Dubai Team Wins Inaugural Edition of Tata Crucible Campus Quiz

From the Read. archive

Gurtejbir Sandhu and Sumanta Deb of SP Jain School of Global Management — Dubai were declared champions at the inaugural edition of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz held in Dubai in 2017, the first time the famous Indian business quiz came to the UAE.

Navaneet Nair and Yashkumar Asnani from Manipal University were the runners-up. The Dubai chapter of the campus quiz drew 67 teams from universities across the UAE — a strong turnout for a first edition, and a sign of how deep the quizzing bench runs in the Emirates’ student community.

The format followed the Tata Crucible template honed in India: multiple rounds of high-energy quizzing built around audio-visual questions from the worlds of business and economy. Eight top teams came through a preliminary round, a wild-card round added late contenders, and the survivors battled it out in the on-stage final.

The SP Jain pair took home a cash prize of Dh15,000; the runners-up collected Dh5,000. Finalists also picked up e-readers and Tata Crucible merchandise, with prizes for the audience thrown in. Vipul, then Consul General of India in Dubai, was guest of honour and handed out the awards, congratulating the organizers on the depth of talent the first UAE edition revealed. The evening was hosted by ace quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam — better known on the Indian quizzing circuit as “Pickbrain” — who kept both participants and audience locked into the competition.

Campus quizzing in the UAE, updated for 2026

That 2017 evening wasn’t a one-off. Quiz competitions have become a fixture of student life across the UAE’s universities, and they remain one of the cheapest, most accessible ways for students to build a competitive CV line that isn’t about grades. A few evergreen pointers if you’re thinking of entering one:

Form your team early. Most campus quizzes run in pairs or trios. The strongest teams mix specialties — one person on business and current affairs, one on sport and pop culture — rather than doubling up.
Practice the buzzer, not just the facts. On-stage finals reward speed and nerve. Mock rounds with friends, played fast, matter more than another night of reading.
Ask your student affairs office what’s running. University clubs, inter-college festivals, and corporate-sponsored quizzes recruit through campus channels first — the events rarely advertise far beyond them.
Go even if you don’t win. As the 67-team Dubai field showed, these rooms are full of sharp, ambitious students — and the sponsors watching them are often hiring.