India bags 7 medals at International Earth Science Olympiad in China

new delhi: india won seven medals, including one gold, at the 18th international earth science olympiad (ieso-2025) held in jining, china, with union minister of state for earth sciences jitendra singh felicitating the student achievers on sunday.the indian contingent secured one gold, four silver and two bronze medals besides a third prize in the international geoscience youth movement (i-gym) reporter category.the winners included rayansh gupta of sat paul mittal school, ludhiana (gold, silver and i-gym 3rd prize), charuvrat bains of mgn public school, kapurthala (two silver, one bronze), apam nidhi pandey of pm shri kv no.1, jaipur (silver), and priyanshi ghanghas of md indraprastha sr. sec. public school, delhi (bronze). the team was guided by mentors prof. devesh walia and prof. hema achyuthan, with dr. jagvir singh as observer.congratulating the students, singh said their performance reflected the rising aspirations of youth from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, fuelled by india's startup revolution. he added that the national education policy (nep-2020) had enabled young minds to break free from rigid subject barriers and venture into emerging fields such as earth sciences, biotechnology, space technology and start-up-driven enterprises.the minister urged students to leverage government initiatives like vigyan jyoti, scholarships, fellowships and research grants, and apply their innovations to solve real-life challenges.secretary, ministry of earth sciences, m ravichandran said the ministry supports ieso participation every year by holding the indian national earth science olympiad (ineso) at 300 centres, from which the final team is selected.launched in 2003 by the international geoscience education organization, ieso is an annual competition for school students (classes ix-xii). india has been participating since 2007 and hosted the 10th edition in mysore in 2013.