Students take part in a contest at Intaglio 2008

The verdict is out after the three-day battle of B-school brains from across the world.

Swindlerz from IIM Bangalore emerged as the best team at Intaglio, the annual B-school meet at IIM Calcutta, organised in association with The Telegraph. It walked away with the Swiss Knife trophy and a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh.

The top draw of the meet was Olympus, which was introduced this year. The contest had one student each from the six IIMs going through an extensive online poll, a gruelling debate on “Indian democracy precludes meritocracy” and a tough interview in a test of leadership. Rajat Hooda of IIM Indore walked away with the tag of the best leader and a grand prize of Rs 1.5 lakh.

The other highlights were the operations management-based game, where IIM Calcutta emerged winners, and the e-commerce game Bangalored, won by Torpedo from the Vinod Gupta School of Management in IIT Kharagpur.

The marketing enthusiasts fought it out in Addict, where participating teams tried to sell new products to customers. The products were as esoteric as popcorn with colloidal gold and silver as ingredients. “It is one thing to learn marketing concepts in class and a completely different thing to put them in practice,” said Vijay Nagarajan, a contestant from the International School of Business.

Quid Pro Quo, the merger and acquisition game, put participants face to face with the challenges of investment banking. “Generally, such contests revolve around the valuation part,” said Amit Gupta from IIM Bangalore who interned with Lehman Brothers, New York, last summer.

Apart from the games, Reverberations, the lecture series, and a panel discussion on the “Indian of 2007” drew crowds.

Sarthak Behuria, the chairman of IOC Ltd and Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), was one of the speakers. His talk was on how public sector enterprises have played a major role in India’s growth in recent times.

Hard work over, the students let their hair down to shake a leg to the beats of Sivamani.