ISRO will not fund astronomy olympiad team

PUNE: The Indian Astronomy Olympiad team, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) withdrew financial support to it just a few days before it was to leave for Russia for the annual Olympiad.
The Infosys Foundation and the Sarojini Damodaran Trust of Bangalore have now come forward to extend support to the team comprising six students from Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Patna.They have contributed Rs 7 lakh for the team, which will leave for Russia on October 20 as the "unofficial" team of India.
Speaking to The Times of India from Mumbai, national co-ordinator for the Indian Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) programme Mayank Vahia said ISRO officials told him in the first week of October that they would not be able to support the team.
ISRO chairman Dr K Kasturirangan said he could not peruse the IAO sponsorship files, Vahia said.
This refusal prompted the Astronomy Society of India (ASI) president Prof G Srinivasan to withdraw the team from the contest.
Following this, the team approached the private trusts in Bangalore for funds. And, fortunately, the International Astronomy Olympiad rules permit participation of individuals as an "unofficial" team.
Prof G Srinivasan said: "ISRO has always supported our activities. I admit there has been a glitch this year. We don''t seem to have given them enough time to process our sponsorship papers."
According to Srinivasan, ISRO was insisting that ASI submit a consolidated astronomy popularisation programme to them. Srinivasan hinted that the failure of ASI to do so could be one of the reasons behind ISRO''s withdrawal this year.
The participating members are Radhika Marathe (Pune), Haripriya Mukundrajan (Bangalore), Vaibhav Nikoo (Patna) in the junior category; and Sreeharsh Tendulkar (Mumbai), Harshvardhan Agashe (Pune) and Vishal Prabhu (Mumbai) in the senior category.