India wins 2 silver, 1 bronze at Astronomy Olympiad

Kolkata, Oct 20 : Indian students won two silver and one bronze medals in the 21st International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) held at Pamporovo, Bulgaria, earlier this month, the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) said on Thursday.Three students along with two officials from NCSM went for the Olympiad, where India finished among the top four out of the 16 participating nations, with each representative bagging medal.

M S Wajid from Hyderabad and Prashant Gokhale from Mumbai won silver medals, and Harshit Khandelwal from Indore secured the bronze medal in the event that took place from October 5 to 13, an NCSM release said.

"This is a moment of pride not only for NCSM but for entire India as all three Indian students won a medal in IAO," said NCSM Director General A.S. Manekar

The IAO is an internationally recognised annual astronomy scientific-educational event which includes an intellectual competition between high school students of 14 to 18 years age group. The style of the problems is aimed at developing the imagination, creativity and independent thinking.

The Eurasian Astronomical Society founded the IAO in 1996. The competing part of IAO consists of three rounds: a theoretical, an observational, and a practical.

NCSM had organised the orientation cum selection camp and pre-departure training for the students.