Of the six Indian participants, Arvind Narayanan (Chennai), Rishi Raj (Ranchi) Vaibhav Vaish (Lucknow) won silver medals while Mandar Joshi (Pune), Abhishek Saha (Calcutta) and Mohit Singh (Delhi) won bronze medals.

On the aggregate scores of all the contestants at the Olympiad, the Indian team was placed at 18th position in the 11-day Olympiad which concluded yesterday.

The team was felicitated by Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi here today.

While congratulating the participants, the minister said the aim should be to win gold medals "Which India is capable of", an official release said. Suchitra tops MA exam
Suchitra Arun Kawle has topped the MA examination conducted by the University of Pune in May this year, results of which were announced today. A student of MA, French, Suchitra scored 76.62 per cent.

The pass percentage is 55 per cent, with 107 distinctions, 1,349 first class, 1,587 higher second class, 1,608 second class and 989 pass.

Parpanand Thakur has topped the MSc Petroctechnology examination, May '99, with 82.50 per cent. With a pass percentage of 81.25 per cent, four students secured a distinction and six scored a first class. The varsity on Friday announced that Ashish Dhawad, with 75 per cent, has topped the October '99 examination of the Advanced Diploma in Bioinformatics, the results of which were declared earlier.

PMC suspends mukadam
Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor on Friday suspended a mukadam from Pune Municipal Corporation's Viman Nagar store for failing to inform the seniors about a fortnight long absentce of over a dozen labourers, posted with the health department, on duty.

The orders suspending mukadam Shankar Nabhaji Lokhande were issued after he was found guilty of indifference towards his duty in a departmental enquiry, Kapoor told this newspaper.

Kapoor had ordered the enquiry against Lokhande after the fortnight-long absentce of the health department labourers came to light during his surprise visit to the Viman Nagar store on Wednesday morning.

In a separate incident Municipal Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad transferred the in-charge of Karve Road ward office Anil Gaikwad on Wednesday. The transfer orders were issued after the the municipal commissioner visited the Karve Road ward office and found out that Anil Gaikwad had not arrived there till late on Wednesday morning.