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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.

‘Traitors of Maratha Empire trump locals’

Rohit Pawar smells Rs 5K-cr land-scam in Navi Mumbai by minister

Mumbai: In an explosive allegation, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit R. Pawar has accused Urban Development Minister Sanjay Shirsat (Shiv Sena) of plotting a land scam of around Rs 5,000-cr intended to benefit a clan that once supported the British against the Maratha Empire.


A grand-nephew of NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Rohit Pawar said that the controversial Bivalkar family of Ratnagiri was originally gifted over 4000-acres land by the British rulers for helping them vis-à-vis the Maratha Empire.


Over decades since, under various laws and land reforms, the property was taken over by the state government, but the present title holder, architect Yashwant Bivalkar and his elder brother Gangadhar Bivalkar have locked horns with the authorities.


“However, despite this, the Bivalkar family attempted to reclaim those lands by manipulating records, filing court petitions and political lobbying. Their applications were rejected repeatedly in 1994, 1995, 2010 and 2023. But when Shirsat took over as CIDCO Chairman last year, he made the impossible as possible” claimed Rohit Pawar.


Displaying a bag filled with fake currency notes before media-persons, the NCP (SP) MLA alleged that “this was the style of ‘bag politics’ adopted to seal the deal”, implying cash transactions.


He added that in the very first CIDCO meeting as Chairman, Shirast cleared around 15 acres of prime land (at Ulwe) in Navi Mumbai to the Bivalkar family worth a staggering Rs 5,000-cr, in the vicinity of the new Navi Mumbai International Airport.


“This land parcel was reserved for constructing 10,000 affordable homes for the poor, but now a luxury building project is likely to come up there, sidelining the common masses,” pointed out Rohit Pawar.


Contending that there were several layers to the whole scam, Rohit Pawar said the Bivalkars – got the land gift (inaam) around 1816 - exploited legal loopholes since 1952 to convert a ‘political inaam’ into a ‘personal inaam’ and declaring parts as ‘reserved forest’ to skirt the Land Ceiling Act.


After the Maharashtra Private Forests Act of 1975 transferred the lands to the state, the Bivalkar family fought in the court and in 2014, the Bombay High Court gave a favourable verdict including a compensation amount, ostensibly due to a weak defence by the state, but later the CIDCO secured a stay from the Supreme Court.


“Despite the detailed history of repeated rejections, overlooking the fact that local project-affected farmers are fighting to get their rightful share of 12.5 pc land, the state government chose to hand it over to the descendants of the traitors of the Maratha Empire. This is committing a treachery against Maharashtra’s sons of the soil,” Rohit Pawar thundered.


The sensational allegations sparked widespread political outrage and other Opposition parties demanded an immediate rollback of the land dole to the Bivalkar family and resignation of Minister Shirsat.


Simultaneously Rohit Pawar has threatened to carry out an agitation with farmers and activists at the CIDCO headquarters on Aug. 20 (Wednesday) where they would grill the officialdom over the purported mega-land scandal.

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