Mimamsa-IISER Pune
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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.


History

Mimamsa was started in the year 2009. It was the brainchild of 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.


Latest Announcements Corner (Mimamsa 2025)

Mimamsa'25 completed in March'25. The preparations of Mimamsa'26 is underway.


Statistics Over The Years


2009

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 Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by Vaman Shriram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushashtri Chiplunkar, Mah ...
, 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.


2010

Mimamsa 2010 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.


2011

Mimamsa 2011 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, BITS Pilani Hyderabad,
Osmania Medical College Osmania Medical College is a Government Medical College in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was founded in 1846 by the 5th Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, Afzal ud Dowla, Asaf Jah V. The college was originally affiliated to Osmania Universit ...
,
Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by Vaman Shriram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushashtri Chiplunkar, Mah ...
and
University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a prestigious public central research university located in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Established in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students and 400 faculty, from ...
made it to the top four finalists and were selected for the Mimamsa mains.
Osmania Medical College Osmania Medical College is a Government Medical College in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was founded in 1846 by the 5th Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, Afzal ud Dowla, Asaf Jah V. The college was originally affiliated to Osmania Universit ...
of Hyderabad emerged as the winner in Mimamsa 2011.


2012

Mimamsa 2012 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 The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...
(IISc), Bengaluru, emerged as the winners of Mimamsa 2012.


2013

Mimamsa 2013 covered seven cities across the country, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. IISc Bengaluru emerged as the winner. CENTRE TOPPERS:


2014

Mimamsa 2014 covered seven cities and IISc Bengaluru emerged as the winner.


2015

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.


2021

Prelims was held via online version of centres on 14 March 2021 at 20 zones all over the country.


2023

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 Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER 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 ...
campus.
IISc Bangalore The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 wi ...
wins the competition followed by
IIT Delhi Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT- Delhi) is a public institute of technology located in Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology created to be a Centre of Excellence for India's training, research and developme ...
and
IIT Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ...
in the first-runner up and 2nd runner-up positions respectively.


2024

No updates on this yet!


General overview

The prelims generally take place during the third week of January and cover all the five subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and earth and climate sciences (ECS). The mains are generally held during the third week of March and spread over two consecutive days, comprising questions in all the five subjects. The questions designed in the mains, scrutinise every possible aspect of scientific reasoning and thus are divided into different categories:- Deep Thought, Brief Thought and Rapid Fire.


General rules

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.


Philosophy of Mimamsa

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.


See also

* Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (Hosting institute) *
IIT Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ...
*
IISER 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 collegia ...
s *
IISc Bangalore The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 wi ...
*
IIT Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT- Bombay or IIT-B) is a Public university, public research university and Institute of technology, technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. IIT Bombay is mainly known for the hig ...


References

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External links

* Mimamsa 2016 page: http://mimamsa.iiserpune.ac.in/ * Mimamsa 2013 google site: https://sites.google.com/a/acads.iiserpune.ac.in/mimamsa2013/aboutMimamsa * 2012 google site: https://sites.google.com/site/mimamsaiiserpune/ * Facebook page of Mimamsa: https://www.facebook.com/iiserpune.mimamsa.quiz/ * Mimamsa as a science outreach program: http://fliphtml5.com/gqpk/uswo/basic Pune, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Quiz games