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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.

Prithviraj Chavan’s staff in soup

Former CM’s close aide has multiple entries in voter list; Chavan says applied for removal of names

Mumbai: The BJP has accused personal staff of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of voting multiple times after multiple entries of their names have been found in the voters list of the South Karad Assembly constituency. Chavan, however, has said that he has found over 6,000 duplicate names in his constituency and he is planning to move to court over the issue.


“We found that Gajanan Avalkar, the Personal Assistant (PA) of Prithviraj Chavan, Avalkar’s wife and brother, have their names in the voter list twice. They are registered as voters in Vathar village as well as in Karad,” said Mohan Jadhav, a BJP worker from neighbouring Saidapur village.


Jadhav had worked with Chavan for several years in the past.


“Part 295 of the voters’ list of the 260-Karad assembly constituency has an entry in the name of Gajanan Shankar Avalkar (Age 63) with sr. no. 1359, while name of his wife Sangita Gajanan Avalkar (Age 56) is on sr. no. 1358 and his brother’s name Jayprakash Shankar Avalkar (Age 49) is with sr. no. 717. While, part 127 of the voters’ list of the same constituency again has their names as Gajanan Shankar Avalkar (Age 62) with sr. no. 573, Sangita Gajanan Avalkar (Age 54) with sr. no. 574 and Jayprakash Shankar Avalkar (Age 48) is with sr. no. 425,” Jadhav said.


He also accused Avalkar of purposefully registering his name at multiple places to facilitate multiple voting and asked Chavan to explain whether he has blessed such fraud in the voters’ list.


“While Chavan was the CM Avalkar had great influence on the district administration and using that influence he had even made one BLO resign. That is the reason why his name is still there on two voting booths of the constituency and he has voted in both the booths,” Jadhav said.


Jadhav also accused Avalkar of using forged or bogus documents with registering himself twice in the voters’ list.


When contacted, Chavan was forthcoming over the issue. “This is a simple case of half work done by the administration,” he said. Avalkar earlier stayed at Vathar and hence had his name in the list of that village. He registered his name in the list of Karad when he moved to the city. “He had given an application to remove his name from the old list. However, the administration doesn’t seem to have done that,” Chavan told ‘The Perfect Voice’.


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