6 Indian students win gold medals at 18th International Junior Science Olympiad 2021

NEW DELHI: Six students from India bagged gold medals at the 18th International Junior Science Olympiad 2021 virtually held in Dubai from December 13 to 20. The six students are Animesh Pradhan, Rajdeep Mishra, Aditya, Ved Lahoti, Harshin Posina, and Devesh Bhayia. Animesh Pradhan received full marks in the MCQ exam.

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"India shines at the 18th #IJSO2021 organized by UAE, held from Dec 13-20 via hybrid mode. All 6 students baggedFirst place medalGold medals, placing India to the top position in the medals tally, along with Chinese Taipei and Russia," Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) said in a tweet.

India?? shines at the 18th #IJSO2021 organized by UAE, held from Dec 13-20 via hybrid mode. All 6 students bagged?Gold medals, placing India to the top position in the medals tally, along with Chinese Taipei and Russia. pic.twitter.com/wXzww1XtG3

— HBCSE (@HBCSE_TIFR) December 20, 2021

The students took the exams at HBCSE over six days under continuous video supervision by the organisers. This included experimental exams, the kits of which were sent by the host country.

Around 324 students from 70 countries participated in the olympiad that was conducted online due to the pandemic situation.

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The team was led by Abhijit Chavan (S P College, Pune), Anuttama Kulkarni (HBCSE-TIFR, Mumbai), and Saurabhee Huli (Jamnabai Narsee International School, Mumbai). There were three scientific observers: Aniket Sule (HBCSE-TIFR, Mumbai), Hemant Khanolkar (Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, Mumbai) and Shamali D Khalatkar (Mathuradas Mohota College of Science, Nagpur).

India is among three countries to win six gold medals this year, the others being Chinese Taipei and Russia making a total of 31 gold medals won this year. After 2014 and 2019, India has achieved a full cache of gold medals in IJSO. Since no event was held in 2020, this is the second successive year of such a wonderful performance, HBCSE said in a statement.

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Earlier in July, India secured three silver medals and one bronze medal in the thirty-second International Biology Olympiad (IBO) 2021 organised by Portugal. Anshul Siwach, Dhiren Bharadwaj and Naman Singh have won silver medals.

Further, India secured one gold, one silver and three bronze medals in the sixty-second International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2021 organised from St. Petersburg, Russia. Pranjal Srivastava from Bengaluru, aged 15, won gold this year becoming the first Indian to win the gold medal twice. Srivastava had won the gold medal in IMO in 2019 and before that, he had won the silver medal in 2018.