![]() | This article contains promotional content .(December 2024) |
MIMAMSA is a national level inter-collegiate science competition for UG (1st, 2nd and 3rd Year) students, organized by IISER PUNE. It aims at creating a unique set of questions that focus on concepts and their interdependence. Mimamsa strives to convey the implicit beauty of science. Over the years the means of implementing this philosophy have been honed to give rise to one of India’s toughest science quizzes. The fact that Mimamsa has gained national acclaim and renown is substantiated by the results of the quiz over the years. It has expanded to encompass all major regions of the country.
Mimamsa was started in the year 2009. It was the brainchild of Dr. Sutirth Dey, along with several students who felt that science should be explored beyond the classroom. The philosophy of Mimamsa is embodied in the name itself, which means critical inquiry and investigation. The team wanted to break the mould of trivia-based quizzes and encourage participants to question their understanding along with their knowledge. Mimamsa is an undergraduate level quiz, for students studying in 1st to 3rd years of any undergraduate course in the sciences, engineering or medicine.
Mimamsa'24 completed in March'24. No updates on this yet! The preparations of Mimamsa'25 is underway.
The idea for Mimamsa was conceptualised in September 2008. The first edition, which took place in January and February 2009 included only colleges from Pune, though a college from Hyderabad also participated. The prelims had no online registration process and included only on the spot entries. The Mains were planned to have 4 finalists, a tradition that has been continued till date. Five colleges participated, out of which the finalists were: Fergusson College, Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBB), Garware College, and Wadia College. Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Pune emerged as the runner-up in Mimamsa 2009 and Fergusson College, Pune emerged as the winner. [1]
Mimamsa 2010 [2] followed the same pattern as that of the previous year. It was expanded to the cities of Mumbai, Nasik and Hyderabad, in addition to Pune. The prelims witnessed a dozen teams competing for the top 4 positions, and 50 participants in the individual category for the top 5 spots. Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Pune emerged as the winner in Mimamsa 2010. The individual winner was Yashoda Chandorkar from Fergusson College, Pune.
Mimamsa 2011 [3] was the first time the individual entries were scrapped. The centres were the same as 2010, i.e. Mumbai, Nasik Hyderabad and Pune. Out of 84 teams in the prelims, [4] BITS Pilani Hyderabad, Osmania Medical College, Fergusson College and University of Hyderabad made it to the top four finalists and were selected for the Mimamsa mains. Osmania Medical College of Hyderabad emerged as the winner in Mimamsa 2011. [5]
Mimamsa 2012 [6] was expanded to cover nine cities all over India. The centres were Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata and Hyderabad, in addition to the host city, Pune. 142 teams participated in the prelims. The team comprising students of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, emerged as the winners of Mimamsa 2012.
Mimamsa 2013 [7] covered seven cities across the country, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. IISc Bengaluru emerged as the winner.
CENTRE TOPPERS:
Centre/Zone | Topper |
---|---|
Bangalore | IISc Bangalore |
Chennai | IISER Thiruvananthapuram |
Delhi | AIIMS |
Hyderabad | University of Hyderabad |
Kolkata | Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), now known as IIEST Shibpur |
Mumbai | St. Xavier's College (Autonomous) |
Pune | College of Engineering, Pune |
Mimamsa 2014 [8] covered seven cities and IISc Bengaluru emerged as the winner.
Mimamsa 2015 prelims saw a participation of 250 teams in 9 centres across India – Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram. IISc Bengaluru emerged as the winner.
Prelims was held via online version of centres on 14 March 2021 at 20 zones all over the country.
Prelims was held virtually in remote-proctored mode on 29 January 2023. The top 4 qualifying teams participated in the challenging finals which was held in the month of April'23 at the IISER Pune campus. [9]
IISc Bangalore wins the competition followed by IIT Delhi and IIT Madras in the first-runner up and 2nd runner-up positions respectively.
No updates on this yet!
The prelims generally take place during the second week of January and cover all the four subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.
The mains are generally held during the second week of March and spread over two consecutive days, comprising questions in all the four subjects. The questions designed in the mains, scrutinise every possible aspect of scientific reasoning and thus are divided into different categories.
The brief thought questions consist of four minutes of thinking time, one minute of presentation time and are marked out of ten points. The deep thought questions have seven minutes of thinking time and three minutes of presentation time. Each deep thought is worth 20 points. The 'oculomotor' round is a buzzer round wherein all questions are based on audio-visual cues with a negative marking scheme. The rapid fire round tests the speed and logical flow involved in arriving at an answer. The poster presentation, introduced in 2018, consists of all the teams presenting a poster on a topic of their choosing. The specific rules of each round may vary from year to year.
According to Darshan Joshi (BS MS 2007 batch), during its first few editions, Mimamsa was just an activity of Science Club of IISER Pune (another brainchild of students of the 2007 batch). The philosophy of Mimamsa is encrypted in the name itself which literally means investigation, inquiry and in-depth analysis. The idea was to come up with a science competition based on these principles rather than the usual quizzing philosophy which does not require participants to think. This is why Mimamsa is conducted over 2 days. The goal of the questions is to test the understanding of science rather than scientific information. This is why questions in Mimamsa are so different. The idea that through the process of solving the question one must develop a better understanding of science is also part of the core philosophy. Mimamsa prioritizes discussion and investigation over just a right or wrong answer.
Padmanabhan Balaram is an Indian biochemist and a former director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. He is a recipient of the third highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Bhushan (2014) as well as the TWAS Prize (1994). He has been conferred the 2021 R. Bruce Merrifield Award by the American Peptide Society.
The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is an engineering entrance assessment conducted for admission to various engineering colleges in India. It comprises two different examinations: the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced.
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is an Indian autonomous scientific society, operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) are a group of autonomous institutions established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Education for teaching and research in natural science and to provide collegiate education in basic sciences integrated with research at the undergraduate level.
Sanjay Govind Dhande is an Indian Mechanical engineer and educationist. He is alumnus of College of engineering Pune. He was Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and was in temporary charge of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior. From the year 2016 to 2020, Professor Dhande was the Chairman, Board of Governors of National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, an Institute established by the Government of India in the year 1963. He was also Chairman, Board of Governors of National Institute of Technology Delhi . Professor Dhande was the founder director of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur. He served as a part-time member of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Also, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.
In India, an Institution of National Importance (INI) refers to a premier public higher education institution granted special status by an act of the Parliament of India. Such institutions are recognized for their pivotal role in developing highly skilled personnel within a specified region of the country or state. Institutes of National Importance enjoy special recognition, greater autonomy, and direct funding from the Government of India. Some of India's top-ranked universities, including the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, and Indian Institutes of Management, hold this status.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune is an autonomous public university established in 2006. It is one of the seven Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, and was one of the first IISERs to be established along with IISER Kolkata. It is located in the city of Pune, India.
MahaQuizzer is an annual solo quiz contest held simultaneously across several Indian cities. It was instituted in 2005 by the Karnataka Quiz Association. The event is now held in Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, New Delhi, Thrissur, Guwahati, Tezpur, Panjim, Bhubaneshwar, Mysore and Coimbatore. It is now a collaborative effort between KQA and other quizzing organisations such as Quiz Foundation of India, Chennai, K-Circle, Hyderabad, The Hyderabad Quiz Club, Bombay Quiz Club, The Boat Club Quiz Club, Pune, Grey Cells Kerala, Bhubaneshwar Quiz Club, Kutub Quizzers, New Delhi, Trivia Bytes Creations and Oo Aa Ka Kha, Guwahati, Sunday Evening Quiz Club, Goa, and Coimbatore Quiz Circle, Coimbatore and has thus evolved into being the national quizzing championships.
Landmark Quiz is an annual quiz contest instituted in 1992 by the Landmark Bookstores owned by Tata Group through its Trent (Westside) brand. Since 2008, the event has been held in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune on various dates. The quiz is mostly conducted on national holidays, and is one of the oldest open quizzes in India.
Premier Badminton League, aka PBL, is a team badminton league operating in India. It was launched in 2016 and is one of the top badminton leagues in the world. It features nine state or city-based franchise teams and the top Indian and international badminton talent. The league has reached an audience of more than 100 million through television, on-ground support, and social media. As of 2024, the league has hosted 5 seasons.
Sulabha Kashinath Kulkarni is an Indian physicist, whose research spans the areas of Nanotechnology, Materials Science, and Surface Science. She is currently a visiting faculty member at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India.
Technothlon is an International School Championship organized by the IIT Guwahati. Technothlon began in 2004 with an aim to ‘Inspire Young Minds’. Starting on its journey with a participation of 200 students confined to the city of Guwahati, over the next 17 years Technothlon has expanded its reach to over 450+ cities all over India and various centers abroad.
Karavaan is the annual socio-cultural science fest of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. The name stems from the notion of all IISERs moving forward as one. The fest attracts students from colleges all across Pune, as well as national institutes all over India. It is a 3-day fest, held either in October or November in the Fall semester every year.
SWAYAM is an Indian government portal for a free open online course (MOOC) platform providing educational courses for university and college learners.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati commonly referred as IISER Tirupati, is an autonomous public university in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. It has been established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in order to promote Higher Scientific Learning and Research as well as Scientific Exploration at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels of education and to create Scientists and Academics.
The United Basketball Alliance (UBA) was the first men’s professional basketball league in India, comprising eight teams. The UBA was headquartered in Pune and had a city team, Pune Peshwas. The first UBA match was played on 17 July 2015 at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad between Bengaluru Beast and Pune Peshwas. The match was won by Pune Peshwas as they pulled out an 88-81 win. This marked the first time a professional basketball league tipped off in India.
Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad is an autonomous engineering and technology institute in Dharwad, Karnataka, India. IIT Dharwad started functioning from July 2016 in a temporary campus, previously of the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) in Belur Industrial Area, on the outskirts of Dharwad city. It was formally inaugurated on 28 August 2016. IIT Dharwad's permanent campus is situated at Chikkamalligawad, Dharwad, Karnataka. The campus has been fully operational since March 2023, when it was inaugurated and dedicated to the nation by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. For the academic year 2016–2017, the institute offered B.Tech courses in three branches, namely. Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. The year 2021 saw the introduction of an additional branch, Engineering physics. As of 2022, the institute expanded to provide four additional courses of study, namely Chemical and Biochemical engineering, Mathematics and Computing, Civil and Infrastructure engineering, and Interdisciplinary Sciences.
Dipankar Chatterji is an Indian molecular biologist and the Honorary Professor at Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, a multidisciplinary research institute under the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India. He is known for his pioneering research on bacterial transcription. He is a recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and is an elected fellow of all the major Indian science academies. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for his contributions to science and engineering.
Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar is a molecular biologist studying the processes by which a random chain of amino acids stabilises into a functional structure during or after translation.