THEIR SECRET WEAPON

The North South Foundation prepares Indian American children for the contests

It runs 81 centres in 30 states and holds countrywide competitions modelled on real contests in Spelling, Vocabulary, Math, Science, Geography, Essay Writing, Public Speaking, Brain Bee and coaching classes, run by volunteers

Money earned from participation fee is used to pay for scholarships for needy students in India

It’s open only to Indian American students. 17,800 students participated in the last programme

Arvind Mahankali and Sathwik Karnik were among them — as were most of the finalists in both contests