The team of C. Ram Shankar and Abhishek Nagaraj have emerged victorious in the eastern zone eliminations of the “Economic Times Citi Grandmasters” championship held at IIM Calcutta on the 5th of January. They beat teams from IIFT, Kolkata and IISWBM, Kolkata in a close contest.

The event was played over 3 legs with the bourse game, a debate competition and a management quiz. The local team were placed last in the morning after a disappointing show in the bourse game which involved trading on the foreign exchange market. However the team showed resilience to come back strongly. The finished second in the debate to IIFT and won the management quiz.

However as the results turned out, 3 teams – IIMC, IIFT and IISWBM were eventually tied for first place after 3 intense rounds of battle. It was thus incumbent upon the organizers to have a tie-break to decide the finalists. Seizing upon their opportunity, IIMC answered the first two questions on the buzzer to win the tie break and hence the overall eastern zone title.

The team of C Ram Shankar and Abhishek Nagaraj will now represent the eastern zone at the national finals to be held in Mumbai on the 22nd of January. It is interesting to note that IIMC is the defending champion in this event, with the prevous winners Arnav Sinha and Vijay Anand Menon also coming from IIMC.