Hyderabad: Telangana emerged as the top performer at the Southern India Science Fair (SISF) 2026, which concluded here on Friday, winning the highest number of awards. A total of 181 awards were presented to student and teacher innovators from the six southern states and union territories.
The five-day fair, organized by the State School Education Department in collaboration with the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM), Bengaluru, witnessed a large turnout and featured exhibits on a wide range of subjects. Cash prizes from the National Council of Science Museums were awarded to the overall winners. Puducherry received the top group award for its Eco-Smart Clay Cool Duo System, while the Telangana team from Rajanna Sircilla district won the second group award for its Smart Gloves model. Students from Karnataka won the individual first prize for their optical telescope, and Kerala won the individual second prize for their Medibot engineering exhibit. Teacher category honors went to entries from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Each participating state also presented awards for its best exhibits. Students and teachers from Telangana secured prominent positions in these state-wise awards in mathematics, environmental science, physics, and engineering. The Directorate of School Education and SCERT, Telangana, ultimately received the trophy for the state that won the most awards at the SISF.
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Telangana each presented 35 exhibits across student group, student individual, and teacher categories. Of the 210 proposed exhibits, 199 were displayed, along with 30 NGO stalls in the open exhibition area.
Over the five days, 62,833 students visited the exhibition and interacted with models on agriculture, solar energy, waste management, water conservation, medical services, and communication systems.
