It's now a tradition with the debate-cum-quiz contests held on b-school campuses under the bt-Aditya Birla Group Acumen banner (in association with Tata Consultancy Services): the roars from the audience always leave everyone's ears ringing. The auditorium of event coordinator IIT-Delhi was no different, as the North zone qualifier-for the grand finale scheduled in Delhi on December 20, 2004-got underway.

The view from the top: Ankit Gupta (L) and Anuja Mishra from MDI-Gurgaon accepting the prize from BT's Publisher Pavan Varshnei after winning the North zone debate qualifier	And the winners are...: (L to R) Corporate Alumni quiz winners Akshay Suvani of GE and Shushobhan Mukherjee of Publicis accepting the prize from Aditya Birla Group's Rakesh Jain	Gearing up for the finals: Dev Anand Menon (L) and Chandan Mohanty of IIFT accepting the prize from BT's Publisher Pavan Varshnei after winning the North zone quiz qualifier

The debates saw verbal daggers drawn over such topics as 'Print media is dead, long live print media' and 'Conglomerates are better than focused companies'. Round after round, the rostrum got banged, voice modulations rent the air and dramatic postures were adopted. At the end of the verbal slugfest, Ankit Gupta and Anuja Mishra from MDI-Gurgaon (incidentally also Acumen's regional partner) won the North qualifier on the topic 'Short term is the only term'.

Competition was tough: Winners of the West zone debate qualifiers Suchitra Ramesh (L) and Urvi Desai of S.P. Jain, Mumbai

The evening's winners: Amit Pandeya (L) and Dhananjay Shettigar of Mumbai's JBIMS won the West zone quiz qualifier

V for victory: Amaya Samant of Universal Consulting (L) and Gajendra Kothari of UTI-AMC won the West zone Corporate Alumni quiz

Also held was the Corporate Alumni Quiz, hosted by Joy Bhattacharya, throwing such teasers as "In the Bombay Underworld, what was called Hema Malini?" (the answer: heroin). As always, the quiz was marked by moments of unadulterated entertainment. Shushobhan Mukherjee of Publicis and Akshay Suvani of GE won comfortably. The big cheering, though, was reserved for the b-school students' quiz, which had Delhi's IIFT, IMI, IIT and Delhi University's FMs all in the fray. The North zone qualifiers' winning team was Chandan Mohanty and Dev Anand Menon of IIFT, performing particularly well on the buzzer rounds. The audience, of course, was kept nice and lively with such awards as Canon digital cameras and Van Heusen vouchers for winners of quiz questions thrown to the floor.

The West zone qualifiers' action took place on the campus of S.P. Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai (regional partner too). The debates were as heated and argumentative as in Delhi, with a lot of words shot around like missiles. The topics, of course, helped raise the temperature, from 'We should subsidise traditional industries' to 'Greed is good'. The topic for the West zone's final debate: 'You cannot create a global brand without advertising'. Once the dust settled, Suchitra Ramesh and Urvi Desai of S.P. Jain were adjudged to have won the West zone's debate qualifier, edging out IIM-A. Yes, the 'home team' for the evening; so you can imagine the state of everyone's ear-drums after that announcement.

The West zone's alumni quiz was won by Amaya Samant of Universal Consulting and Gajendra Kothari of UTI-AMC. The b-school quiz was fun-filled as usual, what with the huge audience participation to claim the prizes being handed out. The buzzer round was exciting too, with Dhananjay Shettigar and Amit Pandeya of Mumbai's Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management emerging the evening's winning team-qualifying, that is, from the West zone to participate in the all-India grand finale to be held in Delhi later. The grand prizes would include a stint at the Swinburne University of Technology, Australia and Kinetic Laser motorbikes.

Meanwhile, audiences have been left with their business acumen sharpened some. Or at least considerably trivia-enriched. Heard of L. Friedman's Golden Arches theory, for instance? It says that no two countries with Golden Arches will go to war against each other. The Golden Arches, of course, refer to the familiar symbols that mark out outlets of the world's leading hamburger chain.