 and let me know. Okay, good afternoon and welcome, everybody. Welcome back to the felicitation function for the International Olympiad Medalist of 2022. And we already had two lectures in the morning and many of you were present. And now we are ready to begin the second part of the program, the award function. This program is organized by the Homibaba Center for Science Education, GFR in association with the Enforcers Foundation and the GFR Endowment Fund. I am Anvesh Mazumdar and the National Coordinator of Science Olympiad. And so to begin the program, I would request our Center Director, Professor Arna Bhattacharya, the Sundance Matter Services to kindly address the audience and welcome them. Arna, over to you. Yes, good afternoon and welcome once again to the Enforcers Felicitation Function for the Olympiad awardees. Now, you've already heard two wonderful talks this morning. I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope you learned a lot of new things from it. And now it's time to move on to this felicitation program. And first, I would like to, of course, thanks the Enforcers Foundation and the GFR Endowment for supporting this initiative. And then I would really like to welcome and thank Professor Shavisharji Bhattacharya for agreeing to be the chief guest today. Of course, as you by now have known, this event happens on the 22nd of December every year. It's also a way of honoring the legacy of Srinivas Ramanujan today being National Mathematics Day in the country as well. So all of you have, of course, excelled at the highest levels in international competition and made India proud in the various subject Olympias that you've represented us in. And today, to continue that journey, this is a little bit of a remembrance, a felicitation, a thank you, and an encouragement. And we hope that we will see many of you again at HBCSE in various science fields, wherever you may be, in India, outside, you will excel in science and mathematics and whatever else you would like to do and be part of this large Olympiad movement. I hope not only, of course, you did very well in the respective subjects, but I also hope you made a lot of friends and colleagues around and had stimulating intellectual discussions with you, which you will also carry forward for the years to come. So let's get on with it. This is what you've been waiting for, some more encouragement for you in the form of today's felicitation function. Again, let me once again say it's a pity you're not at HBCSE, we'd love to see you in person, love to shake your hand and give you something. Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to do it this way in a manner where we could get maximum people. Here, at least we have close to 80 of you being here or are here with us, albeit virtually. And this also allows some of us who are unfortunately not able to be in Mumbai to join in this program as well. So on that note, back to you Anvesh and please welcome Chauvo and let's get on with it. Thank you, Arnav. Thank you. Let's move on. So thank you for the Arnav Bhattacharya for your welcome. And now we shall first have the awards being given out by our Chief Guest, Professor Shobhashachi Bhattacharya. So, Prasad, let me, it's a great pleasure for me to introduce our Chief Guest today, Professor Shobhashachi Bhattacharya, who is the Director of TCG Centers for Research and Education in Science and Technology or TCG CREFT. Prasad Bhattacharya is a condensed matter physicist and works primarily on dynamical aspects of disordered, soft, and granular systems. Educated at the Presidency College in Kolkata, University of Delhi, and North Western University in the USA, he did postdoctoral research at the Magnet Laboratory at MIT and at the University of Chicago. He spent two decades at the Corporate Laboratories of Exxon Corporation and the NEC Corporation in New Jersey, US, before returning to India as Director of the Top Institute of Fundamental Research, TIFR in Mumbai, where he was Director for five years. And at present, he's the Director of TCG CREFT. So, I will invite Professor Bhattacharya to give out the award. Now, of course, this is, so let me also tell you a bit about the award. So, in 2002, the Infosys Foundation instituted awards to Indian medalists and in the International Olympiad. And these awards consist of a cash prize of 15,000 and the grant for which has been given to the TIFR Endowment Fund. So, we thank the Infosys Foundation for this endowment and the TIFR Endowment Fund for facilitating this. Now, of course, this is an online award ceremony. So, we cannot really hand over anything. So, the cash prizes, of course, will be deposited in the respective bank account after this program. But here, we'll also give out a certificate. So, the way it will go is that for each... And also, we do solicitate the mentors, the leaders and the observers of the International Olympiad. But they don't get any cash awards, they just get the certificate. So, what we'll do is that for each awardee, we will have a slide with the picture and the name of the person. And then we will also display the certificate for each awardee. And unfortunately, I mean, in this mode, we cannot really see each other. But that is the way that's the best compromise that we can do. At least we can see their pictures. Okay, so, Professor Bhattacharya, if you are ready, we will begin. So, we begin with the awardees for the International Mathematical Olympiad. So, this year was the 63rd International Mathematical Olympiad. This was held at Oslo, Norway from July 5th to July 16th. And India always sends a six-membered delegation to the International Mathematical Olympiad or IMO. That's the maximum number of students that we can send. And they were accompanied by a leader, a deputy leader, and two scientific observers. So, here come the awardees. The first awardee is Pranjil Sivastava. Well, I will also mention the name of the school and the class of the students. Then he or she enrolled for the first stage of the Olympiad. That is nearly one year ago in November. So, now, of course, most of them have moved on to their undergraduate studies. Those who were in class 12 last year. So, the first awardee is Pranjil Sivastava from National Public School, Bengaluru, Karnataka. And Pranjil won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. So, congratulations. This was the, actually, for Pranjil. This was the third gold medal at the IMO. He had previously won gold medals in 2019, in 2021, and 2022. In 2020, the IMO was not held due to the pandemic. Before that, Pranjil had also won a silver medal at the IMO in 2018. And also, he won a bronze medal at the International Informatics Olympiad in 2021. So, congratulations, Pranjil. I don't know if he's in the room. Yeah. Okay. Professor Bhattacharya, if I... Can you please say something? We'll just test your audio if we can hear you. I think he's unmuted, but we can't hear you. Shobho, we can't hear you. I hope you can hear us, but we can't hear you. Professor Bhattacharya, if you cannot... I mean, if your audio is not working, maybe you can just go out of the room and come back again. We can wait for two minutes. That's not a problem. Yeah, okay. We'll wait for the chief guest to come back. There's obviously some problem with his audio. Sorry for the interruption. Yes, Professor Bhattacharya, we can see you now. So, if you can say something. No, we can't still hear you. So, maybe you can just check your audio settings. We can't hear you. No, you are not muted. You do have... We have unmuted you. Does it show muted on your screen? Sorry, we can't hear you at all. Maybe if you can send me your phone number by chat, I can just call you and try to fix this. Sorry for the interruption, everybody. We'll just get this fixed. Hello, everybody. Just give us a couple of minutes. We are trying to fix this issue. Okay, sorry, everybody. We have been unable to solve it so far, but Professor Bhattacharya is trying to reboot his laptop and coming back again. So, we have to wait for a few minutes and get back to you. Anvesh, maybe you can just go through the different Olympias where they were held and how many students participated in each. You can probably just get that part done so you don't have to repeat it every time. No, I think it's okay. I mean, that comes at the beginning of everything. And I think let the chief guest also be there. You're right. Let's just wait, yeah. Okay, cool. Okay, so his computer didn't work. So, he will now try joining on the phone and then we will try to do something, let's see. Sorry for the interruptions. This is happening online, I think. Sometimes the chief guest is delayed because of some traffic jam and here we have some technical issues. So, just a few more minutes. Okay, can you now say something? Can you hear me? Do you have a problem? My problem? Yeah, so maybe, I mean, I'll just send you another number and you can just call on that phone. Just give me a minute. Yeah, yeah, so that's the secret number. Sorry, we are still trying to get the chief guest online. Hopefully he should be there in a couple of minutes. Yes, sir, you may speak on to the phone. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Professor Bhattacharya, you have to mute your speaker, I think. That's where the echo is coming from. So, yeah, but there's still the echo. Is your speaker on the laptop on? I can turn it off. I've turned it off. Yeah, now it's okay, but then if you can't hear us. If you have a headphone that you can put on your laptop. Yes, we can, but maybe you can't hear us now. Sorry. I think it's in terms of my thing off. So, now I'm going to turn it over to you. Okay, maybe what we can do then is that we keep you muted through the awards and then during the, during your talk, you can switch off your speaker and speak. Then it'll be clear, I think. Otherwise you can't hear it anyway. So, is that okay? And you can perhaps write on the... Since we do something, I'm just trying to think of... There's too much echo because I think your laptop speaker is on, but you can't avoid it. So, maybe the best way for you would be not to speak now and then speak after the awards anyway. And then you have to, at that time, you have to turn your own speaker off and just speak on the phone. Yeah, shall we, on the chat, on the chat. And yeah, okay. So, sorry, everybody for this long interruption. So, this is what we have figured out now. Apparently there's some problem with Professor Potatario's device. So, he will be, as we go through the awards, he will be writing on the chat. So, please keep your chat window open and then at the end of the award, he will be speaking through the phone and we will relay that to you, okay? So, that's what's the best of the situation that we can make of. I'm really sorry for this, but such technical things, as you all know, are sometimes unavoidable. So, okay. So, let me share the screen and get on with that. Yeah, so the first awardee for the IMO we were here is Pranjal Shvasthak. I don't think Pranjal is in the room and this was the third gold medal for him in the International Mathematical Olympiad, apart from a silver in IMO 2018 and a bronze at the International Informatics Olympiad in 2021. The other five participants each obtained bronze medal at the IMO. And so, the next awardee is Arjun Gupta from Mother Divine Public School, Northwest Delhi. She was in class 10 when he registered for the Olympiad last year. So, congratulations Arjun. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah, it would be very nice if you are present in the room to unmute and say hello and that's very good, yeah. Okay. The next awardee, Aditya Venkata Ganesh Mangudi from Sri Kejana Techno School in Pune. He was in class nine when he registered last year. He also won a bronze medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. Congratulations, Aditya. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Atul Shatavarth Nadik, class 11 from Sriram Global School, Bengaluru, Karnataka. Bronze medal at the IMO. Congratulations, Atul. Thank you, sir. The next medalist is Vedan Saini from class 10, Bhavan Vidala Chandigarh. Bronze medal, congratulations Vedan. Kostav Mishra from class 12, Delhi Public School, Bengaluru. Won a bronze medal at IMO, congratulations Kostav. Thank you, sir. And so these were the six medalists from the International Mathematical Olympiad. They were accompanied by four mentors. The leader was President Niranjan Balachandran from IIT Bombay. President Shanta Laishram from Indian Statistical Institute. President Laishram is also the Deputy National Coordinator of the Mathematical Olympiad in the country. And then there are two scientific observers, Mr. Suthanai Bhattacharya who is at the Indian Institute of Science, Mangalore. Suthanai was himself a IMO medalist in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. So it's very nice to see our old students come back as mentors now. Another observer, Mr. Spandan Ghosh was also IMO medalist in 2018. He was the other scientific observer at the IMO. So congratulations to all the medalists and all the mentors of the International Mathematical Olympiad 2022. And we shall move on to the next Olympiad, Prasad. Okay, Prasad Bhattacharya, I think your messages are coming only to me so you can please click on the chat on everyone in meetings. So he has been writing. So he has congratulated each of the medalists and all the medalists in math. So, okay. So the next Olympiad is the Indian delegation to the 52nd International Physics Olympiad 2022. Unfortunately, this Olympiad has to be held in the online mode because of the last minute change of venue from Belarus to Switzerland. And it was organized by the Physics Association of Switzerland from July 10th to July 17th. And in this Olympiad, Indian students won one gold and four silver medals. The gold medalist was Vibhyanchu Malu, class 12 student from KII International School Bhuvaneshwar. Congratulations, Vibhyanchu. Yeah, Prasad Bhattacharya, I hope you can see the screen. The next medalist is Harsh Jakhar, silver medalist from class 12, Bal Nikhetan model senior secondary school Chandigarh. Yeah, Prasad Bhattacharya, your messages are coming to me as direct messages. You have to click on the everyone in meeting chat and send it there so that everybody can see it. So congratulations, Harsh. The next medalist is the silver medalist Anilesh Bansal from class 12, Delhi Public School Paridabad. Congratulations, Anilesh. Anilesh was also, can you please excuse me for a minute? Anilesh was also a silver medalist at the International Olympiad, sorry, International Olympiad and Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2021. You have a gold medalist. Okay, I have to take a quick break to take this call from Prasad Bhattacharya. Yes, now it's visible. Yeah, so we got the chat problem fixed as well, sorry. Yeah, so Prasad Bhattacharya sent his congratulations to all earlier, his messages were only visible to me. So he has congratulated each medalist. So yeah, so we were talking of Anilesh Bansal who is the next medalist, silver medalist and he was also a gold medalist at the IOAA last year. Congratulations, Anilesh. Thank you, sir. The next medalist is Abhijeet Anand, silver medalist from class 12, Disha Delphi Public School, Kota. Congratulations, Abhijeet. The next medalist is Dhiraj Kurkunda, also won a silver medal from class 12, Narayana Junior College, Hyderabad. Congratulations, Dhiraj. So these were the five medalists from IPHO 2022. They were accompanied by two leaders. The first leader, Dr. Praveen Patak from the Homi Baba Center for Science Education. Praveen has been a member of the physics cell for a long time at the HBCC. The other leader is Prasad Shamla Bhojane who is recently retired from Senzavius College, Mumbai. Prasad Bhojane has also been a mentor with the physics Olympiad for many years. There are two scientific observers, Prasad Arun Kulkarni, from Brilla Institute of Technology and Science. He's one of the mentors in the physics Olympiad. And the other scientific observer was Dr. Vivek Bireh, Gopitay Joglekar College Rakhnagiri. He's also a mentor in the physics Olympiad. So congratulations to all the students and the leaders and the scientific observers of International Physics Olympiad 2022. Thank you. We move on to the next Olympiad which is the 54th International Chemistry Olympiad, 2022. This also had to be held online this year because it was scheduled in China and because of some increase in COVID cases in China, it had to be converted to online mode. This was held from July 10th to July 18th. And in this Olympiad, all the Indian students, the four Indian students, all of them obtained a silver medal. And the first student is Panishka Kabra from Class 12th and 10th School Amdabad. Congratulations Panishka for your silver medal at ICHO. The next medalist was Chinmay Khokhar from Bhavan Vidyalaya Panchkula. Congratulations Chinmay. Nivesh Agarwal from Sri Guru Harkishan Senior Secondary Public School Chandigarh. He also won a silver medal at ICHO. Congratulations Nivesh. And Mahit Rajesh Gadiwala from Scholar English Academy Surat Bajrat. He also won a silver medal in ICHO. Previously Mahit won a gold medal at the International Junior Science Olympiad in 2019 and a silver medal at the ICHO even last year, 2021. Congratulations Mahit. Thank you sir. We had the, as the head mentor of the Indian delegation was Professor Nandita Madhavan from Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Bombay. And the other mentor was Dr. Indrani Darsen from HBCSE. Indrani is in the chemistry cell of HBCSE for a long time. They're two scientific observers. That's a Shraddha Tiwari from Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai. And Dr. V. Sudarshan from the Baba Atomic Research Center, BRC Mumbai. Both of them are mentors in the Chemistry Olympiad. So congratulations to all the mentors and the observers and of course the students at the ICHO 2022. We move on to biology. The Indian delegation to the 33rd International Biology Olympiad held at Yerevan, Armenia from July 10th to July 18th consisted of four students and four mentors. The, in this India obtained one gold and three silver medals. The first medalist is Mayank Pandhari Class 12 National Institute of Open Schooling from Bengaluru. Congratulations Mayank for a gold medal at IDO. Thank you, sir. And Rohit Panda from Delhi Public School, Delhi won a silver medal. Congratulations Rohit. Thank you, sir. Amitam Srinigam from Prakati Public School, Dwarka, Delhi won silver medal also. Congratulations Amitam. Prachi Jindal from Delhi Public School, also won a silver medal. Congratulations Prachi. Thank you, sir. I'm Prachi's mother on behalf of Prachi receiving it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Very nice to have you here. Thank you. Now, just our team to IDO were accompanied by two leaders and two scientific observers. The first leader was Professor Ujwala Bapat who's retired from Sanjivya College, Mumbai. Professor Bapat is an experienced mentor at the biology Olympiad. And so is the other leader, Dr. Shashi Kumar Menon from Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Lab, Mumbai. Thank you. Thank you, Anvesh. Dr. Menon is also a member of the National Steering Committee. Thank you, Anvesh. Yeah, you're welcome. The two scientific observers, Dr. Dharmendra Shah, MS University Baroda. Dr. Shah has also been with the biology Olympiad. Thank you, Dr. Anvesh. Yeah, you're welcome. And Dr. Selva Kumar from DUI Party University in Mumbai is also a mentor for the biology Olympiad. Thank you, sir. So congratulations to all the students and the leaders and the scientific observers of the biology Olympiad. And we shall move on to the 15th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2022. This was held at Kutaisi, Georgia from August 14 to August 2022. And the Indian delegation, they are consisted of five students and four mentors of the five students, three gold medals and the other two, one silver medal. Raghav Guel from Bhavan Vidyalaya Panchkula, Haryana. Congratulations, Raghav, for your gold medal at IUA. Mohammad Sahil Akhtar, DPS Ruby Park from Kolkata. Gold medalist at IUA. Congratulations, Sahil. And Mehul Borod from Narayana Junior College, Hazabab. Also gold medalist at IUA. Congratulations, Mehul. Malay Kedia from Seth Anandram Jayapuriya School, Gaziabad. One silver medal at IUA. Congratulations, Malay. Thank you, sir. And Atharva Milesh Mahadan from Rancors International School Indore. Also one silver medal at IUA. Thank you, sir. Congratulations, Atharva. The leaders for IUA were Professor Sarita Vig from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, IISP. Professor Vig has been with the Astronomy Olympiad for a few years. And the other leader, Professor Ajit Mohan Sivastav, Institute of Physics, Ritabh. Now Institute of Physics, IOP, Bhuvaneshwar. Professor Sivastav has been also a mentor for the Astronomy Olympiad for the last six years. I'm Neshwari Viglian. Yeah, welcome, Ajit. Yeah. Can you please mute your microphone? Yeah, thank you. Hello. Can you please mute your microphone, Ajit? Yeah. The scientific observer was Dr. Sriharan Senlulkar. Can you hear me now, Nesh? Yes. Yes, Professor Bhattacharya. We can hear you now. Yeah. Yeah, I'm on the phone. OK, great. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. Great to have you here finally. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, our team, Professor Sivastav Chibattacharya, is now can speak on the phone. So this is a lot of technical problems. So one of the scientific observers for IUA 2022 was Dr. Sriharan Senlulkar from TIFR, the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Sriharan was himself a medalist of the Astronomy Olympiad in 2003 and 2004. So again, it's very nice to have our past Olympiad medalist now working as mentors in the program. And the other scientific observer was Mr. Tejas Saa from Friar Agnal Multipepper School and Junior College, Navi Mumbai. Tejas has also been a mentor for the Astronomy Olympiad for a few years. So congratulations to all the Astronomy Olympiad winners. So congratulations, yeah, to all the students and the mentors of the Astronomy Olympiad. We move over to the Indian delegation to the 15th International Earth Science Olympiad 2022. This was also held in online mode, hosted by Italy from August 25th to August 31st. This Earth Science Olympiad is not organized by the Homibaba Center, but by the Geological Society of India. And this year, they obtained a very rich haul of medals as you will see. So there were eight students, Bhanav Nandudri from Bharatiya Vidyavavan Sivikath Vidyalai, Nada Kavu Kerala. And in the Earth Science Olympiad, they have medals for different kinds of events, separate medals. And Bhanav won three medals, one, sorry, four medals, one gold, two silver, and one bronze. So congratulations, Bhanav. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Jagrit Gaur from LBS Senior Secondary School, Kota. He also won three medals, one gold, one bronze, and again a gold for the team project. Congratulations, Jagrit. The next medalist, Sonit Sisulika, from Paradise English Medium School, Pune. He won one gold and two bronze medals. Congratulations, Sonit. Avishi Agarwal from Disha Delphi Public School, Kota. Won a gold medal at the Earth Science Olympiad. Congratulations, Avishi. Thank you, sir. Kishon Bhareli Das, Kenji Avidhalaya Ananagar. I think there may be an error in the school there. I think that he shifted his school to Sir Muta School Chennai. And he won one gold and one bronze medal. Congratulations, Kishon. Thank you, sir. Abhijay Singh Kehra from Police DAV Public School, Jalandhar. Won silver and won gold for the team project. Congratulations, Abhijay. Thank you, sir. Siddhanganath Sahu from DAV Public School, Bhuvaneshwar. Won silver, won bronze, and won gold for the team project. Congratulations, Siddhanganath. And Arush Chaudhary from Anand Vidya Mandir Bharatpur. Won gold and another gold for team project. Congratulations, Arush. Thank you, sir. The team was accompanied by two mentors and two scientific observers, Dr. Hemma Achuthan, who is also the national coordinator for the Earth Science Olympiad from Institute of Ocean Management, Anand University Chennai. She has been the main stay of the Earth Science Olympiad for many years. And the other mentor was Dr. K.S. Godavari, who is from the Geological Society of India. She is also one of the main persons behind the International Earth Science Olympiad. The scientific observers were Professor R. Bhaskar from Indira Gandhi National Open University, Igno. And Dr. Mithila Verma from the Ministry of Earth Sciences was the other scientific observer. The Ministry of Earth Sciences actually sponsors the International Earth Science Olympiad participation from India. So congratulations to all the Earth Science Olympiad participants. We move on to the 19th International Junior Science Olympiad 2022, which was held very recently from December 2 to December 12th at Bogota, Colombia. Somebody's microphone may be on. Can someone just check and mute it? I'll mute it. Yeah, OK. Thank you. So in this Olympiad, there are six Indian students and all six of them won gold medals. And this was the third successive year for the International Junior Science Olympiad that India maintained an all-goal record from 2019, 2021, and 2022. In 2020, the Olympiad was not held. So and by winning six gold medals, India also emerged at the top of their medals tally in IESO. So great achievement. So here come the medalists. Arithra Malhotra from Queen Mary School, Northam, Delhi. Gold medal at IESO. Congratulations, Arithra. Thank you, sir. Rajdeep Mishra, Air Force School Jamnagar. Gold medal at IESO. And this was Rajdeep's second appearance at IESO. Last year, he had also won a gold medal at IESO. So congratulations, Rajdeep. Devesh Pankaj Bhaiya from LH Party and English Medium School, Jalgaon. Gold medal this year. And also last year, Devesh had won a gold medal at IESO 2021 as well. So congratulations, Devesh. Thank you, sir. Vasu Vijay from Nalanda Academic Quota. Gold medal at IESO. Congratulations, Vasu. Thank you, sir. And Maniprata Majhi from Defense Laboratory School, Hazabaad. Gold medal at IESO. Thank you, sir. Congratulations, Maniprata. I'm back on, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, we can hear you. Very unstable voice. Yeah, yeah, I can understand, yeah. Avanish Bansal from Shriram Centennial School, Deradun, Uttarakhand. Gold medal at IESO. So congratulations, Avanish. Thank you, sir. Congratulations, Avanish. Thank you, sir. Yeah, so those are the six gold medalists from IESO. And they were accompanied by three leaders and one scientific observer. The leader was Professor Chitra Joshi, retired from Ruiya Junior College. Thank you, Anish. With the International Junior Science Olympiad program for several years. Dr. Subhajit Sain from UMDA Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai, as a leader. And Dr. Vishal Dev Ashok from IES College of Science and Arts, Mumbai. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Congratulations to all of you. Yeah. And the scientific observer this year was Professor Gepi Gadre, retired from Abassai Garware College Pune. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Welcome. Congratulations, Professor. Unmuted, yeah. Yeah, Professor Gadre actually has taken over as the coordinator of the Junior Science Olympiad from the current cycle, which now will be handled by IAPT. And Professor Gadre is the chief coordinator. So that brings us to the International Olympiad in Informatics, 2022. The 34th IOUI held that in Indonesia from August 7 to August 15. And in this Olympiad, there were four students, two of whom won silver medals and two of whom won bronze medals. Paras Kasmalkar, the Orchid School Pune, won a silver medal. Congratulations, Paras. Thank you, sir. Congratulations, Paras. Thank you. And Shriti Sodani, class 10 Delhi Public School Gurgaon, also won a silver medal. Congratulations, Shriti. Congratulations, Katesh. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Hershin Pashina from Fridji School, Hyderabad, won a bronze medal at IOUI. Hershin also won a gold medal last year at the International Junior Science Olympiad. Congratulations, Hershin. Congratulations. Congratulations to you, Hershin. And Ritul Kumar Singh, bronze medal from Delhi Public School, Bokaro. Congratulations, Ritul. Congratulations, Ritul. Thank you, sir. And they were accompanied by a leader and a deputy leader. The leader was President Madhavan Mukund from Chennai Mathematical Institute. President Mukund is the main stay behind the Informatics Olympiad for many years. And President K Narayan Kumar was a deputy leader also from CMI Chennai. He's also an experienced person at IOUI. So congratulations to all the Indian participants at the International Olympiad in Informatics. Congratulations to all of you. Before I close this, I forgot to mention one other achievement for the Junior Science Olympiad that three students, Aritra, Avanish and Ghazi, they also won a bronze medal for the experimental component in the Junior Science Olympiad. So I had missed this earlier. Thank you. So congratulations. Congratulations to all of you. Okay. So now, thank you, Professor Shabasachi Bhattacharya for giving out the award. Now, I invite you to address the students and the audience. And I hope your audio is working now. Can you just have a quick check? Yeah, is it possible? Can you hear me clearly? Yes. Okay. Yeah. You may speak. So yeah. Hi, okay. Thank you, Anish. And I begin by thanking HBCAC for inviting me for this occasion. And a long time ago, we had, when I was at TIFR, we decided that all the Olympiad program will be consolidated at the Homiwaba Center. And it's indeed very gratifying to see that they're doing a fantastic job in one place, in one center. This center is unique in the country and it serves the Olympiad program in a very professional way and has made it in the crown jewel of one of its activities. And it's extremely, I'm very, very happy to be invited back to this program. And I must also thank the Infosys Foundation which began sponsoring the program a long time ago when I was at TIFR. For all the winners, I just want to add a rather curious and a piece of information. I'm currently located at a very remote part of Bangalore, Bengaluru, as it's called these days, in a place called ICTS, which is a center of TIFR. We have organized a celebratory meeting in statistical mechanics of complex systems to honor one of our colleagues, Deepak Dhar who just won this year's Boltzmann Medal. And the Olympiad winners will doubt, let's know who Boltzmann was. And this is the highest prize, highest international prize in the area of statistical physics. And this is the first time this award has come to India. And I think that it's probably the second only to Raman's Nobel Prize, which came nearly 100 years ago. And so, I point this out to you that these kinds of high achievements happen very rarely in our country, but it is very heartening to see this happen and to address the Olympiad winners at the same time to say that this kind of situation, this kind of achievement tells you that we are not very sure that amongst you, there aren't many more in the future. And awards of this kind can come to India much more frequently than it has over the past 100 years. Now, I'm supposed to tell you something about your life ahead, what you have achieved, what you might do, what the world outside is waiting, all of that. So I want to begin by saying that a long time ago when I lived in New York City, I once saw a sign in the underground in a train and the sign, it was from a great person whose name I cannot remember, but I remember what the person said. He said that do not do anything that you do not absolutely love because he will not be very good at it. And that struck me as a very interesting saying because in our country, we end up doing what we are told to do, not necessarily what we love to do. So I'm assuming that all the Olympiad winners who are assembled here, you have proven yourself to be the equal of the world. Whether you won a gold or a silver or a bronze doesn't matter. In 50 years from now, we do not know who will end up where, but one thing is for sure that you have established your credentials in the international scene and that you are at par with anyone from anywhere. So therefore, as the saying goes, that you have proven to be able to do as well as anyone can do. And this is a rare thing, it's not common. If you look at history of civilization, you will find that most progress in civilization is done by a very small number of people from among the huge number of people who live in the planet. And most people do not have even an access or an opportunity or the gift or the ability or the drive to make a big impact. But this Olympiad program is kind of a proto program to establish the fact that you are not among those who cannot participate in the grand challenges of science and technology that affect civilization, that you have achieved that distinction. So therefore you have a choice and what is the choice? And there are, one can think of two kinds of choices. 50 years ago, we used to think of one kind of choice. And one kind of choice was making life better by using science and therefore, from the technology that comes out of science. In fact, although we have had all these problems of communication today, it's quite mind-boggling to me that using my this little smartphone here, I can connect to anybody who can join this Zoom and can listen to me. So the smartphone, the internet, computers, gadgets of all kinds, medicines, vaccines, this incredible progress in the sciences that has led to where we are today and we cannot imagine our life without them. So this has been the mantra over the last, maybe a couple of centuries that progress and progress ahead. But now I think it's very odd that in next set of choices in the sciences have come about. And so your generation has a very interesting choice. And the choice, second choice, I call it choice B as opposed to choice A, is that you participate in rescuing the planet from the ravages that were done to it during choice A made over the last few hundred years. And you understand what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the climate crisis and whether or not we'll have a habitable planet in the future. Now, in order to solve this incredible problem, which our species and no species on this planet has ever faced, you are not going to be able to do it without science. So now you have a second kind of choice of doing science to undo the excesses that choice A and its resulting technologies unwittingly have made over the last few centuries. And this choice B did not exist before. And this choice B is now, in my judgment, is appearing to be the more central of the kinds of choices we make today. So, and increasingly the choice B is beginning to become the glory path, because if you can rescue the planet, you have done something that has never been done before. So whatever role one can play in today's science and today's technology and today's, you know, world may be more relevant if, you know, if it connects to this overwhelming crisis that faces the whole planet itself. So, and, you know, it is, it will be very interesting to see how ingenious scientific solutions will be needed to address or to mitigate, to delay the inevitable or, you know, avoid the inevitable altogether or to find solutions so that the planet could be sustained and life could be sustained. This is probably the challenge to anybody who is interested in the sciences. And I want to add this second point to this. And Anish already mentioned this before that it matters very little in today's world what you call the name by which you define your discipline. Increasingly, the disciplinary divides are kind of going away. We are calling things interdisciplinary, which is probably not a good word. It implies that, you know, disciplined were devised once and they're there for all times, but this is not true. Actually, the disciplines are very porous, have very porous boundaries. And the real action is at those boundaries between, you know, between two older definitions of sciences. So this kind of new world, you know, a brave new world to quote Aldous Huxley wrote this a long time ago. In this brave new world, scientists will be the central players without a doubt. And, you know, it, and therefore, only those amongst us who have the gift and the drive and the ability to make changes will be the heroes of the future. And I think that it is safe to say that in, you know, recorded history, we have not faced a situation like this where it's completely obvious that the most important people in society will be the scientists. And therefore, you know, all you young medalists, it is my recommendation from somebody who is much older, has seen much change that it is, I am not sure what you are pursuing for your career, but remember that your career options are now also intricately connected to this altered scenario that the planet faces today. I'm emphasizing this because no ordinary, you know, voodoo science will cure the problem, it has to be done by real science. And you are among the selected few, there is very few who can make that difference. So I hope you will pursue careers in science and technology and increasingly the line between where science and technology begins is becoming very blurred. And that you engage in these areas and contribute significantly and bring glory to our species, to our, you know, our country, our planet, be our representative and maybe 30, 40 years from now, your names will be uttered the same, you know, honor that my colleague Deepak Dhar just did, you know, a few days ago. And so with that hope, I congratulate all of you again, the winners, the mentors, the advisors, the observers, this is not a simple matter at all. And it's a very complex process that we engage in and I congratulate everybody associated with this program at HBCSE, you were doing a marvelous job. You always did and you should be lauded more often, more loudly around the country for the fantastic job you do. On my behalf, I wish you all a safe and a healthy time ahead. And I hope that at one point, you know, in very near future, I'll see all of you at HBCSE live. So with all that, I congratulate all of you again and thank you for listening to what I have to say today. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Prasad, for a very nice reminder of the great challenges that lie ahead, especially for this young generation and for inspiring them to take up these challenges, which are indeed, I mean, very pressing. So, thank you. So, okay. So now, I mean, before we end the program, it's my pleasure and duty to propose a vote of thanks and I begin by, first of all, thanking our chief guest for today, Prasad Sabasachi Bhattacharya for spending his time and joining us today. And speaking to the students, thank you. Thank you, Prasad Bhattacharya. We heard two excellent talks in the morning. So I thank our speakers for today, Prasad Vigita Vigita from TIFR and Prasad G. Mugesh from IASP Bangalore for delivering those talks. Now, this entire program, this entire award is actually because of Impostor's Foundation, who made a generous endowment many years ago. And we thank the Impostor's Foundation for their support and also the TIFR Endowment Fund for facilitating the process and making this possible year after year. So our thanks to Impostor's Foundation and TIFR Endowment Fund. Can we have the microphone muted, please? Other microphones, please. Thank you. And this year, actually, we had for the science and the mathematics Olympians which are run by the Homi Baba Center. We had 30 Indian students participate in the mathematical and the science Olympians. And I'm very happy to say that all 30 students returned with medals, 12 with gold medals, 13 with silver medals and five with bronze medals. So this is a very happy result for all of us. This year also happens to be the 25th year of our participation in the science Olympia when it started with the participation in the physics Olympia in 1998. And till date, 539 students from India have participated in the physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and junior science Olympia. And of them, no less than 39% of students have returned with gold medals. Whereas in a typical international Olympia, only 10% of students are awarded gold medals. So obviously Indian students have really done way above average. And 45% with silver medals were only about 20% silver medals are given at the international Olympia and 13% bronze medals. And only five out of more than 500 students have ever returned without medals. That is indeed very commendable performance by our students over so many years. So that's the moment to celebrate for us this year because it's now 25 years that India has been participating in the science Olympia. So all this success, of course, happened. Of course, the students are at the heart of it. It is their, they were divorced, of course, for their hard work, but also many other people work throughout the year at the background and the mentorship and the training that the students receive is also by no means a small component of the success. So I begin by thanking our colleagues from the Indian Association of Physics Teachers, IAPT, who also are responsible for the first level of all the science Olympiad. And from this year, they have also taken up the responsibility of all the stages of the Junior Science Olympiad. So our thanks to IAPT. The Association for Chemistry Teachers and the Association of Teachers in Biological Sciences, ACT and ATBS for their contribution in the chemistry and the biology Olympiad. The Mathematical Teachers Association of India, MTI, they're running the first level of the Mathematical Olympiad. So we thank all these teachers, all these teacher associations and all the resource persons that come from them. The Arts Science Olympiad is coordinated by the Geological Society of India. So our thanks to them. The Informatics Olympiad is coordinated by the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science, IARCS. So also our thanks to them. This entire Science Olympiad program, including the Science Olympiad, is actually overseen by the National Steering Committee, which is a body constituted by the Department of Atomic Energy, but has representatives from all the funding agencies of the government and subject experts. They guide us throughout the year for the overall running of the Olympiad and sets the principles. So we are very thankful to the National Steering Committee. For the Mathematical Olympiad is the National Board of Science Mathematics, the body under the DE, which controls the Mathematical Olympiad. So our thanks to that body as well. Now the Olympiad program, this particular program where the students are being facilitated today, is also unique in the sense that almost all the Olympiad are actually government funded. So they are fully government funded. The students do not have to pay anything other than about 200 rupees for the registration fee at the first stage. After that, all the expenses of the Olympiad program, including international travel for all the students and all the training, all the support that they receive, comes out of public money provided by the government of India. So we are very fortunate to have very generous funding from the Department of Atomic Energy, especially the Board of Research and Nuclear Sciences, BRNS under that. So GAE and BRNS fund this Olympiad program very generously. So our thanks to them. The Department of Science and Technology, DST, also fund a significant portion of the Science Olympiad in Chemistry and Biology. The Department of Space supports the Astronomy Olympiad. The Ministry of Education funds all the foreign travel of all the international Olympiad. So our thanks to all these government agencies. The Informatics and the Ministry of Arts Sciences for the Arts Science Olympiad, which is totally funded by MOEF. So thanks to them. The Informatics Olympiad is funded by several organizations, like the TASCEN, TCIUSION, CODESHF and the Chennai Mathematical Institute. So we thank all these funding agencies for the IUI. So of course, all this, as I said earlier, that all this success and all this great achievement in the Olympiad is primarily due to the hard work put in by the students. But actually, I would say it's more than the hard work. It's the enthusiasm for doing science. That is at the heart of it. Because as Professor Bhattacharya also said in his speech that you cannot do something well unless you enjoy. So we are very happy to have such enthusiastic students in these Olympiad. So our thanks to all the students. Their parents who support them and say to it that they face no difficulty in going through the different stages of the Olympiad. And of course, all the teachers that they receive training from, whether it be at their school, whether it be at the Homihova Center or elsewhere for the other Olympiad. And so I thank all the teachers and the mentors for this. And lastly, I must thank my colleagues here at the Homihova Center, especially the National Coordinators Office. They do a tremendous job behind the scenes throughout the year, throughout all the stages of the Olympiad to run the program very smoothly. They are assisted by various departments of the Homihova Center, the administrative department, especially the accounts and the particular departments in the stores, the Center Director's Office, the canteen, the hospital, the security. Everybody contributes the cosmetic staff. Everybody contributes to this entire effort. So my thanks to all of our colleagues and the HBCC overall and to our parent institution that are in pursuit of fundamental research, TIFR, we express our heartfelt thanks. So with that, I would like to close this function. So thank you all for attending and we do hope to see you in person at some point in time. And we hope that some of you will be back here for NIS and other programs. So till then, goodbye from me and everybody. Excuse me, sir. Yes, sir, I have a door for IES to serve. I am so sorry to you, Professor, but actually due to net issuers, I missed my certificate, sir. No, it will be the certificate will, of course, be sent to you. Can you hear me? Can you hear me, sir? The certificate, of course, we just showed it on the screen, but of course, you will receive the certificate. It will be sent to you. Don't worry. Thank you very much, sir. OK, yeah. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, sir. OK, I think we can close the meeting now. I think Shobho is speaking and we can't hear him. Is it? I can't see him speaking. No. Yeah, I think we are done. OK, thank you. I think I'm done here, I guess. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the idea. Yeah, thank you. Deeply sorry for being in, you know, creating all these problems. Eventually, uninstalling Zoom and reinstalling did all the trick. Yeah, yeah. OK, OK. Thank you. Good that you could get back to the final year. Thank you, yeah. Thanks. Bye, yeah. Have a good talk for screening.