The duo from Poornaprajna College, Udupi fought off a tough challenge from the Odisha team of Omkar Amrutanshu and Bikam Kiran Mishra in a tight final, with the winners settled only during the the final question of the final round. While Karnataka scored 130 points, Odisha came second with 115 points and Madhya Pradesh secured third place with 30 points.
Presenting the prizes, former ISRO Chairman U R Rao commented that he was absolutely stupefied by the level of quizzing on display.
“I have to be honest here. I would’ve answered only two questions in the entire quiz. This is a good thing as every new generation must be much better than the previous one. When I look at these youngsters, I know our future is safe,” he said. The finals, organised by Department of IT, BT, Science and Technology, in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services, also saw participation by teams from Nagaland, Gujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir. The regional rounds of the programme were conducted in 14 states during September and October with over 14.5 lakh students from Class 8-12 participating.
Speaking on the occasion, IT and BT Principal Secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli said even a Bollywood movie could not have had a more thrilling climax. “In our concerted efforts to promote IT among the rural youth, we scaled up the event to a National-level covering 14 states across the country.”
The winners received scholarship worth Rs 75,000, while the two runners up received Rs 40,000 and Rs 20,000, respectively. Special recognition awards were given to the teams from Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir.
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