Bangalore: The statewide Rural IT Quiz conducted by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), in association with the IT Department Government of Karnataka, drew to a grand finale today at the Palace Grounds. Conducted as part of Bangalore IT.COM 2003, the quiz covered all the 27 districts of Karnataka. The zonal rounds were held at six districts – Gulbarga, Mysore, Mangalore, Bangalore Rural, Dharwad & Bellary in the first week of October.

Nearly 52,000 students across Karnataka participated in the quiz. Since this was the fourth year that the quiz was being conducted, the questions were pegged at a slightly higher level. The quiz conducted by Quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam had six rounds – Bits & Bytes, Peer to Peer, Download, XY indicator, Beyond the Obvious and TCS – Thirty Crucial Seconds.

Some questions normally asked for urban students were also included. The intention was to gauge the level of IT awareness amongst the rural students. Needless to say the rural students put up an impressive performance

The winning teams from the six districts of Karnataka who qualified for the State Finals were: Prashant S Bhat & Srinivas G Vaidya from Sainik School, Bijapur; Mahesh Kumar and Vinay Kumar from Siddaganga High School, Tumkur; Ashwin P & Samarth Kudalkar from Little Rock Indian School, Udupi; Sanjana Hegde & Kshama Y C from Carmel Convent High School, Mandya; Karim Khan & Mruthyunjaya of JT College, Gadag and Vinay Kumar & S K Sridhar from VKJ PU College, Siruguppa.

The winners Ashwin P & Samarth Kudalkar from Little Rock Indian School, Udupi came through in a tie- breaker and beat Sanjana Hegde & Kshama Y C from Carmel Convent High School, Mandya in a sudden death buzzer round. Following them in third place was Karim Khan & Mruthyunjaya of JT College, Gadag.

The Winning team received a glittering trophy and a TCS cash scholarship of Rs 50,000. The I & II Runners-Up also received trophies and TCS cash scholarships of Rs 30,000 & 20,000 respectively. The 4th, 5th & 6th places received cash scholarship of Rs 10,000. All finalists were also presented personal audio systems.

The Rural IT Quiz has also entered the Limca Book of Records as the first IT Quiz for Rural Students.

M V Venkatappa, Speaker, Karnataka Legislative Assembly was the Chief Guest. D B Inamdar, Minister for IT & Tourism, Government of Karnataka and N G Subramaniam, VP & Head, TCS Bangalore were the Guests of Honour.

K M Shivakumar, Principal Secretary Department of IT, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka; B V Naidu, Director, STPI and Jawaid Akhtar, Director, Department of IT & Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka were among the dignitaries who graced the occasion.

Agencies