The document discusses several initiatives by the Indian government to promote mathematics learning and identify mathematical talent among students. It describes programs that organize mathematics competitions and camps to encourage interest in the subject, recognize talented students, and support their further education and career development in mathematics. It also summarizes the structure and objectives of some prominent talent search exams and Olympiads for school students in India like the National Talent Search Exam (NTSE) and the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (INMO).

1. Governmental initiatives in
improving Mathematics learning

2. Mathematics popularization
activities and nurture
programmes
• Leading mathematics spread across the
country in many national level
institutions, many individuals and the
national council of educational research
and training contribute towards
popularizing mathematics among
students, teachers and the community at
large.

3. • Ganit Mela and Metric Mela organized in
different parts of the country are different
some attempts to take mathematics to the
community.
• In this country of great diversity, we also have
a very promising group of students spread
across the country and across grade levels.
Initiatives have been taken to retain their
interest in mathematics and motivate them to
pursue a career in mathematics.

4. • Some such programmes are the Mathematics
Training and Talent Search (MTTS), Rural
Mathematics Talent Search (RMTS),
Mathematical Science Foundation (MSF) and
the Mathematical Olympiad.
• This aim to promote independent thinking
among students, make challenging
mathematics accessible to them, show
applications of mathematics in various walks
of life and interact with experts in the field.
• The MTTS programme is meant for students

5. pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate
degrees.
• The RMTS aims at identifying and nurturing
talent in the rural areas of Orissa.
• It holds a mathematics competition at the
grade 6 level, designed on the lines of
Olympiad competition. The selected
candidates are trained for the next three years,
meeting them twice every year.
• MSF is involed in arranging innovative
programmes related to the teaching,

6. understanding, learning and application of
mathematics at the school, college and the
post graduate levels.
• The mathematics Olympiad activity is
undertaken by the national board for higher
mathematics and aims to support
mathematical talent among high school
students in the country.
• It culminates in the selection and training of
the Indian team for the International
Mathematical Olympiad every year.

7. • An important part of these nurture
programmes is providing scholarships for
students even at the undergraduate level for
pursuing mathematical study, and enabling
their systematic interaction with research
mathematicians.

8. The preparation of NCF-2005 was a huge
exercise and led to significant changes in
the way one thought about teaching and
learning of mathematics and the way
textbooks for children were written.
It proposed 5 guiding principles for
curriculum development :

9. ◦Connecting knowledge to life outside the
school
◦ Enriching the curriculum so that it goes
beyond textbooks
◦ Ensuring that learning shifts away from
rote methods.
◦ Making examinations more flexible and
integrating them with classroom life.
The tone of the books is reader friendly and
the books have many visuals, games,
activities and open-ended tasks.

10. FIELDS MEDAL

11. • Fields medal, officially known as
International medal for outstanding
discoveries in mathematics.
• The most prestigious award in the field of
mathematics.
• The Field medal is often described as the
“Nobel prize of mathematics”.
• The Field medal is awarded only every
four years.

12. • The Field medal differ from the Abel prize in
view of the age restriction mentioned above.
• The medal was first awarded in 1936 to
Finnish mathematician Lars Ahlfors and
American mathematician Jesse Douglas.
• The medal was last awarded in 2014 to an
Indian mathematician Manjul Bhargava

13. NUMATS
North Western University’s
Midwest Academic Talent Search

14. •NUMATS is a research validated
programme that utilizes above grade
level assessment, as a means of gifted
testing to help parents and educators
better understand their student’s
educational needs.
•NUMATS allows eligible students to take
internationally recognized tests before
the grade levels at which they are
normally administered.

15. Identify exceptional academic ability
and areas of strength.
Monitor growth over time.
Connect students to a community of
peers and tailored programs and
opportunities.
Set a course for a life long journey of
achievement and fulfilment.

17.  INMO is a high school mathematics
competition held annually in India
since 1989.
 INMO is conducted by the Homi
Bhabha centre for science
education(HBCSE) under the aegis of
the national board of higher
mathematics(NBHM).
 The INMO is held on the 3rd Sunday
of January at 30 centers across the
country.

18.  Prospective candidates first need to
write the regional mathematical
Olympiad (RMO) of their respective
state or region, usually held on the 1st
Sunday of December of the previous
year.
 Around 30 students are selected
from each region, to write INMO.
 Students in the 12th grade in India
are not permitted to take RMO.

19.  The INMO examination paper
comprises 6 problems to be solved
over a time of 4 hours. These
problems are in the area of Algebra,
Geometry, Number theory and
Combinatorics. No calculus is
required, though calculus based
approaches are allowed to solve
problems.

20. • The Qualifying students are invited to
the IMOTC.
• In this camp the students are taught
Olympiad mathematics and some other
general mathematics.
• Four selection tests and two practice tests
are held during this period.

21. • The top 6 students in the selection tests
qualify to represent India in the
International Mathematical Olympiad

22. INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICAL
OLYMPIAD (IMO):
 The 6 member team selected at the end
of the IMOTC accompanied by a leader,
a deputy leader and an observer
represents the country at the IMO, held
in July each year in a different member
country of the IMO.
 Students who qualify the INMO once
and come to attend the IMO training
camp are

23. send postal problems during the period
July-December that they have to solve
and send back. Based on their
responses, some of the students are
invited to the IMO training camp the
next year directly. Others have to
rewrite the INMO again (they do not
have to write the regional mathematics
Olympiad).
 Students qualifying the INMO are
automatically eligible for admission to
the B.Sc mathematics course in the
chennai mathematical institute.

24.  Since 2008 INMO awardees applying for
B.stat or B.Math courses of the Indian
statistical institute are directly called for
the interview without having to write the
written test.
 INMO awardees are also eligible for an
NBHS scholarship about Rs.2500 per month.
 Indian team members who receive a gold,
silver or bronze at IMO are given cash
awards by the NBHM of Rs.5000 Rs.4000 and
Rs.3000 respectively.

25.  All travel expenses for the IMO training
camp and all expenses for the IMO are
borne by the ministry of HRD
government of India.

27. • NTSE is the one of the most prestigious
exam in India
• To Identify and recognize students with
high intellect and academic talent
• Close to 500000 students appear in this
scholarship exam every year and 1000
scholarships are awarded, of which 775
are unreserved.
• The former union minister of human
resource development smt. Smriti Irani
announced that

28. the number of scholarships under national
talent search scheme will be doubled to
2000 from existing 1000 while speaking on
the occasion of 55th foundation day
celebration of the NCERT in New Delhi on 1
September 2015.
• The scheme is open to students of Indian
nationality.
• Students studying in class 10th are eligible
to appear for the selection process.

29. • NTSE is the most prestigious and the most
difficult examination at the secondary level
in the country

30. History
• The state and the union territories
have been entrusted with the
responsibility of conducting the 1st
screening examination known as state
level talent search examination.
• The state got complete autonomy to
design and conduct their written
examinations. However, they were
advised to follow the national pattern
which comprised MAT and SAT.

31. • The MAT which consisted of 100 multiple
choice type questions was to attempted by
all the candidates
• The SAT consisted of 25 multiple choice
type questions.
• Each on 8 subject areas namely
mathematics,Physics,Chemistry,Biology,His
tory,Geography,Civics and Economics.
• The candidates could choose any four out
of these eight subjects and had to
answer a total of 1000 questions in the
SAT.

32. • A stipulated number of candidates
who qualified at the national level
examination were called for face to
face interview.