INCOIS is celebrating its silver jubilee in the year 2024. Established in 1999, over the past 25 years, INCOIS has made significant contributions to ocean science and services in India and its neighboring countries. Some of its key achievements include developing and operating a network of ocean observing systems, providing ocean state forecasts and coastal hazard warnings, conducting research on oceans, and playing an essential role in international oceanography. INCOIS's silver jubilee is a significant milestone for the organization and for India's ocean science community. To commemorate the INCOIS silver jubilee celebrations, Quiz Competition has been curated for young, enthusiastic students.. This contest aim to foster and promote their keen interest and passion in the realms of knowledge, science and art. This document outlines the rules and regulations of the competitions that are envisaged to be conducted as part of the INCOIS silver jubilee celebrations. The competition will be held at ITCOocean building of INCOIS.

Format of the competition: First Round

• Schools/Individuals from Telangana can register the name of the school and the participants following an online advertisement within the stipulated time using the advertised online registration form. The registration will be deemed complete only if the nomination-cumdeclaration form in the prescribed format Annexure duly signed by the Head of the Institution is uploaded within the stipulated time mentioned in the advertisement. The nomination-cum-declaration form contains an undertaking from the school that in the event their team reaches finals, all the participants will be sent to participate in the offline competition to be held at INCOIS, Hyderabad.
• Each school can nominate only 1 team. The team shall consist of 3 students studying in the same school between class 6 to class 8. If any school happens to nominate more than one team, the first successfully registered team will be considered while the other team/teams shall be disqualified.
• The first 24 teams to successfully register shall participate in the competition.
• Participants experiencing technical difficulties in registering should contact the organizers (outreach@incois.gov.in) for assistance well before the deadline.
• There will be 3 qualifier groups. Each qualifier group shall consist of 8 teams. An online quiz competition shall be held for each qualifier group.
• The first 8 teams to register shall be grouped in the 1st qualifier group, the next 8 teams (9-16 on the list of registered teams) shall be grouped in the 2nd qualifier group and so on.
• The winner and the first runner-up from each qualifier group shall reach the finals.
• The final quiz competition will be held offline at INCOIS campus, Hyderabad. with the 6 qualifying teams from the 3 qualifying groups during last leg of January. The exact date will be intimated to the six qualifying teams well in advance.

Selected Teams for Quiz Competition

Rules of Qualifying Event:

• The members of the team should remain the same in the finals and in the qualifier event. Any change in team composition needs to be intimated well in advance by the Head of the Institute and will be allowed only on the discretion of the organizers
• The online quiz competition will be held in Microsoft teams. The link will be shared one day prior to the event. All teams must clearly communicate one unambiguous email address and telephone/mobile number for official correspondence in the nomination-cum-declaration form and in the competition entry form.
• The video mode should always be switched on during the online event. All the team members must sit together and be clearly visible to the quiz master. Both the hands of all the participants should always be visible. The anchor reserves the right to impose a penalty on any team that violates this rule. Any prompt from anyone outside the team will result in disqualification
• The online event will be of three rounds. All questions barring the tie-breaker question will be of multiple-choice type with 1 correct answer.
• The first round will attract questions from General Knowledge. Each question shall carry 10 marks. No negative markings will be penalized for incorrect answer. In the event of a pass or incorrect answer, the questions will not be passed on to the next team.
• The second round will attract questions from Sports. Each question shall carry 10 marks. No negative markings will be penalized for incorrect answer. In the event of a pass or incorrect answer, questions will not be passed on to the next team.
• The third round will attract questions from Science and Technology with special emphasis on ocean science, atmospheric science, and climate change. Each question shall carry 10 marks. 5 marks shall be penalized for a wrong answer. No penalty for a pass. In the event of a pass or incorrect answer, the questions will not be passed on to the next team.
• In the event of a tie, a tie-breaker question with no multiple-choice option will be tabled. The first team to click the “raise hand” icon in the Microsoft teams platform will be given the opportunity to answer. A correct answer will catapult them to the finals whereas a wrong answer will disqualify them. In the event a team is disqualified, the tie-breaker round will be resumed with the remaining eligible contestants if any.
• The rules and format of the final offline quiz competition will be communicated later.
• In the event of a dispute, the decision of the organizers will be final

Based on the requests received from various schools, it has been decided to conduct the quiz competition also only in offline mode along with other competitions.

Prizes and Certificates:

• Participation Certificate for all the students.
• Medal / Trophy, Certificate and Cash prize for the top three participants
  First Prize: ₹ 12,000
  Second Prize: ₹ 9,000
  Third Prize: ₹ 6,000

Deadline extended up to: 12^th January, 2024