Patna : The eighth edition of Patna Mind Fest (PMF) 2026 concluded on Thursday at the Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP), bringing together students and quiz enthusiasts for five competitions focused on knowledge, language, logic and creative thinking.
The two-day festival featured the India Quiz, General Quiz, Creative Writing in Hindi and English, Cryptic Crossword and Word Bee. Competitions were held across Open, College and School categories.
The event was organised by the Bihar IAS Officers’ Association in partnership with Extra-C, a civil society initiative promoting knowledge-based co-curricular activities.
Winners Felicitated at Closing Ceremony
The winners were presented prizes and certificates by Harjot Kaur, President of the Bihar IAS Association, and Girish Shankar, Chief Election Officer.
Vivek Kumar Singh, Chairman of RERA Bihar; Rachana Patil, IAS, Secretary, Department of Finance; and Shreshtha Anupam, IAS, Joint Secretary, Department of Finance, were also present.
In the Creative Writing (English) Open Category, Shreyas Sridhar secured first place, followed by Abhinav Priyadarshi and Vidisha Garg.
Samrat Sameer won the Creative Writing (Hindi) Open Category, while Suman Kumar and Ranjana Kumari finished second and third.
Word Bee and Cryptic Crossword Winners
The team of Gokul and Calvin won the Word Bee Open Category. The teams of Shashank, Tayaganthan and Samanway, and Saransh, Samiran and Subhadeep secured the second and third positions respectively.
In the Cryptic Crossword Open Category, Shradha Shree emerged winner. Soham Sarthak finished second, while Dhairya Pandey took third place.
In the College Category, Naman Bhaskar, Adya Singh and Saumya Shiwangi secured the top three positions.
The School Category was won by Shubhi Srivastava, followed by Hemang Chandra and Nanya Dev Singh.
Cryptic Crossword and Creative Writing were conducted as individual competitions.
‘Happy Eid’ Wins General Quiz
The first day of the festival featured the General Quiz and India Quiz.
The team ‘Happy Eid’, comprising Calvin, Gokul and Ankur, won the General Quiz. ‘Patna Ke Presleys’, comprising Sanabway Baherjee, Shashank Tygai and Jayakanthan R, finished first runner-up, while Mumbai-based ‘Endu Cutlets’ secured the second runner-up position.
In the India Quiz, ‘Endu Cutlets’ emerged winners. ‘Patna Ke Presleys’ finished first runner-up, while ‘Smells Like Team Spirit’, comprising Saswata, Nikhil and Arunodoy, secured the second runner-up position.
More Than 90 Teams in Preliminary Rounds
More than 90 teams participated in the written preliminary rounds of the two quiz competitions. The top eight teams in each contest qualified for the onstage finals.
Two school teams from Patna, representing Don Bosco Academy and St Karen’s High School, were among the finalists.
Participants were also allowed to choose names for their teams, adding a distinctive element to the quiz competitions.
PMF Builds a Knowledge and Quiz Culture
The event was inaugurated on Wednesday by Anjani Kumar Singh, Director-General of Bihar Museum. Vivek Kumar Singh, Rachana Patil, Sanjay Kumar, Abhay Jha and Prof Rana Singh were also present during the inaugural programme.
Over the years, Patna Mind Fest has developed into a prominent platform for mind games and knowledge-based competitions, attracting quiz teams from across India.
The contests were anchored by Bengaluru-based Nexus Consulting, led by Venkatesh, a familiar name in India’s quizzing circuit.
The organisers said the festival seeks to encourage intellectual curiosity and sustain Bihar’s tradition of knowledge-based activities by providing students and participants with regular opportunities to compete, learn and engage with different forms of intellectual sport.
