quintessential quiz - feb 13, 2014
TRANSCRIPT
Quintessential – Feb 13, 2014
Sumanth Patlolla
Life isn‘t fair. So isn‘t this Quiz!
Elimination Round
• Written format
• 1 point per question
• Part-answers considered only if deemed appropriate
• Quiz-master is God (atleast for this session)
• Sit back and enjoy, even if you haven’t made it further!
The Mahe river, a South Indian river flowing through Kerala, is
supposedly the most polluted river there. During the period of
British rule, it separated the British-ruled Talasery and Mahe (a
part of Pondicherry).
What nickname did the river get during British Raj because of
this?
The English Channel
As it separated the British-ruled Talasery from French-
ruled Mahe
Connect
HUGH JACKMAN
• First Indian woman to graduate from Harvard
Business School
• Also the first woman to guide the functioning of a
foreign bank in India
• Currently the Group General Manager and Country
Head of HSBC India
Naina Lal Kidwai, the President of the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
Which two Tata companies invested in a JV with
Bridgestone to create Bridgestone India ltd?
Later on, it had become a 100% foreign-owned
entity after divestment.
ACC and TELCO (now Tata Motors)
Connect
Vivek Ranadive
This word was first used by cobblers. They would
place someone‘s foot and mark it to make pattern
for shoes.
Now this is an industry standard term.
What?
Benchmarking
The Hindu reported that it is Independent India’s
biggest structure.
It surpasses Rashtrapati Bhavan in size and equals it in
grandeur. It was unveiled in December 2008. With a
floor area of more than 9.6 lakh square feet,
the structure was designed by architect Hafiz
Contractor, and houses seven blocks with eighty four
100-seaters, three 200-seaters. For comparison, the
floor area of the Rashtrapati Bhavan is 2 lakh square
feet as per the official website of the President.
What?
Global education centre, Infosys, Mysore
CEAT India Ltd was set up in 1958 as a JV
between CEAT of Italy and an Indian group. It
was later sold to RPG group.
Name the Indian group.
Tata Group
In the mid 19th century, they were the largest supplier of
gun powder in the US. It comprised half the gunpowder
used during the American Civil War.
Which company?
Du Pont
Ad time….
This Indian conglomerate has the largest market in chairs
and tables business in Afghanistan. It thought of selling
bicycles in India.
But World War-2 broke out and a ship carrying
manufacturing equipments of bicycles sunk and thus they
backed out of the bicycles selling idea.
Who?
Godrej
“Epicuisine” is the name of the fine food hubs with
live kitchen.
Which retail stores recently launched this facility
where you can dine as well?
Spencers Retail
What in Tata’s is Truro, Project England and
Project Colour?
Bidding names or code-names while bidding
for Corus
Gary Gilmore, was a murderer executed by firing squad
in Utah in 1977
His last words were the inspiration for something
remarkable...
What?!
His last words being 'Let's do it'
In 2012, Nike (which wasn’t an Olympic sponsor) launched
its "Find your Greatness" campaign that featured
amateur sportsmen around the world (in places like
Jamaica, Ohio, Qatar, Nigeria, and Norway)
This made the IOC mad as it was yet another example of
Nike's clever strategy that just fell short of ambush
marketing.
What was in the campaign that slyly associated itself
with the Olympics without overtly saying so?
All the places were called "London" (such as
London, Ohio or London, South Africa) or associated
with the word "London"
Apart from public holidays, this entity has only been
closed on 2 other occasions.
One was on 8 Aug, 1855 during Ulysees Grant’s
funeral and the other time was on 29 October, 2012
due to Hurricane Sandy.
Which entity?
NYSE
The Financial Times described it as “one of the
most prominent admissions of failure for a new
mass-market consumer product since Coca-
Cola’s New Coke fiasco nearly 30 years ago.”
What are we talking about ?
Microsoft’s Windows 8
This bank’s headquarters is a twin tower
skyscraper complex, with each tower commonly
called as Credit & Debit.
Which bank?
The Deutsche Bank Twin Towers
BISP is a cash transfer program in Pakistan known as
________ Income Support Programme, which is similar
to the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme being launched
in India.
What is the missing word?
Benazir
Finals
During the 1920s, spiraling costs of labour and transport
threatened the existence of most of the group's companies.
At one point both its founder's son and his wife pledged their
personal assets to raise funds to keep one of the core
companies in business. The husband shelled out £750,000
and his wife pledged her jewellery, which included the famous
245-carat Jubilee diamond, one of the largest privately
owned gems in the world.
Name the couple and the business group.
Sir Dorabji Tata and Lady Meherbai Tata of the Tata group
Connect (please be
specific)
Catamaran, a venture capital fund set up in 2010 by
N R Narayana Murthy.
It has made investments in a few companies like Manipal
Universal Learning, SKS Microfinance, etc,..
Also an Indian sailboat with two parallel hulls known
for its lightness and agility.
Founded in the 1860s, quality has always been a hallmark for this food processing company
The term 'Quality Control' is said to have originated at this company
It was the only major food maker to have supported the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act in the US
Name it
H J Heinz
X has successfully invested in several technology
startups some of which are Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb,
Path and fab.com
X is also a co-founder of the venture capital fund A-
Grade Investments
X was recently designated as the “Product Engineer” for
Lenovo (specifically for its Yoga tablet range) and will be
providing inputs in design, specs, s/w and usage
scenarios
X is also co-founder of Katalyst Media and was the
Creative Director in a tech management firm called
Ooma
Id X
Significance: ?
Location: Vancouver, Canada
First…..
Who is this person in news recently?
#TheDarkKnight
Suhail Rizvi – the notoriously secretive largest
shareholder of Twitter
Identify the logos
Prominent logos used by AltaVista.
It was once one of the most popular search engines that
was purchased in 2003 by Yahoo!, which retained the
brand but based all AltaVista searches on its own search
engine.
On July 8, 2013, the service was shut down
This app ‘X’ claims to be able to shrink your phone’s
data consumption. The app works by compressing
the data usage from other apps, web browsing
sessions and even email, which allows users to
double or even triple the usage of their existing data
plans
Id this Israel-based company which was recently
acquired by Facebook
Connect and give funda!
To the south…
Gurdeep Singh "Ponty" Chadha
A term in the computer industry that describes a product,
typically computer hardware or software, that is announced
to the general public but is never actually released nor
officially cancelled.
Examples :
• ‘Chinese Democracy’, an extremely delayed album by
Guns N’ Roses which was finally released in 2008
• Starcraft: Ghost – announced in 2002 but stands cancelled
• Windows Vista, once considered to fall in this category, but
eventually surfaced after a prolonged time.
Vaporware
This brand's label, which originated in 1880s, was
redesigned in 1930 with a prominent red star. After the
Second World War in 1951 in many countries the red star
- due to its association with communism - was changed
from red to white with only a small red border. It became
completely red again in the early 1990s after Perestroika.
Name the brand
During WWII, the Allied powers, ready to invade
France had problems navigating the country as the
Axis powers had destroyed all road signs. Deeming
this entity's maps most dependable, a special
edition of its 1939 guide was reprinted for the
soldiers.
Whose maps did they use?
The Allied soldiers ended up using the Michelin
Road Guide. These guides eventually lead to the
creation of its prestigious Michelin star rating of
restaurants and chefs
What word in the world of finance comes from this
town in Belgium where 15th century merchants
met!!
This is a square in Belgium where the first stock
market was located called beurs, which then
gave rise to ‘bourse’
Way back in the history of India, this was a village
ruled by the Vaghelas. The famous artist of the
Mewati Gharana, late Maharana Jaiwant Sinh Vaghela
was from the royal family from here. He was a great
musician and went on to even be the guru of Pandit
Jasraj.
This village in modern India turned out to be one of
the newsmakers in the economic sense for being one
of the largest employers in a direct and indirect
manner when it recruited or provided employment to
over 20,000 people.
What is being described?
Sanand
This company was first registered in Lahore during
the 1930s and started operations by taking over the
distribution of Italian-made radio lamps.
Subsequently, after Independence it manufactured
India's first indigenous Astronomical Telescope that
was installed at the famous Jantar Mantar
observatory in Delhi.
By what name is this company known now?
Bajaj Electricals Limited
Baselines
•Made like no other
•The Energy of India
•We fuel amazing
•Be more everyday
•Building a better working world
•Made like no other – Haagen Dazs
•The Energy of India - Indian Oil Corporation
•We fuel amazing - Cairn
•Be more everyday – Marico Limited
•Building a better working world – Ernst & Young
Funda please…
The Penrose triangle, an impossible object that was devised and
popularized by the mathematician Roger Penrose
The NatWest logo was partly inspired from this structure
This index was first proposed in the late 1990s by
an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Bank. It stated that
the construction of the world's tallest building is
usually completed right before an economic
downturn. The Empire State Building was built early
in the great depression and the World Trade Center
in the US was completed on the eve of a recession.
Name it.
The Skyscraper Index
When X marketed in Mexico, the advertisements were
supposed to say: “It won’t leak in your pocket and
embarrass you”
However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish
word “embarazar” meant embarrass
Rather than the meaning they intended to convey, the
advertisements actually read “It won’t leak in your
pocket and make you pregnant”
This poster created by Francis
Tipton Hunter during the Great
Depression features a little girl
watching over a litter of kittens with
the aid of a flashlight.
It proved so popular that
reproductions suitable for framing
were offered to readers who
responded by sending in 70,000
dimes. This created history and a
brand’s logo, which is still in use
today.
Name the brand!!
Eveready
What was the purported reason for
Mark Zuckerberg to marry just 1 day after the
Facebook IPO?
Because California divorce laws say that any
wealth acquired before marriage cannot be shared
Jan 9, 2007 : A Starbucks outlet
somewhere in San Francisco
‘Good morning,’ answered the
polite voice of employee Ying
Hang ‘Hannah’ Zhang . ‘How may
I help you?’” “‘Yes, I’d like to order
4,000 lattes to go, please,’ X said,
grinning. ‘No, just kidding. Wrong
number. Goodbye!’”
Ever since, this outlet continues to
receive prank calls placing orders
for 4,000 lattes from the members
of this ‘fan group’
1st ever outgoing call from an iPhone – made by
Steve Jobs during the launch of the iPhone
All have been named creative directors of
companies:
•Justin Timberlake – Budlight
•Will.i.am – Intel and Coke
•Alicia Keys – Blackberry
•Lady Gaga - Polaroid
From a business angle, Telefónica Europe (the
telecom company that uses the brand name "O2"), the
British retailing group Sports Direct, and Ricoh (the
Japanese electronics company) had suffered a loss of
a certain kind for the duration of London 2012
Olympics.
But it was restored once the Games ended.
What loss and why?
aka…
Three of the venues for the Olympics had sold their
naming rights to these three companies:
The O2 Arena, the Sports Direct Arena and The Ricoh Arena
But the sponsorship deals that the 2012 Olympics have
struck mean that other companies cannot have their names
associated with the Games. So for the duration of the Games,
these venues were known plainly as (respectively):
North Greenwich Arena, St James' Park and
City of Coventry Stadium.
• “Home Taping Is Killing Music” was the
slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright
infringement campaign by the British
Phonographic Industry (BPI)
• With the rise in cassette recorder popularity,
the BPI feared that people being able to
record music from the radio onto cassettes
would cause a decline in record sales.
•However, its logo has been more famous being
incorporated in another logo.
X was launched in February 2010. The company
was founded by Y, a Wharton graduate and Z,
alumnus of IIT Delhi. X adopted a remote village
(Shivnagar, UP) in India and enabled clean drinking
water facilities by installing manual pumps.
To show their gratitude, the village’s residents
decided to rename their village to X Nagar
Id X, Y and Z
X – Snapdeal.com
Y – Kunal Bahl
Z – Rohit Bansal
When the "national bird" of India was under
consideration, ‘X’ was a proposed candidate strongly
supported by the Indian ornithologist, Salim Ali, but
dropped in favour of the Indian Peafowl for a very
strong reason.
Name the bird and the reason.
The Great Indian ‘Bustard’, since there were
high chances of it being mis-spelled
Who was former French President Francois Mitterandspeaking of when he said:
“She had the eyes of Caligula* and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe”
*Caligula: a notoriously cruel Roman Emperor
+
Margaret Thatcher
Dan Leydon is an illustrator well-known for his sports visuals
What famous footballing strategy does the last block represent?
The Dutch “Total Football” (note the Orange colour of the block)
Id