Union Minister felicitated International Earth Science Olympiad 2026 winners, India bags 9 medals

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday congratulated the winners of the 19th International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) 2026. The International Olympiad was held from August 20 to August 27 in Italy, with a total of 39 countries participating from across the globe.

Indian students returned with a historic feat of nine medals, including four gold, three silver, and two bronze medals won in various categories. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the Union Minister reiterated the government's commitment to empower the youth through student-centric outreach programmes during the meet and also encouraged a foundational scientific temperament.

Explaining the procedure of shortlisting students for IESO 2026, the minister said that students had gone through a rigorous national selection and training pipeline before they participated in the olympiad. Under the ministry's outreach and awareness programme, a national-level Earth Science Olympiad was conducted with an all-India test, in which nearly about 17,800 students appeared across 500 centres.

As per the statement, the top 25 meritorious students were then selected to undergo an intensive three-week training camp in June 2026 at Maharaja Sayajirao University (M S University), Vadodara, Gujarat. The training was conducted as proposed by the Union Minister to rotate camp locations across different regions of the country.

Earlier this year, five Indian students clinched gold medals in July at the 56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2026, held in Bucaramanga, Colombia. India also bagged four gold medals at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) 2026, organized from July 10 to 19 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The winners also included Kabeer Chhillar, an All India Rank (AIR) 2 in JEE Advanced 2026 who scored 329 out of 360 marks and secured 100 percentile in JEE Main 2026. Registering another major win in the same month, the Indian team, that participated in the 67th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), held in Shanghai, China, came home after winning 2 Gold and 4 Silver medals.