Giri Balasubramanium conducts a quiz at DAV Hehal on Friday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Nov. 4: School students will turn answering machines tomorrow, courtesy Tata Steel.

Quizzing is set to get a big break with the steel major deciding to host a competition for schools in Ranchi, the first such event of this scale exclusively for students in the capital.

Tata Steel officials said they had already received a lot of response with 40 institutions from the city having agreed to participate. Students from Classes VIII to XII can take part.

Prabhat Sinha, the company?s chief resident executive for Jharkhand, said Tata Steel has organised school quizzes in Patna, Jamshedpur and Bhubaneshwar with the aim of increasing the knowledge base of children and also provide a platform to them so they can interact with one another.

?Quizzing was extremely popular in undivided Bihar. But after the creation of Jharkhand, I find there is a lack of opportunity for children. This is a step towards providing that platform. This would be an annual event and we plan to do it in an even bigger way next year. The company will not charge any fees from the students for participating in the event,? said Sinha.

Tata Steel wanted to host a competition last year but the plan fell through.

Company officials said they were expecting a total of 125 teams from different schools at the event to be held at the CMPDIL auditorium.

The preliminary round is expected to start around 3 pm and the top six will go through to the final slated for 6 in the evening. The quiz master would be Giri Balasubramanium.

No one was willing to divulge much, but the questions are expected to cover a wide range of subjects, from science, geography and history to current affairs and sports.

Balasubramanium said he expected Ranchi?s students to perform well. He recalled a national quiz competition a few years back at which more than 6,000 schools from India as well as West Asia participated. ?A team from Ranchi became the champions. Therefore, our expectations from Ranchi schools are very high and we hope to have a brilliant competition tomorrow,? he said.

Company officials said they would ask all youths to come and watch the quiz. Two large screens have been put up outside the auditorium and adequate seating arrangements have been made there so people can watch the show even if they are not inside the hall.