International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) 2019 : India bags, a Gold, Silver and a Bronze at Paitra neamt Romania.

The Deepavali celebrations for the Indian team at the XXIV International Astronomy Olympiad (2019) that is coordinated by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), got brighter with the results of the XXI, IAO 2019 which trickled in from Romania. All the three students, who were selected from amongst the best ones for representing India in the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) that was organised during the period from 19- 27 October 2019 at Piatra Neamt, Romania, made India proud by winning a Gold, Silver and a Bronze medal in the just concluded event at Paitra Neamt Romania. Dhananjay Raman from Delhi bagged the Gold for his stellar performance and was also adjudged the best student among all the contestants.

The Indian team which took part in the XXIV IAO 2019 at  Paitra neamt Romania included Dhananjay Raman from Delhi who won the Gold and the over all best performer, Venkata Aditya Josula from Hyderabad who won the Silver and Hitysh Lakshmi Kant from Bangalore who won the Bronze. The students were accompanied by three of our colleagues from across NCSM centres namely ; Dr Kanchan Kumar Chowdhury, Team Leader and Curator, NEZ Kolkata, Munikumar Balaji Minnal, Team Leader(Jury) and Curator,  RSC,Tirupati and Bharat Bhusan Shrivastava, Observer and EO, NSC Delhi. In all eighteen countries and 52 students took part in this highly competitive international Olympiad. The IAO (Jr)is one of the highly acclaimed International Science Olympiads that is coordinated and recognised by the HBCSE.

The Nehru Science Centre a unit of NCSM, has been privileged to play a significant role in ensuring that this highly academic event, which until the year 2014 was mainly organised by the HBCSE with NCSM confining itself to the funding of the event only, has now been able to conduct the OCSC, PDC and also manage the IAO at the international level on its own and end up bagging medals for all the participants. What is even more creditable is that we at the NCSM were initially hesitant to shoulder this responsibility, which needs an extraordinarily high level of academic specialisation, and therefore we were relying exclusively on HBCSE - known for such academic excellence -  for taking up this responsibility. But then for the first time we took that bold initiative to attempt organising this highly academic event on our own, courtesy encouragement from Prof Mayank Vahia, the then National Coordinator of Astronomy Olympiad, and ever since we have been managing this event on our own at NCSM and this year we have been successful in ensuring that all the three participants have won the medal and what is more creditable is that not only did Dhananjay win the Gold medal, he has also been declared the best among the best, which in itself is a major satisfaction for all of us at NCSM particularly some of my colleagues ; Madan Gopal, Srivastava, Kanchan Chaudhury, Balaji, Saket, and several others whose support and advice and guidance we have taken.

I have had the honour to play a very small role in this feat. With unstinting support from my colleagues, I was responsible in taking that major decision of NCSM organising the IAO on our own steam, particularly the OCSC, PDC and the international leg of the IAO event. Thank you so very much, my dear colleagues who reposed that extraordinary trust in my conviction that NCSM can conduct such highly academic events on its own.  This years result show that we have more or less come to the same exacting standards of HBCSE, when it comes to preparing our students for the International Astronomy Olympiad competition. May NCSM continue to excel and produce even better results in the years to come and aim for the year when all our students get Gold medals and make our country proud.

Most unfortunately one of the students, Master Hitysh from Bangalore has fallen sick and had to be admitted in the hospital in Romania and there are issues with the Visa for his overstay and also for the overstay of Mr Srivastava who is taking care of him. We have talked to the Indian Embassy and have also talked to the worried parents of the student and hopefully everything goes as per our discussions with the Indian Embassy in Romania and Hitysh and Srivastava too return back to India safely at the earliest until then please  do join me in praying for the early recovery of Hitysh and their safe return to India.

Incidentally I also have an honour to be a member of the National Steering Committee (NSC) of all the Science Olympiads, that is so very efficiently organised and managed by the HBCSE in India.