'Toughest biz quiz in India' produces an upset
The self-proclaimed “toughest business quiz in India” for college students was held on Thursday at the Atria Hotel in Bangalore, hosted by IBS, a business school.
It was advertised as a quiz for future managers and young graduates “who aspire to enter the business world.”
But the winners were two young women, aged 19 and 20 years, the only females out of 12 finalists, whose ambitions were to become a restaurateur and a civil servant.
“We were a bit smarter than everyone else,” laughed G Bindu Rao, who wants to follow her father into the civil administrative service once she turns 21. “And we didn’t have any
ego issues,” she said.
Her partner, Swathi G Kumar, agreed that they stood out for how well they worked together, particularly when surrounded by highly competitive males.
And the question that clinched the contest played to their advantage. “The final, deciding one was about shopping,” Kumar said.
It was her first quiz competition, which she had entered on a whim “just to give everything a shot”. Their victory had been an upset, she said, with even the quiz master
commenting that “the girls” had “thrown up a big surprise.”
The pair won Rs 15,000, which they said might go into the stock market, or maybe the city markets for clothes.
The pair, representing Alliance Business Academy, were joined by more than 50 teams from engineering, law, business and commerce colleges.
As for answers, “Plutoed” is business slang for a demotion, a reference to Pluto losing its official standing as a planet. “Macintosh”, meanwhile, refers the McIntosh variety of Apple, a favourite among original employees.
And the answer that won the contest was that Toggle.com, Snapdeal and Grabbon were all examples of group buying companies.