India's Performance at IMO and IBO 2019.

Indian students perform well at the International Biology Olympiad

The Indian team performed well in the 30^th International Biology Olympiad (IBO 2019) held in Szeged, Hungary from July 14 to 21, 2019. In this edition of IBO 72 countries participated with 280 of the brightest students from across the world. From India four students participated and three students secured Silver medals and one student received an Honorable Mention. The IBO competition consists of a theoretical and an experimental examination, each of six hours duration. These examinations are exceptionally challenging and innovative and this year was no different.

Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), a national centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is the nodal centre in the country for all the Science Olympiads (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and Astrophysics and Junior Science) as well as the Mathematical Olympiad. The centre is responsible for the selection and training of the teams representing India at the international olympiads. The selection of the team for IBO was carried out through a three-stage procedure. The first stage consisted of a nationwide examination in Biology in which over 27,000 students appewhich is being held at Bath, United Kingdom. In all 112 countries participated in the event (621 participants out of which 65 are female) and India finished 15th.

Individual results:

Pranjal Srivastava	(Bangalore, Karnataka)	Gold medal
Ritam Nag	(Kolkata, West Bengal)	Silver medal
Anubhab Ghosal	(Kolkata, West Bengal)	Silver medal
Bhavya Agrawalla	(Indore, Madhya Pradesh)	Silver medal
Ojas Mittal	(New Delhi)	Silver medal
Soumil Aggarwal	(New Delhi)	Honourable mention

The team was accompanied by Prof. C. R. Pranesachar (LEADER)(formerared. This examination was conducted by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT), in collaboration with the Association of Teachers of Biological Sciences (ATBS) at nearly 1200 centres across the country. The remaining two stages consisted of a series of difficult selection tests, both theoretical and practical conducted by HBCSE. A similarly rigorous selection procedure is adopted for the other olympiads as well. The Olympiad effort is supported by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of the Government of India.

The details of the team’s performance are as follows:

Name	Place	Medal
Hardik Gupta	Agra, Uttar Pradesh	SILVER
Arunangshu Bhattacharyya	Surat, Gujarat	SILVER
Suryadeep Mandal	Bankura, West Bengal	SILVER
Akshay Gupta	Vadodara, Gujarat	HONORABLE MENTION

The team was accompanied by two Leaders: (1) Prof. Ujwala Bapat, (Retd.) St. Xaviers College, Mumbai (2) Prof.

Rekha Vartak, HBCSE, Mumbai; and two Scientific Observers (3) Dr. Kiran Kondabagil, IITB, Mumbai (4) Dr.

Rambhadur Subedi, NIRRH, Mumbai.

P.S.: The press is invited to meet the students and the organizers at 11.00 a.m. on July 22, 2019 (Monday) in NIUS G4, HBCSE.

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I am very pleased to let you know that the six-member Indian team won 1 GOLD MEDAL, 4 SILVER MEDALS and 1 HONORABLE MENTION at the IMO 2019 

ly of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education); Prof. V. M. Sholapurkar (DEPUTY LEADER) of Department of Mathematics, S. P. College, Pune;

Dr.N.V.Tejaswi (OBSERVER A) (former IMO Gold Medalist (http://www.imo-official.org/participant_r.aspx?id=5111)) from The Netherlands;

Prof. R.B.Bapat (OBSERVER B) of Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.

The team will be felicitated on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 at 11:30 a.m in room G1, Main Building, HBCSE. All are welcome to attend the same.