IIT-IIM Alumni Association with IBPC Organized Signature Quiz Event - 6th Annual Kuwait Open Quiz Q8OQ-2019

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

IIT-IIM Alumni Association with IBPC, Kuwait Organizes their Signature Quiz Event - 6th Annual Kuwait Open Quiz Q8OQ-2019

IIT IIM Alumni Association conducts its 6th Annual Kuwait open quizzical extravaganza titled Quiz Q8OQ-2019 in grand graceful style yet again in succession, with their associate partner, IBPC, Kuwait and Event Partner Advanced Technologies Company, ATC, Kuwait. IBPC has been associating with IIT-IIM Association for the last three years. M/s ATC was the Event partner for this Year. The Alumni Association of India’s Premium Institutions, IITs & IIMs, organized its spectacular annual open quiz program Q8OQ-2019 for the sixth year running on 15th November, 2019 at the impressive Cambridge School Auditorium in Mangaf, in Kuwait.

The IIT IIM Alumni Association in Kuwait is an association of alumni of the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Registered as a professional association with the Embassy of India in Kuwait, the association functions under the auspices of the Honorable Ambassador of India to Kuwait as its Patron. The Association represents a vast blend of talent and experience from very senior executives to the high energy of youngsters who have just embarked on their professional journeys.



With every passing year IIT-IIM Alumni Association’s open quiz popularity is growing in geometric progression among the quiz aficionados and the general public alike. The uniqueness of this event is, it is open to all irrespective of age, nationality, qualification, gender or profession and the entry is free to everyone. The quiz was conducted by the very renowned globetrotting Asia’s best quizmaster and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Giri Balasubramanium from India, popularly known across the world as “Pickbrain”.

The Quizmaster for the event, Mr. Giri Balasubramanyam, popularly known as Pickbrain Is a world-renowned leading quizmaster, seen every weekend on several Indian television channels hosting quiz shows. He has presented close to 2000 shows across 92 destinations in India, Singapore, Sri-Lanka, Japan, Kuwait, Middle East, UK and USA. Mr. Giri is known for his distinctive techno savvy style of quizzing, sense of humor coupled with great flair and approachable easy nature, which has earned him several accolades. Tata Crucible Business Quiz for Colleges & Corporates, TCS IT WIZ quiz for Schools, Reserve Bank of India IQ quiz, Times of Oman Quiz are some of the most popular shows hosted by Giri. He began his career as a media sales executive in 1992. In the year 2000, he quit a division of Walt Disney India Pvt. Ltd to pursue his passion for quizzing as a profession. Now, he heads Greycaps India Pvt. Ltd, India's largest onstage quiz Company, headquartered in Bangalore.



He is also a very popular author and creator of several knowledge based books and architect of designing educational programs for schools across India. A popular speaker, educator, motivator and youth mentor who is regularly invited to deliver Keynotes or as a guest of honor at various educational institutions. He received several prestigious awards and he holds seven Limca records for quizzing. He is an alumnus of the iconic elite Harvard University. He holds a Master’s degree on the Gandhian Philosophy.

The event proceedings began by the young comely compere Miss Astha, welcoming all the dignitaries, members of IIT-IIM and IBPC, VIPs, Sponsors, the Contestants and all the spectators. She invited the Quiz Master, Mr. Giri Balasubramnyam to take over the proceedings. Mr. Giri after taking the stage, for a change, gave a long introduction on the importance of knowledge quest in this modern world where human’s intelligence is being increasingly challenged with ruthless efficiency of machines. He crisply and clearly spelt out the salient features of the competition, the format and the do and don’ts of the whole process.



The Format of the contest was at three levels – Written Prelims, separate Semi-finals for schools and open categories and a Grand Finale. However, the process of qualifying teams from each School itself began several months ago, with each school conducting their intra school qualifying tests set by committed and dedicated quizzer from the Core Team Mr.Kalai, before forwarding their best teams to the main event day prelims. Open teams of course joined directly into the written prelims, unlike the school kids. Every Team consisted of three contestants. Initially all the teams went through a qualifying round of tough 20 common questions. The School toppers and Open Category toppers from prelims directly made to the finals while top two teams from each of the category semis made to the grand finals.

The inaugural 2014 as well as the subsequent four years from 2015 to 2019 events were resounding successes with more than 100 teams (3 members a side) from different nationalities, age groups, professions and schools participating for the top honors. The bar of the quiz standard in this quiz competition is being raised continually by both the contestants and the quiz master. This year the program has reached new scales of outstanding quality with the enthusiastic participation of over four hundred quiz participants and admirers from all walks of life, sizes, ages, gender, nationalities including many ankle biters from class 3 and 4. The quizmaster too was an exception, with his distinctive style of high quality quizzing, great sense of humor, impromptu quick wit and spontaneous wordplays. The quiz participants and the avid enthusiastic audience were enthralled with a great range of interesting questions posed from every field. Experienced Giri along with his deputy Ms.Rashmi, simply sailed through the whole process with flawless

ease aided by the unique format, state of the art electronic gadgets, audio-visual systems and software.

Once the written test was completed, while the answer papers were being corrected, the audience consisting of teachers, dignitaries, contestants, members of IIT-IIM Alumni association, Indian Business and Professional Council, Kuwait, school children, families etc. were kept busy by the highly gifted, much admired quizzer and the only current popular woman quizzer of India, Ms. Rashmi. She conducted an equally engrossing and challenging multiple rounds of quizzing, open to all the audience.



This has kept the audience attention and interest at the peak level as there were many fabulous spot prizes were at stake. Many well-informed and enthusiastic passionate quizzers in the audience got several valuable prizes. They returned home feeling proud, cheerful and happy with something to cherish.

The semi-finals and main grand finale event began after the felicitations of the honorable guests, sponsors and co-hosts. Mr. Peeyush Jain, the President of the IIT-IIM Alumni Association thanked the Star Quiz master, Mr.Giri the Pickbrain, the dignitaries and distinguished guests who graced the occasion making it a grand success.
He expressed his gratitude to all those who whole-heartedly supported the association like the event partners M/S Advanced technologies company, represented by its Sr. Vice President and CFO Mr. Nitin Singhvi, and Indian Business and Professional Council, Kuwait (IBPC), who stood by IIT-IIM Alumni in organizing this event as an associate partner, well represented by the large presence of their members led by Mr. Anant Kapadia. The IIT-IIM Association also felicitated, both of them who continue to be a great motivators and ardent supporters of the association’s proceedings, be it music or any other literary event.



The IIT-IIM Alumni Association President Mr.Peeyush Jain along with HE The Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, H.E. Mr. Jeeva Sagar felicitated the quizmaster Mr. Giri Balasubramaniam and his deputy Ms. Rashmi. The President, Mr. Peeyush Jain, thanked the Chief Guest, the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, HE Mr. Jeeva Sagar, for gracing the occasion. He thanked and felicitated all the sponsors by presenting mementos to Mr. Anant Kapadia of IBPC, the Associate Partners, Mr. Nitin Singhvi, of ATC, the Event Partners, followed by Gold sponsors, BYJU’s- The Learning App, Al Shaya Group, Petrofac, ENAYA Insurances, KPMG, Mechanical Engineering & Contracting Co, MECC, National Avaiation Services, NAS, and our Silver Sponsors, City Centre, Bhasin Sports & Uniforms Company, Club Mahindra, BEC Exchange Co., Kuwait Swedish Cleaning Co. and Unimoni. He thanked Growmore for continuously supporting the event as print partners,Ceasers Travel Group for being the travel partners and Winner’s Group for being the Hospitality and food partner of the event.
The IIT-IIM Alumni Association President also expressed his sincere thanks to the special guests Mr. Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Marzouq – CEO of Touristic Enterprises Company, Kuwait,

Mr. Alhareth Alkhaled (Chairman and MD, AIRTEC Group), Dr. Usameh F. Jamali who is associated with Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Council (OAPEC) and an advisor to the Australian College of Kuwait, Mr. Balasubramanian. G – Former CBSE Director Academics, and Dr. Ramesh Ramachandran – President & CEO Equate, Kuwait.

All the Principals of the participating schools were thanked for actively inculcating the competitive knowledge quest among their wards and encouraging them to participate in this quiz. IITs IIMs being educational institutions in India and as their Alumni, the association always respects and values the personalities who have contributed exceptionally in the field of education and recognizes them every year by feliciatation. Keeping the same tradition, following three Principals were felicitated this year by the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, HE Mr. Jeeva Sagar and Mr. G. Balasubramanian, former Director of CBSE Schools and a renowned educator – Mr. Ravi Ayanoli, Principal of DPS FAIPS, Father Lionel Braganza, Principal of Indian English Academy School, Don Bosco, and Mr. K. Gangadhar, Principal of Indian Community School, Khaitan.

The quiz was of very high quality, with great range of cryptic questions drawn from different fields of arts, science, sports, politics, fiction etc. from medieval to modern ages, and needless to say the competition was very stiff. Pickbrain in between kept the audience glued with his very interesting and fascinating audience questions, as many prizes were open to them as well.



This year winners were the top team from DPS FAIPS, aptly named “The Invincibles”, represented by three brilliant students, Aaron John Thomas, Tarun Sunil M, Kurian Thomas M who were simply superb throughout the contest. They topped both the semi finals and finals with cool calmness combined with spotless star performance outwitting everyone on and off the buzzer, claiming both School and Overall Categories. They were the well-deserved true double winners in every sense of competence metrics as they won the trophy with ease and elegance. Aaron was also a member of last year winners’ team from the same DPS FAIPS.

The runner up team, “Back to the Fusion”, from open category, represented by Ram mohan Menon, Ramesh Athreya and Nirmala Prem started well but could not maintain the same momentum as the contest progressed. Ramu Menon and Ramesh Athreya were last year’s runners also. The third prize went to another open team, “Team with no name”, represented by, Ishan Patnaik, Kaushal Bhatia and Mayukh Mukherji. Fourth place went to the Team, Gulf Indian School Team, “The BEE GIS” represented by, Fahad Ahmad, Harish Babu and Ruben Alphonso stood fourth Overall and finished Runner Up among schools. Another DPS FAIPS Team, “RSS Feed”, represented by Shawn Shiby George, Rohan Raju, and Shaun Thomas stood fifth overall and finished 3rd in the School’s category. The Team, “Platform 9 ¾”, represented by


Narendranath, Shibu Varghese and Gopalakrishnan finished a creditable sixth place. The Schools trophies were presented by Mr. G. Balasubramanian, and main prizes along with medals were distributed by HE Mr. K. Jeeva Sagar, The Ambassador of India to Kuwait. The best interesting Team name prize went to Bhavan’s School who named their team as “MaryCurious”.

This year too, the quality and the value of prizes was raised substantially higher to attract the best lot of the talent among the competing teams. The Principals of DPS and GIS, Mr. Ravi Ayanoli and Mrs. Shyamala Diwakaran, respectively, were made to feel proud by the achievements of their wards.



IIT-IIM Alumni Association General Secretary, Mr. Bhushan Joshi, proposed vote of thanks. He thanked HE Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, all the participating teams Principals, teachers and coordinators, IIT IIM Alumni Association in Kuwait, IIT-IIM Alumni Core Team, IBPC, ATC, and other sponsors, Pickbrain, Chief Guest, Dignitaries, Ms Rashmi, all the quiz contest participants, teachers, parents, caterers M/s Winners, volunteers (Astha, Divanshu Jain, Jasmin, S.A.Labba, Rajeshwar, Reddy, Vivek Vardhan, Mukim Pathan, Lavanya Ahuja, Sridipa Chakraborty, Vinod Shetty, Binoy, and Aditi) and all the concerned who have contributed in making the event an enjoyable and extremely invigorating quizzing experience! He welcome all to be a part of this event in coming years too!

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are globally renowned premier Indian institutions of higher education in the fields of Engineering Technology and Management, respectively. The association can be reached at [email protected] or the official website www.iitiimkuwait.com.

It is the aim of IIT-IIM Alumni association to promote the knowledge quest, high quality competitive spirit and expose the residents of Kuwait especially the young students to take a path of knowledge seeking and in the process improve themselves and the society around them. With this noble high aim, the Association conducts this Annual Quiz Event, which is its signature event. The whole event is executed by the IIT-IIM Association Core Team led by Mr.Peeyush Jain, and consisting of Bhushan Joshi, General Secretary, Suresh Choksi, Treasurer, and other members Ashish Jain, Kalai Selvam, Bal Mukund, Anis Ahmad, Yogesh Rathore, and Srinivas Vaidyula.

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