A class IX student of Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai Steel Plant Senior Secondary School,  Tanish Kumar Sahu (14) was crowned national champion at the 25th edition of TCS IT Rural Quiz (TCSITRQ) 2024 staged last November. The quiz attracted participation from over 5.6 lakh students from rural and small town India.

Following two elimination rounds which began in September in the national TCSITRQ 2024 finale staged in Bengaluru during the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2024, 14-year-old Tanish outsmarted ten finalists to win a Rs.1 lakh educational scholarship. Eklavya from Swami Vivekanand Govt. Model School, Suratgarh was adjudged runner-up.

The annual TCSITRQ is a general knowledge/new technologies testing quiz started in 2000 by the Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services Ltd — India’s most valuable company in terms of market capitalisation (Rs.14,385 lakh crore) — in collaboration with the Department of Electronics, IT, BT and Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka. Open to class VIII-XII rural children countrywide, this testing initiative includes online tests, virtual rounds, and quiz competitions introduced by TCS with the objective of “enhancing IT awareness among students from smaller towns and districts across India, equipping them with knowledge about the latest advancements in technology”.

This bright, technophile class IX student who bested over a half a million participant students is delighted with his notable triumph. “I am very thankful to the school management which is very supportive of co-curricular activities such as debates, quizzing, environment clubs etc. In particular, my computer science teacher Ashish Gupta took great pains to prepare me for TCSITRQ. I am also grateful to my parents for encouraging me to participate, and above all my elder brother and class XII student Netransh Kumar for guiding me in the run-up to the final,” says Tanish, who also makes time for playing football.

Currently, in the thick of preparing for his class IX annual exam, Tanish intends to sign up for more national and international quiz competitions. “However my career ambition is to qualify for the officer cadre of the Indian Army. With modern warfare becoming highly technological, I’m sure my IT knowledge and skills will prove very useful,” says this young whiz.