This document contains the questions and answers from a college quiz competition held at NIT Calicut on 18-10-2019. It includes 25 preliminary questions, 6 final round questions, and an explanation of the scoring and format. The questions cover a wide range of topics including current events, science, history, pop culture and more.

1. ARTHA - SCI BIZ TECH
COLLEGE QUIZ
NIT CALICUT
By Shibin Azad
18-10-2019

2. • Prelims
• 25 Questions
• 1 mark each, no negatives

3. • 1) Identify both the people in the image
receiving a prize for a quiz competition.
The person on the left is a former union
minister and the person on the right
used to head a pioneering Indian tech
company.

4. • Jairam Ramesh and Nandan Nilekani

5. • 2) A small company based in Brooklyn, created the “Jesus Shoes” by altering a pair
of Nike Air Max 97 sneakers and filling the sole with a substance that was sourced
from Jordan. What did they fill the soles with? To what incident from the bible was
this a nod to, as the company wanted to showcase how a collaboration with Jesus
would look like.

6. • Blessed Holy water from Jordan river
• Jesus walking on water

7. • 3) What phenomenon has led to an increase
in the population of Quokka, an endangered
animal found in Rotten Island in Australia?

8. • Selfies!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABiRRmcGN6E&t=20s

9. • 4) The world’s most powerful electric eel can deliver a jolt of 860 volts, much more than existing
record of 650 volts. They are found in the Amazon. Fittingly, they were named in tribute to which
scientist?

10. • Alessandro Volta

11. • 5) Which company runs ‘Vision Fund’, the largest technology focused venture capital
fund in the world? The mascot of the company is shown in the image.

12. • Softbank

13. • 6) Amazon’s Alexa is coming up with a host of new features including featuring celebrity guest
voices starting with X. Amazon will offer both clean and explicit versions of X’s voice, and launch it
this year at a special price of 0.99$ for anyone who purchases it in 2019, after which it will cost
4.99$. Who is X?

14. • Samuel Jackson

15. • 7) Whose speech was sampled in this song from a concert by Fatboy Slim?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWvFcR7UtAI

16. • Greta Thurnberg

17. 8) To visit the Mutnovsky volcano you need a 4 hour ride in this ‘mad-max style’ vehicle, which is
affectionately called ‘Malysh’ or ‘Baby’ by the local guides. It is a modified Toyota minivan and has six
tires, each four-feet-tall and 27- inches- wide, and needs a short ladder to get in. The volcano is a part
of an UNESCO world heritage site in far east Asia. Identify the site.

18. • Volcanos of Kamchatka

19. • 9) NASA announced a new plan to investigate how new stars are born by Targeting
Extremely Magnified Panchromatic Lensed Arcs and Their Extended Star
formation. For this, they will take the help of a natural phenomenon called
“gravitational lensing”.
• What is the programme called?

20. • Targeting Extremely Magnified Panchromatic Lensed Arcs and Their Extended Star
formation
• TEMPLATES.

21. • 10) International Astronomical Union recently named a planet after Pt Jasraj. Many
reports said that he was the first Indian musician bestowed with such an honour.
Another artist said that, in 2017 an Italian astronomer, Vincenzo Silvano Casulli
had named an asteroid after her. Identify the artist.

22. • Anoushka Shankar

23. • 11) Which company’s name has
been blanked out? It is now the
biggest media house in the world.

24. • Walt Disney

25. • 12) Which film’s trailer was released on May 11, 2018 to coincide with the National
Technology Day?

26. • Parmanu: The story of Pokhran
• Pokhran tests were conducted on 11 May

27. • 13) Patharpunj, a hamlet with a population of 600, nestled deep in the Western Ghats in the Satara
district in Maharashtra. Which place’s perennial spot did it occupy at the end of September 2019?

29. • 14) The term means “to carry”. The term is probably African in origin. It is a large and often
unfastened bag with parallel handles that emerge from the side of its pouch and are often used as
reusable shopping bags. What is the good word?

30. • Tote/Tote Bags

31. • 15) It’s an award-winning mobile app teaches you to think in a new language by connecting what
you’re seeing with what you’re saying. It helps to explore a conversational way of language learning
that grows your speaking and reading abilities. What is the name of the app?

32. • Rosetta stone app

33. • 16) Mwanza Flat-headed Agama is a lizard found in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya. The head, neck
and shoulders of the Mwanza Flat-headed Rock Agama is either a bright violet or red, while the rest
of their bodies are a deep blue color. By what name it is popularly called?

35. • Spiderman Lizard

36. • 17) The image shows the typical style in
which a company provides instructions to
assemble their products. Identify the
‘product’ as well as the company. It shows
how to make a fictional character.

37. • IKEA
• Edward Scissorhands

38. • 18) How is an ornithopter different from a helicopter?

39. • Ornithopter aims to achieve flight by flapping of wings

40. • 19) This is an illustration showing the science behind an ‘art’ as explained by Sanjay Mittal,
Professor of Aerospace Engineering at IIT, Kanpur. What is it?

41. • Jasprit Bumrah

42. • 20) What stage name did Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar develop as derivation of Bacardi, a rum
brand?

43. • Cardi B

44. • 21) Inori Aizawa is the mascot of which computer utility/software? She was created in 2013 and her
first name means ‘prayer’ in Japanese. The critics were quick to point out that the utility/software
could definitely do with a prayer.

45. • Internet Explorer/Microsoft Edge

46. • 22) The person on the right who identified
them had called them A,B and C. The last
one was later renamed for the German
term which meant ‘without’, similar to null
in English. What was the last one renamed
to?

47. • O. The groups which were initially named A,B and C.

48. • 23) When there was a student agitation at the campus he was studying in 1983, he
was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail. TK Arun of Economic Times quipped that it
might have been at Tihar that he is the former inmate of Tihar to get a Nobel Prize,
and probably the last. Identify him.

49. • Abhijit Banerjee

50. • 24) The phone incorporates Project Soli, a radar-based motion-sensing chip baked into it
that relies on using a certain frequency band — 60GHz mmWave. The company failed to
secure permission from the local authorities in India to use this frequency band, as India
is yet to open it for commercial usage. Which phone faced this hurdle as a result of which
it was not launched in India?

51. • Google Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL

52. • 25) Below is the image of a playlist developed by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, with songs that
have a tempo between 100 and 120 beats per minute. Which 1977 song by a band formed in 1958 is
perhaps the most famous one on this playlist?

53. • Stayin’ Alive by Bee Gees
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssIY8NYwvh4

54. • Finals

55. • Written Round
• 6 Questions
• +10 each, no negatives

56. • 1) Victorian polymath Mary
Somerville (December 26, 1780–November 28,
1872), had tutored Ada Lovelace and later
introduced her to Charles Babbage, thus sparking
their legendary collaboration on the world’s first
computer. Somerville’s 1834 treatise On the
Connexion of the Physical Sciences so impressed
her peers, readers, and reviewers that an
entirely new word was coined to describe her.
What word?

57. • 2) The first three Harry Potter books-Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and
Prisoner of Azkaban had occupied the top 3 slots on New York Times Best Sellers
list. This did not stay as such for long. What change did they brought about due to
which the subsequent Harry Potter books couldn’t find a spot in the list?

58. • 3) Marc Benioff, the man behind Salesforce established the “1-1-1” model, whereby
the company contributes 1 percent of product, 1 percent of equity and 1 percent of
employee hours back to the communities it serves globally. Who did he credit with
inspiring this business model?

59. • 4) The image shows the ‘oceanic pole of inaccessibility’. It was discovered by Hrvoje Lukatela in
1992. The area around is known as “spacecraft cemetery”, as space agencies have used it as a
dumping ground. What name has been given to it, after a character created by Jules Verne, whose
name means ‘no one’?

60. • 5) The name of the company founded by the Mehra brothers in 1960 in Manesar,
Haryana, comes from Jai Kaur, their grandmother and not from the name of an
animal as is mistaken for. Which brand/company am I talking about?

61. • 6) The new logo with multiple strands weaving into a harmonious hub represents the meeting of
minds and technology and speaks of humanity while projecting a forward looking momentum. The
tagline “Welcome to possible” is a simple but powerful expression of the brand mission, values and
promise." Which company’s logo is this? The earlier one was designed by Spastic Society of
Karnataka.

62. • Exchange sheets

63. • 1) Victorian polymath Mary
Somerville (December 26, 1780–November 28,
1872), had tutored Ada Lovelace and later
introduced her to Charles Babbage, thus sparking
their legendary collaboration on the world’s first
computer. Somerville’s 1834 treatise On the
Connexion of the Physical Sciences so impressed
her peers, readers, and reviewers that an
entirely new word was coined to describe her.
What word?

64. • Scientist!

65. • 2) The first three Harry Potter books-Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and
Prisoner of Azkaban had occupied the top 3 slots on New York Times Best Sellers
list. This did not stay as such for long. What change did they brought about due to
which the subsequent Harry Potter books couldn’t find a spot in the list?

66. • They created a separate list for children’s books

67. • 3) Marc Benioff, the man behind Salesforce established the “1-1-1” model, whereby
the company contributes 1 percent of product, 1 percent of equity and 1 percent of
employee hours back to the communities it serves globally. Who did he credit with
inspiring this business model?

68. • Mata Amritanandamayi

69. • 4) The image shows the ‘oceanic pole of inaccessibility’. It was discovered by Hrvoje Lukatela in
1992. The area around is known as “spacecraft cemetery”, as space agencies have used it as a
dumping ground. What name has been given to it, after a character created by Jules Verne, whose
name means ‘no one’?

70. • Point Nemo

71. • 5) The name of the company founded by the Mehra brothers in 1960 in Manesar,
Haryana, comes from Jai Kaur, their grandmother and not from the name of an
animal as is mistaken for. Which brand/company am I talking about?

72. • Jaquar and NOT jaguar

73. • 6) The new logo with multiple strands weaving into a harmonious hub represents the meeting of
minds and technology and speaks of humanity while projecting a forward looking momentum. The
tagline “Welcome to possible” is a simple but powerful expression of the brand mission, values and
promise." Which company’s logo is this? The earlier one was designed by Spastic Society of
Karnataka.

74. • Mindtree

75. • Clockwise
• +10 on bounce
• +10/-5 on pounce

76. • 1) A message is sent out again from the core of the brainstem which oversees the
relaxation of muscles in the stomach wall. Glucose stimulates this relaxation reflex.
In this way it can decrease the pressure on the stomach and reduce the sensation of
being full. This, coupled with the fact that the brain identifies something as
different, helps in the secretion of the hormone ghrelin as well.
• What phenomenon, which we all have experienced, is being explained?

77. • Why we always have more room for dessert!

78. • 2) A trained Dalmatian dog also travels with the group. This has been a tradition for the
company since the 1950s. Historically, the role of the dogs was to guard the wagon and
protect them while the driver went inside buildings to make deliveries. When the team
performs today, the Dalmatians sit on the wagon, seated next to the driver. Which company
am I talking about? The brand is usually associated with another animal.

80. • Budweiser

81. • 3) Mercy Amalraj and Nirupesh Joshi are the co-founders of the Bangalore Watch Company. They
recently released a collection of watches called the Mach 1. They were made from the fuselages of
first supersonic fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force. It was codenamed ‘FISHBED’ by the NATO.
Identify the aircraft.

82. • MIG 21

83. • 4) Scientists from Technion — Israel Institute of Technology have developed an
algorithm that performs a very unconventional function. With most computer
programs, humans input a problem and expect the algorithm to work out a solution.
With this machine, it works the other way round. Feed in a constant, say the well-
known pi, and the algorithm will come up with a equation involving an infinite
series whose value, it will propose, is exactly pi.
• After which eminent personality has this machine been named?

84. • Ramanujan Machine

86. • 5) Conguitos is a Spanish brand of chocolate peanuts. Conguitos’ mascot was designed by publicist
Juan Tudela Ferez in the 1970s. The original mascot had big red lips and carried a spear, which was
later removed. Why was the brand in news during the last week of September?

87. • Bernardo Silva compared Mendy to the mascot

88. • 6) Inspired by the writings of HG Wells-calling him a ‘demigod’-this inventor born in
1888 in Scotland, once short circuited Glasgow’s power supply trying to make
diamonds out of graphite. Who is he?

89. • John Logie Baird

90. • 7) This fashion accessory was originally designed for men and had an immensely
practical purpose. Soldiers on horseback wore them during the 10th century and it
helped them stay stable as they stood up and took aim at enemies with bows and
arrows. From 17th century onwards, these became associated with supposedly
“feminine” qualities such as frivolity, and so became women’s wear.
• Identify the accessory.

91. • Heels

92. • 8) Ada Campeol, an exhausted young mother and owner of Le Beccherie restaurant
in Veneto in northern Italy, is said to have come up with the dessert. Others credit
Carminantonio Iannaccone. The governor of Veneto was outraged when, in 2016,
two food writers suggested that it instead originated in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a
region that borders Austria and Slovenia.
• In “Sleepless in Seattle”, Tom Hanks’ character asks “What is X? Some woman is
gonna want me to do it to her and I’m not gonna know what it is!”
• X means “pick-me-up” in Italian. X?

94. • Tiramisu

95. • 9) Explain.

97. • 10) He established Austrian Meteorological Society in 1865. More of his writings were about
meteorology than Biology. Although he published his seminal work in 1866, it was not until Hugo
De Vries realised the importance of his works in 1900 that he became famous. Who am I talking
about?

98. • Gregor Mendel

99. • 11) They were first used in ancient Greece with Pericles Megarian decree of 432 BC
in response to the kidnapping of three Aspasian women. Ancient Greece also
imposed them during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). However, they failed to
have an impact and the Spartans won the Peloponnesian War.
• In the modern era, Woodrow Wilson was the first to implement them. What am I
talking about, of which, India has been at the receiving end during the late 1990s?

100. • Sanctions

101. • 12) Ray Kurzweil is polymath and inventor, and winner of the 1999 US National
medal of technology and innovation. In 2012, he was appointed a director of
engineering at Google. A year later, Google launched a sub-company called Calico.
What is its stated mission, as mentioned in the book Homo Deus by Yuval Noah
Harari?

102. • ‘To Solve death’

103. • Written Round
• 6 Questions
• +10 each

104. • 1) Recently, 3 frogs were discovered from Madagascar. They were very small and could an adult size
frog could easily fit on the fingernail. They were given a common group name. They added scule,
mum and ature along with the group name for the 3 frogs. What was the group name given?

105. • 2) What is the design of this beer bottle
inspired by?

106. • 3) 'ZALA Arctic drones are capable of successfully solving civilian and military tasks for carrying out
research in the Arctic zone, providing for the safety of sea shipping and the round-the-clock
protection of the perimeters, organizing the full-fledged system of tracking the Arctic coast and
territorial waters,’ said the group CEO Vladimir Dmitriyev. They have made electric car and vodka
amongst other things. Which company manufactured these drones used by Russia.

107. • 4) The element shown in the picture was named after the older name of Paris.
Identify the element.

108. • 5) When the allies imposed restrictions on this company after the Second World war,
it resorted to manufacturing Kitchen utensils to stay in business. It was only in
1951, they went back to doing what they did best with Model 501. Which company?

109. • 6) ______ __ ___ ____ was the first original television show produced by Apple. On
each of the episodes, software makers have 60 seconds to pitch their idea in front of
the advisors (Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am and Gary Vaynerchuk) on a
slow-moving escalator—for a visual idea of an "elevator pitch". The name is a pun on
a science fiction media franchise, in which the first film was released in 1968 and
the latest was released as recently as in 2017.
• Identify

110. • Exchange answer sheets

111. • 1) Recently, 3 frogs were discovered from Madagascar. They were very small and could an adult size
frog could easily fit on the fingernail. They were given a common group name. They added scule,
mum and ature along with the group name for the 3 frogs. What was the group name given?

112. • Mini
• Mini mum, Mini ature and Mini scule

113. • 2) What is the design of this beer bottle
inspired by?

114. • Starry Nights by Vincent Van Gogh

115. • 3) 'ZALA Arctic drones are capable of successfully solving civilian and military tasks for carrying out
research in the Arctic zone, providing for the safety of sea shipping and the round-the-clock
protection of the perimeters, organizing the full-fledged system of tracking the Arctic coast and
territorial waters,’ said the group CEO Vladimir Dmitriyev. They have made electric car and vodka
amongst other things. Which company manufactured these drones used by Russia.

116. • Kalashnikov

117. • 4) The element shown in the picture was named after the older name of Paris.
Identify the element.

118. • Lutetium

119. • 5) When the allies imposed restrictions on this company after the Second World war,
it resorted to manufacturing Kitchen utensils to stay in business. It was only in
1951, they went back to doing what they did best with Model 501. Which company?

120. • BMW

121. • 6) ______ __ ___ ____ was the first original television show produced by Apple. On
each of the episodes, software makers have 60 seconds to pitch their idea in front of
the advisors (Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am and Gary Vaynerchuk) on a
slow-moving escalator—for a visual idea of an "elevator pitch". The name is a pun on
a science fiction media franchise, in which the first film was released in 1968 and
the latest was released as recently as in 2017.
• Identify

122. • Planet of the Apps

123. • Anti-clockwise
• +10 on bounce
• +10/-5 on pounce

124. • 1) Unidentified a new doc series about aliens, funded by the pop-punk guitarist and ET hunter Tom
DeLonge mainly follows Luis Elizondo, a former Pentagon worker who headed up the Advanced
Aerospace Threat Identification Program and is aired on the History Channel. Identify the music
group of which Tom DeLonge was a part of. The band was mentioned in the song Closer by
Chainsmokers as well.

126. • Additional clue
• The band name includes a number and the explanations include the number of
times Al Pacino’s character Tony Montana says “fuck” in Scarface, the number of the
ship on which Hoppus’s grandfather served in the Marines, and co-founder Hoppus’s
ideal weight.

127. • Blink-182

128. • 2) This is the mascot of which studio founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki with funding by Tokuma
Shoten.

129. • Studio Ghibli

130. • 3) It is a thought experiment, first posted by an user Roko, on the Less Wrong
Community Blog. The thought experiment says that when AI becomes all too
powerful, it will have an incentive to torture anyone who imagined the AI agent but
didn't work to bring it into existence. It is named after the Greek word for “little
king”.

131. • Roko’s Basillisk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZB7wlYbknM

132. • 4) He had spotted this snake species for the first time in 2015 and studied its behaviour. He
presented these details to the Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation and helped with further
research. It was found in the Koyna region of Satara district in western Maharashtra. The species
fell in the category called cat snakes and belonged to the genus Boiga and has been named after the
discoverer who came from a political family. Identify him.

133. • 4)

134. • 5) Identify the brand. It is used by Iron Man
to call Spider Man during the airport fight
scene in Civil War.

135. • Underoos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNcxTNrtRdk

136. • 6) Which is the only country outside of the group called “The Five Eyes”, that
includes Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Canada, that the CIA does
not gather human intelligence?

137. • United Arab Emirates

138. • 7) Identify the artist. This is the only
work of his available at the Tata Institute
of Fundamental Research’s archives.

139. • Homi Bhabha

140. • 8) This was not a single event and was conducted as part of the Maha Kumbh mela.
An appeal from Rev. W.E.S. Holland, a chaplain of the Holy Trinity Church,
Allahabad, spurred the event. He had appealed to Windham for help in fundraising
for a new youth hostel. The regular rate required an additional surcharge as a
donation for the Church Hostel Building. Henri Piquet accomplished the task on his
Humber.
• What was this the first instance of?

141. • First official Air Mail by Air plane

142. • 10) The art work, called “Orbis et Globus” (Latin for “Circle and Sphere”), is a giant concrete orb
weighing nearly nine tons, installed on North Iceland’s Grímsey Island. Each year, it is moved from
its location to another place, usually nearby. What does it mark?

143. • Arctic Circle marker

144. • 11) This was seen during the
Australia-Afghanistan world
cup match. What were they
dressed up as?

145. • Sandpaper

146. • 12) This song tells the story of a love story between a whale and a seagull. Like the
theme of the film, it shows the two can never unite. And the song actually contains
whale sounds taken from a documentary. Which song is this?

147. • Kaadhale Kaadhale
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkPI-45gxBw