18th Worldwide Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics inaugurated in Mumbai 

India is guaranteeing that know-how is the precedence for Viksit Bharat, Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Authorities of India, stated on the opening ceremony of the 18th Worldwide Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) held on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) in Mumbai.

“The contributors ought to return to their nation with new concepts, inspiration, and enriched thought processes,” Prof.. Sood stated, referring to the Olympiad as a “science sport”.

Over 300 highschool college students from 64 nations have participated within the 10-day Olympiad hosted by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Training on the Tata Institute of Elementary Analysis.

Astronomy shouldn’t be solely a examine of the cosmos, Prof. Sood stated in his inaugural speech, it’s an ecosystem the place extraordinarily delicate devices involving computation, Synthetic Intelligence (AI), machine studying, and extra are used, providing many avenues to pursue in future.

That is the second time that India is internet hosting the IOAA, after the 2016 version in Bhubaneswar. This 12 months’s theme is ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’, the “historical Indian concept of world is household below the one sky”.

The long run lies within the arms of younger minds, fixing actual time issues, and India believes in worldwide collaboration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in a video message to the contributors. “The following scientific breakthrough may very well be by the hands of those younger minds, who is aware of?” Mr. Modi stated, highlighting India’s achievements within the subject of science.

Individuals from Lessons 10 to 12 are chosen after a rigorous course of to compete on the worldwide degree of the Olympiad. Through the 10-day occasion, college students have to look in a number of difficult exams.

The dignitaries current on the opening ceremony included Ajit Kembhavi, former vp of the Worldwide Astronomical Union. “There’s a chance that your complete skilled journey may very well be formed right here as you’re going to get impressed to do nice issues in life,” Mr. Kembhavi stated, stressing on inspiration.

The IOAA was conceived in 2006 to satisfy the rising world curiosity in astronomy amongst highschool college students, with the primary version held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2007.

In keeping with the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Training, the IOAA’s curriculum is designed to problem college students in theoretical, observational, and knowledge analyses.

“The questions needs to be enjoyable and difficult. In a approach, a finest scholar ought to have one thing to assume in each query. Secondly, college students who’re much less ready ought to get impressed to review higher, and thirdly, the questions ought to make college students return and test why they couldn’t reply,“ Jayram Chengalur, Director, Tata Institute of Elementary Analysis stated.