This year, Indian students won three gold and three silver medals at the 39th IMO at Taipei in Taiwan. Chetan Balwe from Pune struck gold in the olympiad, where on the basis of the aggregate scores of all the contestants, the Indian team was placed seventh in the world. The IMO is a unique competition to discover, challenge and encourage mathematically gifted young students all over the world.

While the IMO was started in 1959 in Romania, the Indian participation was sponsored by the National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM) of the department of atomic energy and the Human Resource Development Ministry from 1985. It took nearly four years to initially prepare teachers before the first Indian team (which included Pune's Unmesh Kulkarni) secured four bronze medals in 1989.

Renowned mathematician Shriram Abhyankar, who set up the Bhasakaracharya Pratishthana way back in 1984 to develop it as a centre for advanced mathematical research, soon found that paucity of funds was affecting the project. While the initial orientation lectures were held at the Fergusson College since 1985, it was in 1992 that the Pratishthana took over as the regional centre for states of Maharashtra and Goa for scouting talent and promoting mathematical olympiad activity.

Says M. Prakash, trustee: ``Since then there has been no looking back.'' And as the statistics prove, out of 30 students selected every year at the state level, 20-22 students are from the Bhaskaracharya Pratishthan while seven-eight students make it at the national level. Over 15 states participate in the state-level olympiad with 30 students each. Out of the nearly 500 students, the Indian National Mathematical Olympiad (INMO) selects 30. They undergo a month-long training at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai.

During training, students have to appear for a test series for final selection to the Indian team (of up to six members) for the IMO every July.

The Pratishthana arranges lectures by professors from reputed colleges on Sundays and holidays, encourage students from standard VIII to standard XII to exercise the brain. ``After all its not a tuition class. The training for the extremely tough examination goes beyond the text-book problems and urges students to develop their own method to solve problems,'' says Prakash.

Chetan Balwe's gold this year has had the University of Michigan bestowing a $ 30,000 scholarship on the Laxmanrao Apte Prashala student for higher studies. The brainy Olympiad students, as a natural corollary, usually opt for admission to one of the Indian Institutes of Technology.

So it is not surprising that the Pratishthana's `mathematical brains' bag fantastic ranks in the IIT entrance examination. Tejas Iyer obtained 12th rank while Satyen Kale ranked 43rd out of 100 students. Dylis Thomas bagged the seventh place. And 13 out of the 17 students from Pune who made it to the IIT were Olympiad students!