Rural IT quiz 2007 launched for rural students

Bangalore:  The Department of IT, BT and S&T, GoK, in partnership with STPI-Bangalore and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) launched the statewide Rural IT Quiz today. The quiz will be for students from class 8 to 12 (including pre-university students). The finals will be held at Asia’s premier ICT event “bangaloreIT.in 2007”.

In 2006, over 9.55 lakh students took part in the quiz. This year the quiz hopes to cover about 20 lakh students across the State, making it one of the biggest programs of its kind. The quiz, scheduled from October 29, 2007 to November 1, 2007 will conclude at “bangaloreIT.in 2007”.

The quiz is designed to expose more students to the Information Technology industry and encourage all rural schools across the state to step up IT awareness among students. This program will be organized by the offices of Deputy Director for Public Instructions, Education Department at the district level in co-ordination with the Department of IT, BT and S&T.

The research for the entire quiz including the live shows will be conducted by the quizmaster ‘Pickbrain’ Giri Balasubramaniam.  At the joint press conference, M N Vidyashankar, Secretary to Government, Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka and N G Subramaniam, President – TCS Financial Solutions, said that the aim of the event is to create awareness of IT across the State, especially in rural areas. 

“The Government has been making concerted efforts to elevate awareness of IT at school levels. The participation last year was highly encouraging and this year we are hoping to exceed the numbers significantly. I am thankful to TCS and other partners for their support in this endeavor,” said Vidyashankar.

 "The Rural IT Quiz is an effort to spread the awareness, application and advancements in IT at grass root levels. With the support of Government of Karnataka, we have extended its spread and coverage to all schools in the rural areas of Karnataka. Year on year the popularity of Rural IT Quiz is increasing and we are glad to be part of this initiative. We hope students particularly from the rural areas gain from such  public-private partnership initiatives and participate in the Rural IT Quiz in a big way” said N G Subramaniam.

TCS will be sponsoring cash awards for the Regional Level and State Level winners as follows:  

Regional Finals: I Prize – Rs 15,000, II Prize – Rs 7,000 and III Prize – Rs 4,000

State Finals: I Prize - Rs 70,000, II Prize – 35,000 and III Prize – Rs 20,000

There is no fee for participation. Students of schools and PU Colleges in the City Corporation limits of Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Gulbarga cities are not eligible to participate in the quiz.

The quiz will consist of four rounds:

1) The Preliminary Round will be held on September 10 at schools and colleges.

2) The District Level Quiz Competition will be conducted on September 24 in each district and the top 50 teams will be selected for the Regional Level Quiz Competition. 

3) The Regional Level Quiz Competition will be conducted in 6 locations :

a. Gulbarga on October 15

b. Dharwad on October 17

c. Davangere on October 18

d. Tumkur on October 19

e. Hassan on October 22

f. Udupi on October 24

4) The State Finals will be held in Bangalore on October 30, 20’07, during bangaloreIT.in 2007 event. During the District Level Quiz competition on September 24 “Science popularization“ programs would be organized in all Districts, to inculcate scientific temper and the aptitude for basic science among students. There will be small exhibition and lectures on basic science.