Lipika Narisetti, Abhilash Yarlagadda, Aniket Nuthalapati semifinalists Scripps National Spelling Bee - 2015

Lipika Narisetti, 12, a seventh-grader at the Hilliard Heritage Middle School, Abhilash Yarlagadda, 13 a eighth grader from Sycamore Junior High School, Ohioand Aniket Nuthalapati, 13 a eighth grader from Aptakisic Junior High School in Blue Ash, Illinois, Chicago were among the elite 49 spellers who reached the semi-finals of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee Championship suburban Washington. Three first timers were failed to reach the finals. Better luck next time. 

‘Stealthy’ Big-Data Company Saama Emerges With $35 Million

In 1997, Suresh Katta left Silicon Graphics , the computer graphics company where he was an engineer for nearly nine years, and founded Saama Technologies Inc.

Mr. Katta imagined that corporations would want to be able to find, aggregate and analyze large volumes of data, like the kind that SGI’s technology was able to visualize, to make business decisions.

It was an unusual idea at the time, and with almost no sales or marketing and no venture capital, which he repeatedly turned down, he built a company that has been profitable every quarter and claims more than 50 large customers, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Delta Dental.

Now he thinks Saama has a chance to get significantly bigger. The company, which has less than $100 million in revenue, is finally “coming out of stealth,” as Mr. Katta put it, and has raised $35 million from Carrick Capital Partners.

Hundreds of startups and hundreds of millions in venture capital are now chasing Mr. Katta’s idea, which is labeled big data, but he believes Saama has an 18- to 24-month head start over the competition.

Saama is Mr. Katta’s third startup. Previously he co-founded GVI, which developed the groupware application XTeleScreen and was acquired by Netscape Communications, and Multisoft, which he said marketed and distributed high-end graphics products for the Indian market.

Satya Nadella Tops The List of Influential Tech Leaders 2015

Some of the executives on Juniper Research's list of Top Technology Leaders, Influencers, and Visionaries for 2015 are the names you would expect, but others wield their power a little bit more quietly. Not every person who made the list holds the top job at his or her company and not every top influencer works at a top-tier, front-of-mind brand for the public.

To create its list Juniper ranked leaders using eight criteria (in its words):

1. Innovation: How new, differentiated and disruptive their contributions are to the industry.

2. Scalability: How easily their contribution can be applied to multiple markets and product types.

3. Reach: How much impact does this person and their contribution have on a geographical scale?

4. Business Model: The crunch side of innovation; how new is the business proposition of the person's contribution.

5. Personal Capital: How much the person's individual connections, personality, philosophy, etc., is able to complement their business.

6. Outside Impact: The probable impact that the person's contributions will have on their sector outside the growth of their business.

7. End-user Impact: How big a difference the contribution will make to the lives of end users.

8.Vision: How complete a picture of the future the person can make. Do they make a convincing case for the applicability and/or potential of their product?

Using those criteria, Juniper created a list that shows the executives who have the most impact -- a surprising mix of names you know and less-famous leaders. It's a ranking as notable for who did not make it as who did. You won't see Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) Tim Cook or Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) Jeff Bezos, and none of Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) (NASDAQ: GOOGL  ) top executives made the top five.

1. Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Nadella taking the top spot not only marks a triumph for him but a victory that shows just how much he has changed Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) . The CEO has taken a company that had grown staid and complacent and transformed it. Microsoft is no longer a dying king clinging to a shrinking kingdom. Instead, it's a company with dynamic ideas, which makes its signature products available across all platforms, not just its own Windows operating system.

In his short time at the helm Nadella has created a more nimble Microsoft and delivered a new vision for company. He has pushed the company into the cloud and has led the creation of a new version of Windows that has actually sparked excitement. Nadella has made Microsoft a tech leader, pulling it from the brink of being a dying company relying on legacy products.

Praneet Polineni named US Presidential Scholars for 2015

Praneet Polineni, a senior at Stanton College Preparatory School, has been named one of the 11 Indian Americans among 141 Presidential Scholars in the United States. The prestigious award is based on academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship and contributions to school and community. The scholars, who will be recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., are chosen by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, which is appointed by the president, a news release said. They also got to recognize a teacher who has greatly influenced them. Praneet chose Erika Migues, a math teacher at Stanton.

Presidential Scholars are brought to Washington, D.C. the summer after they graduate from high school. During the National Recognition Program, they meet with government officials, educators, authors, musicians, scientists, businessmen, among others. They are also felicitated with a Presidential Medallion in a ceremony sponsored by the White House.

Pranjala Yadlapalli enters French Open junior doubles quarters

PARIS: Pranjala Yadlapalli kept the Indian hopes alive in the junior girls section of the French Open after the 16-year-old moved into the doubles quarterfinals, even as Sumit Nagal exited the boys singles draw. 

Pranjala and her seventh seed Chinese partner Wushuang Zheng cruised past the unseeded pairing of Anastasia Gasanova and Maia Lumsden 7-5, 6-4. 

Earlier, the 17-year-old Nagal lost 6-2, 3-6, 4-6 to eighth seed Korean Yunseong Chung in second round. 

Pranjala though had exited from the girls singles after losing her first round contest.

MunchEm: A Startup that Provides New Channels to Restaurants to Make Additional Revenue

Florida-based MunchEm is a marketing software startup that was launched in April 2013 by Prasad Vemulapalli, with an aim to empower local restaurants with technology and tools to tap the potential customers. Its business model include two verticles – MunchEm and OrderEm.

MunchEm is a food ordering app & website that allows users to order their favorite food from near by restaurants, and gets delivered directly to their doorstep. They can pay online with a credit card or with the help of PayPal account or pay when they pick up. The app is available for Android, iOS and Windows phone users.

OrderEm provides free software to restaurants and delivery service companies, to create their own apps and websites. It is a zero cost solution to restaurants. Restaurants pay a commission fee only when orders flow-in.

Using OrderEm, restaurants have complete control of their Custom App or  Website. They can edit menus and upload photos from their phone to manage their website/app from any location.

Initially, the startup was launched in the USA & India (Vijayawada), and now it is building up restaurant clients in Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad , Bangalore etc.

What problems is it solving?

It enables new channels for restaurants to make additional revenue with its online ordering. The startup’s SaaS software and tools enable restaurants to change menu, content and delivery zones from their phone, which in turn automatically updates in real time information in their website & app, as well as to discovery MunchEm app.

Funding & Investment

The startup has raised a funding of around $1,450,000 till now. Now, it is looking to secure around $2-5 million and plans to use these new funds to scale its operations, to grow its sales in 25 cities.

Competitors

It is competing with other players like GrubHub, Zomato, Yelp and ChowNow.

Present Status and Future Plans

The startup has over 200,000 menu items offered by 2,000 restaurants in the MunchEm system. It has already benefited over more than 1000 customers from these services.

Its future plans are to help food lovers in the 100 Smart Cities that Indian Government is creating. Simultaneously, it plans to be in 25 cities in USA in 2015.

K V Chowdary tipped to be new CVC

THE PM-headed panel that includes Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge selected the next Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), a post that has been lying vacant since September last year when the then CVC Pradeep Kumar had retired. And a former IRS officer Kosaraju Veeraiah Chowdary, the Income-Tax sleuth who played a critical role in probes like 2G spectrum allocation and the HSBC Geneva taxpayers list, is tipped to be the next CVC, according to… reports that are still unofficial, as the name will formally be announced after President Pranab Mukherjee returns from his foreign tour later this week and gives his assent to the recommendation.

After the meeting, Kharge told reporters that the meeting was confidential but added that the panels (there were two panels, one each for CVC and CIC) sent the recommendations to President’s office. The name of Vijai Sharma, the senior-most information commissioner, was reportedly recommended as the new chief information commissioner (CIC).

And if the initial reports are correct, the post of CVC, traditionally held by a retired IAS officer, will now go to a retired IRS officer. The power of the CVC can be gauged by the wide mandate he enjoys under which the CVC can probe corruption cases of any government official, be it a peon or the cabinet secretary. Also, the CVC has a say on the appointment of the CBI director, thereby making the post all the more important. After the Supreme Court judgement on PJ Thomas case, the post of CVC is no longer restricted to a retired or serving civil servant, and a private citizen can also be a contender to the post.

Chowdary joined IRS in 1978 and moved up in the ladder to become chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the highest decision-making body on I-T policy. In CBDT, he was first Member (Audit and Judicial) before taking charge of investigations.

Earlier, during his tenure as Director General (Investigations) in Delhi, he got a chance to head high-profile I-T probes like that of 2G spectrum allocation case and the HSBC Geneva taxpayers list. That Chowdary is highly valued by the present government can be gauged by the fact that soon after his retirement as the CBDT chief, he was appointed as an Advisor to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing black money cases.

Chowdary has a post-graduate degree in mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.