All-gold performance! India tops medals tally; all 4 students bag gold at International Biology Olympiad

All the four students, who were part of Team India, won the gold medals at the International Biology Olympiad 2023 (IBO), organised by UAE, where India topped the medals tally. The olympiad had participants from 76 countries, as per a government statement.  

The students who participated and bagged the gold medals were Megh Chhabda from Jalna, Maharashtra, Ishan Pednekar from Kota, Rajasthan, Dhruv Advani from Bengaluru, Karnataka and Rohit Panda from Risali, Chhattisgarh. 

India topped the medals tally at the 34th International Biology Olympiad that was held from July 3 to 11 in UAE’s Al Ain. This is the first time India has topped the medals tally in IBO and turned in an all-gold performance. 

“For the first time, ALL 4 students representing Team India won GOLD medals at the 34th International Biology Olympiad 2023,  at Al Ain, UAE from 2-11 July. 293 students from 76 countries participated in the event. Congratulations to the students and mentors,” said Chandrasekhar in a tweet wishing the team. 

Earlier India had topped the medals tally multiple times, including in 2021, in Astronomy and Astrophysics, in Junior Science, including in 2021 and 2022, and Physics in 2018. 

There were 293 students from 76 countries who had participated in this year’s IBO. Singapore had also secured four gold medals. Overall 29 gold medals were awarded. 

Professor Madan M Chaturvedi, former Senior Professor at Delhi University, and Dr Anupama Ronad from HBCSE, TIFR), and scientific observers Dr VV Binoy from National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru and Dr Rambhadur Subedi from NIRRH, Mumbai had accompanied the team to UAE. 

The International Biology Olympiad organises the world's premier biology competition for secondary school students with an aim to stimulate and expand their talents to promote their future careers as students. 

The participating students need to be one of the four top students at their respective National Biology Olympiad. During the IBO, the students have to participate in theoretical and practical exams. In the theoretical exams, the students have to complete 100 tasks in a close-ended format. They then have to participate in the practical exams organised in 3-4 laboratories, where they have to conduct investigations and analyse data. 

There is no syllabus or curriculum for the IBO, meaning that there are no pre-defined topics that the students can prepare or learn by heart. 

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