified for the State Finals were:

Abhishek UH & Vinay S. Bhusannava - Rashtrotthana Vidya Kendra Dharwad,
Neelam Jain & Spoorthy V. Acharya - Vishwamanava PU College Mandya,
Devrath ND & Surya V - MKET PU College Harihar,
Karthik G & Vikas S - Sarvodaya PU College Tumkur,
Shriram R. Kulkarni & Kartik S. Kalamadi - VB Durbar PU College Bijapur and
Ahmed Shabib & Nithesh Raj - Philomena PU College Puttur.

These six finalists battled it out at the State Finals conducted on 12^th November at "Jnanajyothi Auditorium, Central College Campus, Bangalore" from 4.00pm to 6.30pm , where quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam put them through multiple rounds of quizzing comprising oral, visual, audio visual and software powered rounds.

The questions were enough to stump a person with an average knowledge of IT, but not the students who had come well prepared and amazed the audience by answering even the most difficult questions. The final round of the quiz was a battle of brains & nerves as the teams battled for the top honours.

Finally, Ahmed Shabib & Nithesh Raj - Philomena PU College Puttur emerged state champions with an impressive show.

The team from Abhishek UH & Vinay S. Bhusannava - Rashtrotthana Vidya Kendra Dharwad were the I Runners-Up, with Devrath ND & Surya V - MKET PU College Harihar coming II Runners-Up.

The State Winners received a glittering trophy and laptops. The I & II Runners-up received netbooks and high-end mobile phones. Teams that came 4^th, 5^th & 6^th also received mobile phones.

On the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of the Rural IT Quiz a Special Invitation National IT Quiz was also conducted where the Karnataka State winners competed with the TCS IT Wiz winners from Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Kochi.

After an intense quizzing Vaarnan Drolia & Anurag Sarkar from St. James School - Kolkata emerged the winner with an impressive show. The team from Aurojyoti Das and Ambarish Sarangi from DAV Public School - Bhubaneswar were the I Runners-Up, with Arjun Juneja and Abhishek Gupta from DPS - Noida coming II Runners-Up.

The National winners received a glittering trophy & cash scholarships of Rs 80,000/-, I Runners-up Rs 40,000/- and II Runners-up Rs 20,000/-, besides i-Pods. Teams that came 4^th, 5^th & 6^th also received mobile phones.

For over a decade the program has reached out to more than 5 million students in Karnataka. The Rural IT Quiz has also earned an entry in the Limca Book of Records as the first IT Quiz for rural students in India. The consistent growth in the number of students participating every year reflects the interest levels the quiz has been generating, and also the increasing comfort levels of students with respect to information technology

International Cricketer Venkatesh Prasad was the chief guest on the occasion. Mr. Ashok Kumar C. Manoli - Principal Secretary Dept. of IT, BT and S&T, GOK, Mr.Aravind Jannu - Director, IT & BT, GOK, Mr. N.Ganapathy Subramaniam - President TCS Financial Solutions and Mr. Nagaraj Ijari - VP & Head - TCS Bangalore Operations and were amongst those who graced the event.

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