NEW DELHI, INDIA: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that the captial will host the 2009 edition of TCS IT Wiz on Oct 31 at Indian Institute of Technology. Started in 1999, this tech quiz contest for schools has become a benchmark in inter-school quizzing circuits.

Last year, TCS IT Wiz was held in Bengaluru, Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar during Jul-Sep. TCS had also launched a dedicated website for this quiz. This year the event will also be held in other cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune. This nation-wide event is expected to reach out to 2,00,000 students.

The event primarily aims to enhance IT awareness among students, keeping them updated about latest developments in the IT world, as information technology plays an integral role in contemporary society and economy. This year, it has been assured by the spokesperson of the company that 2009 TCS IT Wiz winners will walk away with laptops. Also, runner-ups will be rewarded with cameras and digital photo frames. Six finalists will also receive an array of prizes from TCS ranging from backpacks, watches to MP3 players.

Commenting on the event, Debashis Ghosh, VP, TCS said, “As India’s largest IT company committed to broadening the scope of education, it is our aim to get school students excited about IT and the possibilities that it can open up for young, inquisitive minds brimming with energy and passion. Today, technology is a key enabler for success in diverse fields from engineering and medicine to law.”

The quiz will focus on IT application of across various sectors such as Internet, websites, IT buzzwords, acronyms, advertisements, communication companies, software products and brands, history of IT, IT persons—international, national and local. The quiz will also cover areas where IT has made an impact including education, entertainment, books, multimedia, music, movies, banking, advertising, sports, gaming, social networking blogs and cell phones.

The TCS IT Wiz is open to school students studying from Class VII to XII (including PU students). There is no entry fee for the event. However, only the first 500 registered teams will be allowed to participate. Last year in Delhi over 1,600 students had registered for the event.

Each institution is allowed to send eight teams (two-members per team) to participate. Applications for the same have to be sent via the respective institutions by Oct 28, 2009 (including Oct 28) to TCS IT Wiz Quiz Coordinator, Tata Consultancy Services.