Addressing the 133rd episode of his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the remarkable achievement of Indian students at an international mathematics competition, saying their performance under pressure was truly commendable.

“Just imagine: you are among the most talented people in the world, facing extremely difficult mathematical problems. You have only four and a half hours to solve them. This means that time is very limited, and the competition is international and very tough. It is natural to feel nervous in such a situation. But under these very circumstances, our daughters performed brilliantly,” he said.

He noted that earlier this month, the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad was held in Bordeaux, France, describing it as a major global competition for schoolgirls with a keen interest in mathematics.

“It is one of the most prestigious competitions in the world. Our daughters performed their best ever in this Olympiad. I am very proud of this talented team,” he said, praising participants Shreya Mundhra from Mumbai, Sanjana Chacko from Thiruvananthapuram, Shivani Bharat Kumar from Chennai and Shrimoyee Bera from Kolkata.

“Our team ranked sixth in the world. Shreya created history by winning the Gold Medal. Sanjana secured for herself the Silver Medal, and Shivani, the Bronze Medal,” he added.

The Prime Minister also underlined the rigorous selection process required to represent India at the Olympiad.

“It is a multi-stage selection process. In this, tough challenges have to be overcome at the regional, state, and National level. After that, the best performing students participate in a one-month Mathematics Training Camp. This camp is organised at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. At the end of this camp, a team selection test is conducted. The Indian team is selected on the basis of performance in this test,” he said.

“Every year, around 6 lakh students from across the country participate in this Mathematical Olympiad Programme. This number is continuously increasing with time, which means that this culture of Olympiad is becoming increasingly popular among the daughters of the country. I appreciate their parents as well for supporting these gifted daughters,” he added.