OREANDA-NEWS. April 10, 2012. The national and international finals of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2012 witnessed some of the most exciting and enthralling battles of wits on Sunday, April 8, 2012, at the Vivanta by Taj President, Mumbai. After a gruelling and close contest, the team from Institute of Public Enterprise, comprising Naveen Kumar and Zuhair Ali from Hyderabad, emerged international winners edging out the Symbiosis Law School duo of Raghav Chakravarthy and Sachin Ravi from Pune who earlier won the national finals.

The eight finalist teams for the national finals included Symbiosis Law School, Pune; Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad; St Xavier’s, Kolkata; Goa Medical College, Goa; Indian Institute of Management, Indore; Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar; Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology; Nagpur;and Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University, Patna. These finalists were selected from two exciting rounds of semi finals amongst 12 teams each from the regional winners. An overwhelming number of 6,000 students (over 3,200 teams) participated in the regional rounds in 24 cities across the country.

The national final was decided by a nerve-wracking tie breaker with Symbiosis Law School clinching the title of winners after facing stiff competition from Institute of Public Enterprise who emerged as the runners up.

The international finals witnessed a face-off between the top two teams from each country: Singapore: Singapore Management University - two teams; the UK: University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and ESCP Europe; and India: Symbiosis Law School, and Institute of Public Enterprise.

The evening was graced by Kishor Chaukar, MD, Tata Industries, who felicitated the national winners with trophies and a cheque worth Rs400,000, while the international winners were awarded trophies, laptops and an international holiday package each.

Complementing the quizzing talent and knowledge of the youngsters, Mr Chaukar said, “I congratulate these young men on a fantastic job. In them I see the future of India. It was wonderful to participate in an event bursting with energy, excitement and talent. These young students here are the new rising suns.”

The Tata Crucible Campus Quiz is known for producing new innovations in its quiz format to keep the contestants and audience on their toes, and this year was no different. The quizzing fiesta incorporated an Olympics-style format that took participants through five rounds of excruciating and innovative questions from across the spectrum. The quiz was hosted by ace quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam aka Pickbrain, who, through his distinctive style, got the best out of the contestants and kept the audience captivated with the high-voltage action on stage.

On winning the national finals at Mumbai, Mr Ravi, said, “I’m overwhelmed. We've been runners up at the Crucible twice over and today’s victory is truly humbling. It was an awesome quizzing experience and the moment is yet to sink in.” Seconding him, teammate Mr Chakravarthy added, “As cliched as it may sound the Crucible experience has been a continuous quest for knowledge. It wasn't just about the quiz; a lot was in the journey. The Crucible was our incentive to learn, imbibe and grow."

Winners of the international finals, Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad, expressed their excitement saying, “It has been a really good experience and we feel so proud to have represented India and won the international finals title.”