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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Indian students strike gold

Mumbai: India’s brightest young scientific minds have once again proven their mettle on the global stage, securing exceptional medal hauls at two of the world’s most prestigious science competitions for secondary school students. Showcasing unprecedented academic prowess, the Indian delegation brought home a historic all-gold sweep at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan, alongside an impressive haul of one gold and three silver medals at the 37th International Biology...

Indian students strike gold

Mumbai: India’s brightest young scientific minds have once again proven their mettle on the global stage, securing exceptional medal hauls at two of the world’s most prestigious science competitions for secondary school students. Showcasing unprecedented academic prowess, the Indian delegation brought home a historic all-gold sweep at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan, alongside an impressive haul of one gold and three silver medals at the 37th International Biology Olympiad in Lithuania. These stellar performances cement India’s position as a powerhouse of STEM talent, reflecting the rigorous training and dedication cultivated by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) and a nationwide network of educators, said national coordinator of Science Olympiads Prof. Anwesh Mazumdar. In a landmark achievement, all four students representing India at the International Chemistry Olympiad, held in Tashkent from July 10 to 19, bagged gold medals. This marks India’s first-ever all-gold sweep in the history of the competition. The victorious quartet includes Debadatta Priyadarshi from Bhubaneswar, Harshit Singla from Mandi Gobindgarh, Kabeer Chillar from Delhi, and Sandeep Kuchi from Hyderabad. This year’s event was the largest to date, featuring 363 students from 93 countries. India’s flawless performance tied the nation for the top spot in the country-wise medals tally, sharing the first position with China, Vietnam, and an individual participant from Russia. The students navigated highly complex experimental and theoretical tasks, including decoding the composition of historical and natural artifacts, calculating the mass of uranium used in a 1966 detonation, and performing advanced pH-metric titrations. The team was guided by Head Mentor Professor Subhajit Bandyopadhyay, Mentor Dr. Indrani Sen, and Scientific Observers Dr. Anubendu Adhikary and Dr. Jayasree Gopalakrishnan. Running concurrently in Vilnius from July 12 to 19, the International Biology Olympiad saw the Indian team secure one gold and three silver medals against a highly competitive field of 307 students from 78 nations. Bhavyaa Gunwal from Mahendragarh clinched the gold medal, while Soumil Maity from Howrah, Nishit Kalani from Pali, and Anmol Kumar from Mansa each brought home silver. The biology competition pushed the boundaries of secondary education with a gruelling six-hour theoretical exam and an intensive six-hour practical laboratory test designed by the Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre. In the labs, students executed complex molecular biology tasks like restriction digestion, evaluated the pharmacokinetics of aspirin, performed precise insect morphology dissections, and utilized cutting-edge digital software for plant transcriptome analysis. The delegation was led by Professor Rekha Vartak and Dr. Anupama Ronad, alongside Scientific Observers Dr. Ranjithsinh Devkar and Dr. Siddhesh Ghag.

Chess Troika Inspires A Generation

Celebrating National Youth Day today, we look at three young chess stalwarts - World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi. After performing well in the Global Chess League in Mumbai held from December 14-23, 2025, at the Royal Opera House, they participated in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships held in Doha, Qatar, from December 26-30, 2025 where Arjun won a bronze medal in each category.


Gukesh Dommaraju from Chennai became the youngest world chess champion at 18 years, beating Ding Liren for the crown in December 2024 in Singapore, shattering the previous record of 22 years which was set by GM Garry Kasparov in 1985.


A chess prodigy, Gukesh earned the Grand Master title at 12 years, becoming the second youngest to do so. Gukesh became the challenger to the world championship in April 2024 by winning the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament with a score of 9/14 which also made him the youngest-ever Candidates Tournament winner.


“Going into the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha, Qatar, I had some good practice from the Global Chess League in Mumbai recently; played a few rapid games against some very strong opponents. My strategy would be to just play fast and try to focus on each game and make the most of it,” said the 19-year-old, who had defeated Magnus Carlsen in the Norway Chess tournament earlier in 2025.


After starting playing chess at the age of seven, Gukesh won the under-12 title at the World Youth Chess Championship in 2018. He followed it up with multiple gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship. He became an International Master in March 2017.


His rise in the chess world has been truly phenomenal. In 2019, after becoming the second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game, after Sergey Karjakin, he was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men’s team competition.


An easily approachable, well-mannered and humble world chess champion, Gukesh won the team bronze and the individual gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022.


This remarkable string of successes earned Gukesh the top-rated Indian player spot in the September 2023 rating list, ending Viswanathan Anand’s 37-year record.


In the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024, he won both team and individual gold medals. In his early playing days, Gukesh’s father, an ENT surgeon in Chennai, quit his job to accompany and encourage his son during chess tournaments.


Fetched Fame

Twenty-year-old prodigious Indian chess Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (often called R. Praggnanandhaa or Pragg), clinched the Global Chess League 2025 title, beating defending Champions Triveni Continental Kings in the finals.


The young chess star from Chennai, famous for defeating Magnus Carlsen multiple times in rapid/online formats, including early wins as a child. He has secured a Candidates spot for 2026 by being the top FIDE Circuit player.


Known for his aggressive style, he became the second Indian ever to cross the 2700 rating mark. He says, “I’m ambitious. I want to win tournaments when I’m playing, after all the hard work that I’ve been putting in for years.”


An Arjuna Award winner, Pragg won the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013, earning him the title of FIDE Master. He won the under-10 title in 2015. In 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10.


Being introduced to chess by his elder sister Vaishali, they are the first brother and sister to earn grandmaster titles, with Praggnanandhaa doing so in 2018 and his sister doing so in 2023. They are also the first brother and sister to qualify for the prestigious Candidates Tournament.


A chess prodigy, Pragg won the second place in the 2023 Chess World Cup. He was also part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men’s team competition, and the gold medal in the open section at the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024.


Flying High

The 22-year-old Arjun Erigaisi, from Warangal, Telangana, kept the Indian flag flying high in Doha during the 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Championships, where he won a bronze in both categories. Congratulating him on his wins, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “His skills, patience and passion are exemplary.”


Arjun Erigaisi has been growing from strength to strength. In 2021, he became the first Indian to qualify for the Goldmoney Asian Rapid of the Champions Chess Tour 2021.


In November 2021, Arjun emerged third out of 82 players in the Lindores Abbey Blitz Tournament at Riga. In March 2022, he was crowned the Indian National Champion by winning the 58th MPL National Championship of India 2022 with a score of 8½/11. He went on to win the 19th Delhi Open, in the same month.


At the Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September 2024, his performance rating of 2968 earned him an individual gold medal and helped India to win their first ever team gold medal at the Olympiad.



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