Winners all: (L to R) Quiz winners Loyola Chennai's Kartik Vadlapatla and Anahat Arora; Joel Gladstone, Director (International), Middlesex University; with debate winners IIM-Calcutta's Gunjan Gupta and Ananda Chakrabarti

Are they sharp enough? India's young aspiring CEOs at its flourishing b-schools, who else? On campus after campus, Acumen has already acquired the status of a national brand. Its own insta-recognition logo (the unmissable double-end sharpened pencil), its own consistency of event attributes, its own buzz-generating capacity, and even its own set of devotees.

Another Cracker

The annual quiz-cum-debate competition is held under the banner of Business Today Standard Chartered Acumen, in association with TCS. And the year's final contest was held on November 17 at New Delhi's FICCI Auditorium, packed to thunderous capacity (with just 500 seats, the cheering crowds were spilling into the aisles). Most of the roar-making was on account of the large contingent from Delhi University's Faculty of Management Studies (FMS). It was one of two b-schools (IIM-Calcutta being the other) that had teams in the finals for both the quiz and debate. But then, the number of students from b-schools that hadn't made it to the finals was equally mind-boggling. And they were there to join the action, falling as they were over one another trying to get their word in. Quizmaster Joy Bhattacharya would almost have got himself hauled off for sparking a mob frenzy with his questions for the house; the prizes were quite alluring, no doubt, ranging from Park Avenue gift vouchers and T-shirts to FastTrack watches and hp webcams. Then there were the posers thrown at the debaters. Up on stage, Shefali Talwar was no marketing-lost compere either, and she managed to get some questions in too.

The chief guest, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, looked bemusedly on-struck by the sheer quantum of data these youngsters had stored in their heads. Amidst all the din, he genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself, smiling most of the while.

All smiles: (L to R) Civil aviation minister Rajiv P. Rudy and Stanchart's P. Chandrasekhar; compere Shefali Talwar

Verbal Vying

Acumen's proceedings began on a sufficiently adversarial note, with two lively semi-final debates. First between IIM-Bangalore, represented by Bhaskar Choudhary and Faiz Azim, against IIM-Calcutta, represented by Gunjan Gupta and Ananda Chakrabarti. They were debating whether celebrity endorsements are a waste of money. This was followed by IIM-Indore, represented by Suchit Bansal and K.P. Sunil Rao, pitting their wits against FMS-Delhi, represented by Abhilin Mukherjee and Siddharth Kshatriya. They were debating the usefulness or sheer wastefulness of market research. The audience was treated to facts, counter-facts, pointed questions, verbal missiles and just about everything short of a holster-drawn shootout.

The final debate had IIM-Calcutta facing off with FMS-Delhi. The topic: 'Is business good for society?' This was enough to throw the stage into a frenzy of no-holds barred, gloves-off fighting (with members of the audience getting a bruise here and there). Voices were raised, empirical data was flung in the air, and at the end, the IIM-Calcutta duo had heads held high in triumph.

Then came the quiz finals, with the decibel level in the hall taking an upturn. The participants? Kartik Vadlapatla and Anahat Arora from Loyola, Chennai; Amol Aloni and Parinay Pakhriwal from the Symbiosis Centre for Management, HRD, Pune; Rohit Kamath and Raghu Gopalan from IIM-Calcutta; and Anindya Sen and Gaurav Misra from FMS-Delhi.

Prizes galore: Quizmaster Joy Bhattacharya

Centre stage: Teams from Loyola (top) and IIM-Calcutta

It took barely a few rounds of high-speed quizzing for Loyola to zip on ahead into the lead, leaving the other three teams fighting to get into its tail vacuum. Loyola, though, held its lead-taking the bends well along the track. Some of the questions were rather esoteric, some regular trivia and some plain crazy. Samples: 'According to the Guinness Book, the smallest ad ever was on the knee-band of a bee, for what?' and 'Siemens' share of the mobile phone market in Spain and Brazil have shot up to a quarter and two-thirds, respectively. To what does Siemens attribute this success?' Answers? The Guinness Book of Records, and Siemens' association with the Real Madrid team, respectively. At the end, Loyola got the checkered flag, followed by Symbiosis, IIM-Calcutta and FMS.

The prize giving ceremony had something for everybody. All participants, be it quiz or debate, got Park Avenue suits and FastTrack watches. In addition, the third runners-up got Rs 15,000 as a cash prize. The second runners-up, Rs 20,000. The actual runners-up, two Presario laptops from hp. The bumper prize won by the winners? Summer courses at the University of Middlesex.

Thinking Aloud

The true test of Acumen's popularity, perhaps, came later-with the start of a panel discussion on 'What they still don't teach you at b-school'. Moderated by BT's Senior Editor R. Sridharan, the panel featured cricket-commentator and IIM-A alumnus Harsha Bhogle, Electrolux India Managing Director Rajeev Karwal, Founding editor of youth-magazine JAM Rashmi Bansal, hr head of Standard Chartered Bank P. Chandrasekhar and one of last year's Acumen debate winners, Ankur Huria.

Real-world wisdom was the issue, largely, and the panel raised points on the human aspect of learning and the importance of realising your own abilities (audience members could be seen scribbling all the worldly advice down). Interesting observations came from all around. Among the issues addressed: what companies were really looking for in b-school students, and how it is to work with those elder in age.

So that rounded the festivities off. Words of advice. The audience had got more than their time, energy and hoarse voices' worth. The winners got more. Acumen, it must be said, has already become something an aspiring CEO puts on his curriculum vitae.