West Bengal:medals

At this year's International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held at Amsterdam in July, Indian participants have come out with flying colours. Of the six participants, one has won gold, one silver and two have got bronze. The rest two have got special mention.

Of the medal winners, three are Bengalis! While Akashnil Dutta of Barrackpore has won the gold medal, Akashdeep Dey of Nadia bagged silver and Debdyuti Banerjee of Hooghly won bronze. The other bronze winner is Mridul Madhab Thatte from Pune.

Competing with 564 students from 102 nations, four of the six-member Indian team grabbed medals while the rest two, Prafull Dhariwal and Indranil Kasmalkar, got honourable mentions. The National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM) of the Department of Atomic Energy sends participants to the IMO every year.

To select the participants, the competition is held at three stages in India — regional, national and after one month's grooming at BARC, Mumbai, the final selection of six contestants.  Talking to TSI, Akashnil Dutta said, “I am happy and I really enjoyed the competition. I wasn't under pressure at any stage.

In fact, my parents never put pressure on me to study.” Son of an eye surgeon father and a professor mother, Akashnil will soon fly to the US to join Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “I wish to pursue Maths and Computer Science together at MIT,” he said.
Interestingly, Akashnil was never among the top 10 in his school till he passed secondary examination. However, at higher secondary he always remained among the top three of his class.

Speaking with TSI, Akashdeep Dey, a student of Class XII, said, “I enjoyed each stage of the tough competition. At some stages it was really tough but I took that as a challenge. This was a rare experience.” Giving details of the competition he said, “We were lodged at Novotel Hotel. The organisers arranged cars for us to reach Sporthallen Zuid Stadium where the final round was held.

Each room had two blocks and each contestant was put in a separate block. On each day we had to appear for the examination for fours hours.” Ask him about his future plans and Dey says he has not decided on it as yet. "For the time being, I want to concentrate on my class XII exams. I will think about my future course later," said the son of a railway station uperintendent.