Patna Mind Fest ends; winners receive cash prizes
The two-day Patna Mind Fest (PMF) 2026 concluded on Thursday with winners taking away prizes and certificates in five events judged across three categories each — open, college, and school. The events included India quiz, general quiz, creative writing (in Hindi and English), cryptic crosswords, and word bee. The 8th edition of this annual event was conducted at the Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP). It is organised by the Bihar IAS Officers’ Association in partnership with extra-c, a civil society initiative at the forefront of promoting knowledge-based co-curricular activities. The objective is to showcase the intellectual legacy of the state and sustain it by holding regular events. The prizes and certificates were handed over to the winners by chief guests Harjot Kaur, president, Bihar IAS Association, and Girish Shankar, chief election officer. Also present on the occasion were Vivek Kumar Singh, Chairman, RERA Bihar; Rachana Patil, IAS, secretary, Department of Finance, Bihar; and Shreshtha Anupam, IAS, joint secretary, Department of Finance, Bihar.
On the final day of the event, Shreyas Sridhar won the first prize in the open category in creative writing (English). Abhinav Priyadarshi and Vidisha Garg came 2nd and 3rd, respectively. In Creative Writing (Hindi), Samrat Sameer won the 1st prize. Suman Kumar and Ranjana Kumari were 2nd and 3rd, respectively. In the word bee open category, the team of Gokul and Calvin won the first spot. While the team comprising Shashank, Tayaganthan, and Samanway won the 2nd prize, that of Saransh, Samiran, and Subhadeep won the 3rd prize. In the cryptic crossword open category, Shradha Shree clinched the 1st spot. Soham Sarthak and Dhairya Pandey were in 2nd and 3rd spots, respectively. The college category saw Naman Bhaskar, Adya Singh, and Saumya Shiwangi in the first three spots, respectively. Shubhi Srivastava, Hemang Chandra, and Nanya Dev Singh clinched the first three spots in that order in the School Category.
