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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.

The Saffron Truce

Ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, a bruised BJP mends fences with the AIADMK.

Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu

Few states have proved as electorally impenetrable to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as Tamil Nadu. With its fiercely proud Dravidian identity and a political culture suspicious of northern impositions, the BJP has long been a fringe player in a state dominated by the Dravidian duopoly of the DMK and the AIADMK. Now, ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, the BJP has pragmatically revived its alliance with the AIADMK while engineering a leadership reshuffle to soothe bruised egos on both sides.


The changes were the handiwork of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who in his recent visit to the southern state, declared that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would contest the 2026 elections under the leadership of AIADMK chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) and that the two parties would form a coalition government if victorious.


This was a signal of détente after months of visible strain. Central to this détente was the fate of K. Annamalai, the firebrand former IPS officer who, as BJP’s Tamil Nadu president since 2021, had become both a symbol of the party’s grassroots energy and a source of friction with its ally. Annamalai’s combative style, unafraid to criticise AIADMK icons (including a controversial remark about the late J. Jayalalithaa) had alienated senior AIADMK leaders. Matters came to a head in 2023 when the AIADMK quit the NDA, accusing the BJP’s state leadership of disrespect.


Though Amit Shah publicly maintained that Annamalai remained president at the time of the press conference, his symbolic sidelining was hard to miss. Within hours, the BJP announced Nainar Nagendran, the party’s Tirunelveli MLA and current vice-president, as state president of the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit.


Nagendran’s elevation is not accidental. A former AIADMK minister who crossed over to the BJP in 2017, he is seen as a more conciliatory figure, someone with the credibility to mend bridges. His links to EPS and his measured tone have already reassured allies. Earlier this year, when he declared that there was no need to ‘intimidate’ the AIADMK into an alliance, it was viewed as a coded message to both sides that diplomacy was back in vogue.


This leadership recalibration is also an admission by the BJP high command that its solo strategy in Tamil Nadu has reached its limits. Despite Annamalai’s high-decibel campaigns and impressive visibility, the BJP failed to make significant electoral gains. In the 2021 Assembly elections, it won only four seats in alliance with the AIADMK. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the parties went separate ways and the DMK-led alliance swept the state.


Shah’s remarks made it clear that the BJP would fight the upcoming elections under Narendra Modi’s leadership at the Centre and EPS’s at the state level. This dual-leadership model offers the AIADMK the primacy it desires in Tamil Nadu, while preserving the BJP’s role as a national umbrella. The two parties, Shah said, would craft a common minimum programme and go village-to-village highlighting the corruption of the DMK government, which he alleged was mired in scams.


Notably, Shah insisted that the AIADMK had placed “no conditions” on the alliance. But party insiders acknowledge that EPS made Annamalai’s removal a tacit prerequisite for rapprochement. By crafting Annamalai’s exit as an elevation to the party’s “national framework,” the BJP preserved his dignity while mollifying its ally. Shah’s diplomacy was equally deft in refusing to be drawn into discussions about expelled AIADMK leaders like O. Panneerselvam or T.T.V. Dhinakaran, saying such matters were internal to the party.


Still, the alliance is not without its risks. Nagendran’s ability to balance the BJP’s ambitions with the AIADMK’s sensitivities will be tested in the months to come. Meanwhile, EPS, now firmly back in the driver’s seat, must convince voters that his alliance with the BJP is a principled stand against DMK corruption, not an opportunistic recalibration.


The road to Fort St. George is long and fraught. But for now, Tamil Nadu’s saffron alliance is back on the rails.

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