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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.

Cong left red-faced in Kolhapur as Madhurima pulls out

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Madhurima

Mumbai: The end of the process to withdraw nominations for Assembly polls on Monday left the Congress in despair in Kolhapur North seat after its candidate Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati withdrew, while the BJP managed to convince Gopal Shetty to opt out from Mumbai’s Borivali.


However, the headache for the Mahayuti continued as Sada Sarvankar, the Shiv Sena candidate from Mahim Assembly constituency in Mumbai, braving the pressure from the party leadership, refused to pull out.


He is pitted against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s son Amit Thackeray, who has the backing of the BJP, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti along with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.


In Kolhapur, a visually upset Satej Patil expressed dismay at Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati pulling out of the race, which left the Congress without representation in one of its western Maharashtra strongholds.

The setback comes after the Congress changed its earlier candidate on the seat, ex-corporator Rajesh Latkar, and nominated her after a party office was vandalised by those opposed to the former. Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati is the daughter-in-law of Kolhapur Lok Sabha MP and royal family member Shahu Chhatrapati.


Sources said she may have pulled out of the race due to the negative publicity over the snub to Latkar.

They added the Congress is likely to support Latkar, who is contesting as an independent.


The BJP got a breather after former MP Shetty, who had won the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat with margins of more than four lakh in 2014 and 2019 before being denied a seat in the 2024 edition, withdrew his nomination as an independent candidate from Borivali and announced he will support the party’s official nominee Sanjay Upadhyay.


Shetty had rebelled claiming the seat, among the safest for the BJP, was being given to outside candidates for several years now, while local party workers were being ignored. He had also flagged the lack of communication from the leadership with grassroot functionaries.


Speaking to reporters on Monday, Shetty said, “I am withdrawing my nomination today. My objection was to the BJP’s style of functioning where decisions were taken without any consultation with party workers like me. The party was consistently nominating candidates for the assembly elections from outside, and it was presumed that it was being carried out with my consultation.”


“I was never consulted when candidates were selected for the Borivali assembly segment (in the past). I am a party worker and I always expressed my concerns towards a certain style of decision-making,” he said.


The BJP also managed to get rebel Nana Kate to withdraw from Chinchwad seat in Pune district, leaving the seat clear of intra-party hurdles for official candidate Shankar Jagtap, who is pitted against Rahul Kalate of NCP (SP).


There were good tidings in Pune for Congress as well after Mukhtar Shaikh withdrew from the Kasba Peth assembly constituency and announced his support to the party’s official candidate Ravindra Dhangekar.

Shiv Sena candidates Rajashri Aherrao from Deolali and Dhanraj Mahale from Dindori (District Nashik), who hit the headlines after their AB forms (essential poll documents from the party) were ferried on special aircraft, also withdrew their nominations. The two were fielded by the Shinde-led Sena despite the seats being officially allotted to ally Ajit Pawar-led NCP as part of the Mahayuti’s seat sharing agreement.


Major withdrawals

Madhurima Raje – Kolhapur North – Congress

Gopal Shetty – Borivali – Independent

Nana Kate – Pimpri-Chinchwad – Independent

Dhanraj Mahale – Dindori – Shiv Sena

Sweekruti Sharma – Andheri East – BJP


In the fray

Sada Sarvankar – Mahim – Shiv Sena

Nawab Malik – Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar – NCP

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