Saarang Biz Quiz 2015Kavin Aadithiyan

Varun Murthy

Format and Rules

• 33 questions with 40 points. Questions with 2 parts in them have 2 points. Please note that.

• Top 8 make it to the finals.

• Please refrain from googling and using the internet otherwise.

Thanks to the sponsor for helping make this quiz happen

1.

Tracing its history back to 1855, it became an official organisation in 1875 as ‘The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association’ with 318 members who contributed an equal amount of what was then a princely sum. It is Asia’s oldest stock exchange and also one of the fastest. The exchange began publishing its Sensitive Index from January 1, 1986 to track the largest and most traded stocks in the exchange.

What was the sum contributed by the 318 members to start the exchange? Which exchange is this?

Rs 1, Bombay Stock Exchange

2.

Which place in the hospitality industry has, among its presidential suites, a Presidential Suite named after Karikalan and a Grand Presidential Suite named after Raja Rajan?

ITC Grand Chola

3.

Although smaller than the capital’s airport, the Siam Reap International Airport is this country’s busiest airport, having received 2.5m visitors in 2012 in comparison to the capital’s 2.3m visitors. This is mainly because of the city of Seam Reap being the gateway to a nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is only one of two in this country.

Which UNESCO World Heritage Site does the city of Siam Reap (and hence its airport) serve as the gateway for?

Angkor Wat

4.

This 1971 IIT-Madras alumnus graduate joined the University of Western Ontario for an MBA after his degree in Chemical Engineering here. He began his professional career in 1974 when he joined the Confederation Life Insurance Company.

Known as an astute investor, he came into the limelight in late 2013 for backing an ailing company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario. This company was once one of the leading manufacturers in its field, but has seen rough years lately and hasn’t even been in the top 5 in the world in its field of late.

Who is this? Which company did he back in 2013?

Prem Watsa, Blackberry

5.

When this French company eventually won this multi-billion dollar deal in 2012, the nations which the other contender belonged to did not take it well. British PM David Cameron came under great pressure for giving aid to a country like India when it had billions to spend on its own for projects like these.

“The decision is obviously disappointing, but it is about who the Indians have assessed as making the lowest bid and, therefore, asked to enter into further negotiations. They have not yet awarded the contract.” said Cameron, reiterating that he would ask the Indian government to look at it again.

Which French company won the deal in 2012, leading to this controversy?

Dassault Aviation

6. Music app by whom?

Airtel

7.

Although it generated little revenue in theatres, this movie got much more revenue in its release online across sites like Apple’s iTunes and Microsoft’s Xbox video. It was also YouTube’s best selling video of 2014.

Which movie is this?

The Interview

8.

Big Billion day – Flipkart

Appiness day – Amazon

Savings day – Snapdeal

Great Online Shopping Festival – ?

Google

9.

The shares of this company took a tumbling last year on account of an opinion expressed by journalist Jean-Louis Moncet. Moncet was covering Michael Schumacher’s accident when he opined that this could’ve been a factor in the severity of the injury.

“I saw [Schumacher's] son recently,” said Moncet. “[Schumacher] is slowly waking up. The problem for Michael was not the hit, but the mounting of the ____ on his helmet that injured his brain.”

What according to Moncet had resulted in the injury being serious?

GoPro

10

Sony unveiled a special edition of its PS4 console, that it would sell from 6th December 2014. Although it would have made sense to sell 12394 units, production was limited to 12300 units, with each individual unit being personalised with a serial number on an aluminum plate.

Why did Sony choose the particular number for production?

To commemorate the release of the first Play Station on 1st December, 1994

Starred Questions begin

11.

Published since 1978, this magazine saw it dropping ‘The’ in its name in 2006 and moved to a tabloid format. It reverted back to the magazine format which it had used for the major part of its print life in 2012, an event which was attended by many.

Quite appropriately, the first copy of the new magazine was released by a person who was a quarter finalist at Wimbledon in 1960 and 1961.

Which magazine is this, one that was much sought after for its content and centrespread poster? Who is the person?

Sportstar, Ramanathan Krishnan

12.

X is a media network under threat of a hostile takeover from the step-brother and step-sister of the present owners. To save the whole group, the news division of the company is sold off to a young buyer who wants to revolutionise the way news content is created and consumed. This ultimately leads to a continuous altercation between the owners and staff and remains unresolved.

What is X?

Atlantis World Media

13.

Usually held in the evening, this happens on the occasion of Diwali. The NSE held this year’s session for 75 minutes. Believed to be auspicious for profits booked on the day, many traders trade for a short period and close the affair after getting a nominal profit, believing that it would be of luck.

What is this session of trading called?

Mahurat/Muhurat trading

14. Although the company uses numerous actors to portray its mascot, the following are the primary ones that the company used for its television ads. Which mascot do these actors portray?

Willard Scott (1963–1965)

Bev Bergeron (1966–1968)

George Voorhis (1968–1988)

Ray Rayner (1968–1969)

King Moody (1975–1984)

Squire Fridell (1984–1991)

Jack Doepke (1990–1995)

Joe Maggard (1995–2007)

Brad Lennon (2007–present)

Ronald McDonald

15.

The word comes from Persian meaning something made, held, done, or transacted in the name of another person.

However, the word has acquired a negative connotation where the Indian government even has an act prohibiting this. The act defines this as any deal in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name anything of value is purchased. As a result, the person in whose name it is purchased is just a mask of the real beneficiary.

Which word is this, one which usually pops up when there is a disproportionate assets case?

Benami

16

Unlike the infamous Colonel Dyer, his father Ed Dyer is much less known. He started making a product in India that connoisseurs in the field would have come across, even if they were not aware of the person who started it. The business is now owned by the Mohan-Meakin group.

What product is this?

Old Monk

17.

This company was founded in 1921 by two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, who wanted to provide equipment for the then-nascent field of amateur, or ham X. They opened a one-store retail and mail-order operation in the heart of downtown Boston at 46 Brattle Street and named their company after XY, which was the term for a small, wooden structure that housed a ship's X equipment.

Which company did they start?

RadioShack

18.

Although there was a symbol used for this currency between the 16th

and 18th century, it did not carry forward after that. No symbol was used for the next two centuries until the central bank of this country announced that it was deciding on one and had shortlisted 13 designs for the same. On December 11, 2013, the following became the official symbol of this currency.

Which currency?

Old symbol New symbol

Ruble

19.

Which ad seen through a bystander’s camera is this? Just the name of the company would do.

Old Spice

20.

Billy Davis, the person behind the ad, wanted the New Seekers to sing the record version. However, he could not persuade the group’s manager to do so. When a group of studio singers made the initial version, which became a hit, the process of getting the band to sing the song became much more easier. The song became a great hit worldwide, topping the charts in UK and reaching #7 in the US.

Which company’s ad eventually became this song?

Coca-Cola

Starred Questions end

21.

Although many people cited national security and an IAF memo as the cause for this, the actual reason was one which is quite widespread in the industry. Ericsson had filed a case in the Delhi High Court saying that the company had used many of its patents without licensing them.

The company was able to escape a complete injunction through a hearing where products using components from Qualcomm were exempted.

What was the result of the earlier Delhi High Court ruling?

Ban on Xiaomi phones

22.

Of the members of the Euro zone, only two countries have the opt-out clause, meaning that they are not legally bound to adopt the Euro as their currency.

Which are the two countries and the currencies? The two currency codes are GBP and DKK.

Great Britain Pound, Danish Krone

23.

“The ____ solution enables businesses to improve convenience for both customers and employees. As users no longer need to remember complex passwords, user provisioning is therefore simplified and the cost associated with remote password resets will be drastically reduced.”

This alliance was created to eliminate the need for different passwords for multiple websites across devices by providing each user with a unique identification tag. Lenovo and PayPal were among the founding members while Google, Qualcomm and Microsoft are among its board members.

FIDO (Fast IDentification Online) Alliance

24.

In October 2014, X’s CEO said that X had launched a range of offline products with the expectation of merely breaking even. The consumer response in the first year has been overwhelming and more products are being added to the range. The main demand comes from professionals looking to organize their work and physical contents better and to provide seamless integration with X itself. X does the same with digital files.

What is X?

Evernote

25.

Andy Washington, managing director of Expedia.co.uk, said: “The unprecedented popularity of X has increased the mystique and allure of wintery destinations and demand for Norway has increased over 2014 as a whole.”

Many observers are calling this the “X effect”.

What is X?

Frozen

26.

Although production here stopped a long time back and the buildings seem dilapidated, the place still commands a hefty price in the market for its real estate.

Recognising the potential for that, the company has recently announced plans to convert the location into a township, by taking down the existing buildings and building it from scratch.

However, the place has not been completely empty with it being a preferred location for shooting and rehearsals for movies and TV shows.

Which textile firm’s properties are set to be developed?

Binny Mills

27.

This marketing concept was introduced by television advertising pioneer Rosser Reeves, who described it as follows:

- Each advertisement must make a ______to the consumer—not just words, product puffery, or show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: "Buy this product, for this specific benefit."

- The _______must be one the competition cannot or does not offer. It must be ____ - either in the brand or in a claim the rest of that particular advertising area does not make.

- The ________must be strong enough to move the masses, i.e., attract new customers as well as potential customers.

Unique Selling Proposition/Point (USP)

28. Ad for which two airlines?

Jet Airways, Etihad

29. Constituents of which group?

Alibaba group

30.

Founded in 1981, this company was led by one of its founders from 1981 to 2002 (he has since been designated Chairman Emeritus of the company). From 2002 till August last year, 3 more of its founders alternatively held the reins of the company.

The company finally got its first non-founder CEO when X took over in August 2014. Before joining this company, X previously worked at the German software company SAP, which he quit in May of the same year for personal reasons.

Which company? Who is X?

Infosys, Vishal Sikka

31. Ad parodying which movie?

Cast away

32. Ad parodying what business transaction from last year?

Disney buying Lucasfilm

33.

Who is the person in the black shirt?

Which iconic ad is the latter part of the video parodying?

Steve Jobs, 1984 Apple ad