Aqua, The Most 'Fuel Efficient' Hybrid Car, from Toyota

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Toyota the most trusted names in the automobile industry is coming with a new heartthrobe! It is none other than a new hybrid car named Toyota Aqua. The name Aqua means water in Latin. This is Toyota’s smallest hybrid offering on the market and it is said to get 35.4 km per liter.

The Aqua is powered by a 1.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine rated at 72 horsepower and an electric motor rated at 45 kW. The combined output is 98 hp providing 0-60 acceleration in less than 10.7 seconds according to Toyota. The motor is fed power from a nickel-metal-hydride battery pack.
Toyota plans to reveal it out worldwide next year to about 50 countries around the globe. Pricing for the Toyota Aqua in the Japanese domestic market is set to start at 1.69 million yen (about $22,000), though the local price in other markets will surely vary.


We shall have to pay around 12 lakhs for it, so to say. But wait, it is not yet come to India.

100 Years to ‘Jana Gana Mana’!

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India’s national anthem – ‘Jana Gana Mana’ turned 100 years old on December 27, 2011. Exactly 100 years since ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was first performed at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress. It was on December 27, 1911. The Constituent Assembly adopted ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem on January 24, 1950.

A formal rendition of the national anthem takes 52 seconds. According to the government rulebook, whenever the anthem is sung or played, the audience has to stand to attention. However, when in the course of a newsreel or documentary the anthem is played as a part of the film, it is not expected of the audience to stand.

Jyoti Amge the shortest woman in the world!

India stood at top with Jyoti Amge who is the shortest in the world! She thinks not being tall is her strength and she feel grateful for being small. This is Jyoti, a high school student from Nagpur,  who was recognized by Guinness Book of World Records as the shortest woman in the world on 17th December 2011. This honour came as a birthday gift when she turned 18.

Jyoti Amge stood just 62.8 centimeters (24.7 inches) tall, shorter than the average 2-year-old, when Guinness representatives visiting from London measured her at a special ceremony.
She also cut birthday cake at the function. Even though she is the shortest her dreams are not so short. She dreams of one day becoming a Bollywood film star as well as pursuing a university degree.






Jyoti captured the honour from another tiny, the 22-year-old American Bridgette Jordan, who previously held the record. She measured 7 centimeters (2.76 inches) shorter than Bridgette Jordan.
This was not Amge`s first Guinness record. Until Friday she was considered the world`s shortest teenager, but in turning 18 qualified for the new title. She has grown less than 1 centimeter in the last two years, Guinness said in a statement, and will grow no more due to a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia.

However, the title of shortest woman in history continues to be held by Pauline Musters, who lived in the Netherlands from 1876 to 1895 and stood 61 centimeters (24 inches) tall.

Moncef Marzouki the president of Tunisia

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Moncef Marzouki became the first democratically elected president of Tunisia,  a north African country. He was the former opposition leader there.  This democratic movement was follwing an uprising that sparked similar movements in other Arab states, named the Arab Spring.

Moncef Marzouki of the Congress for the Republic Party became interim president with 153 out of 217 votes in the assembly. Marzouki for years struggled against Tunisia's dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and was imprisoned in 1994 for attempting to run against him as president.

The new bylaws give most of the power to the prime minister, as opposed to the president under the old system - a change that worries the opposition. The bylaws also stipulate that the president must be Muslim with Tunisian parents, over 35 and not a dual citizen of another country. Tunisia is 98 percent Muslim, but has some Jewish and Christian citizens.
Tunisia’s economy relies heavily on tourism, which has been driven away by post-revolutionary unrest; the phosphates industry, which has been ravaged by labor strike; and exports to Europe, which is undergoing an economic crisis of its own.
Marzouki, who succeeds interim President Fouad Mebazzaa, will be Tunisia's fourth president since its independence from France in 1956, and headed the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LTDH) from 1989 until Ben Ali supporters who forced him out in 1994, has a deep-seated passion for human rights.

Isaac Newton’s Notebooks Online!

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Now Isaac Newton’s theories are open to public! An 18th-century account of how Newton developed the theory of gravity was posted to the Web recently.This is for the first time that the manuscripts are widely available to the public.
Newton's encounter with the apple ranks among science's most celebrated anecdotes, and it can now be read in the faded cursive script in which it was recorded by William Stukeley, Newton's contemporary.

This is the initiative of the Cambridge Digital Library which has been launched by the Cambridge University Library, which holds the world’s largest and most significant collection of the scientific works of Newton. The project aims to make Cambridge a digital library for the world.
Thus we people are getting the chance of a glance at the notebooks in which Sir Isaac Newton worked out the theories on which much classical science is based. More than 4,000 pages have been scanned, including his annotated copy of Principia Mathematica, containing Newton's laws of motion and gravity. Newton wrote mainly in Latin and Greek, the scientific language of his time, and was reluctant to publish. The university plans to put almost all of its Newton collection online. The papers mark the launch of the Cambridge Digital Library project to digitise its collections.
As well as Principia and Newton's college notebooks, the Newton Papers section of the online library contains his "Waste Book". The large notebook was inherited from his stepfather, and scholars believe it helped Newton to make significant breakthroughs in the field of calculus.
A further 8,000 pages of Newton's works are to be added over the next few months.

Virender Sehwag Scored Double Century in ODI

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Virender Sehwag climbed up another milestone with his natural cool cool  styles. The beloved Viru of India smashed 219 to steal the ‘once non-realistic’ one-day record from Sachin Tendulkar.
It was happened at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore in the 4th ODI against West Indies. This is the highest ever score in a one-day international by any batsman in the world. Sehwag blasted 25 fours and seven sixes in the match. In this dream run he took India to 418 for five, the team’s highest ever score in one-day cricket as well.

Sehwag became only the second batsman in history to score a double century in a one-day international following Sachin Tendulkar, who made 200 not out against South Africa in Gwailor in 2010.

In Tests, Sehwag has scored centuries against all the Test-cricket playing nations except Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. He is one among the six leading Test century makers for India. In 2001, he became the eleventh Indian player to score a century on Test debut, when scored 105 runs against South Africa. His centuries have been scored at fourteen cricket grounds, eight of which were outside India. He has scored 200 runs or more six times, the most by an Indian batsman, of which a record three have come against Pakistan. One such innings, the 254 in Lahore, had him involved in a 410-run partnership with Rahul Dravid. Sehwag is the only Indian to have scored a triple century, and has done so twice (309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004 and 319 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008). The latter is the fastest triple century in Test cricket, in just 278 balls and was also rated as one of the top 10 Test innings of all time by the ICC rankings.
He was named the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2008. He is the third batsman to score two triple centuries, alongside Sir Donald Bradman and Brian Lara. He scored 12 centuries and holds a record for the most consecutive hundreds of over 150.

Sehwag Appreciated by Roch the West Indian player

In ODIs, Sehwag has scored 15 centuries and that too against six opponents. He is third in the list of leading century-makers in ODIs for India. His maiden century was made against New Zealand at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo in 2001. He has scored a record five centuries against Sri Lanka. One such century in Hamilton in 2009 was the fastest by an Indian, coming from just 60 deliveries. Of these centuries, five were scored at home grounds and eight were at outside venues. He has been dismissed five times in the nineties as well.

Sedlec Ossuary, A Chappel Decorated by Skulls!!!

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Are you intersted to see a chappel built or decorated by skills and bones of humans? Yes, such one is there in Czech Republic. It is none other than the Sedlec Ossuary, a small Roman Catholic chapel constructed in the Czech Republic. This is located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec.

The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. Their bones are artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. The ossuary is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic, attracting over 200 thousand visitors yearly.

Exterior of the Chappel

The House Of 40,000 Corpses (Sedlec Ossuary)

Kepler-22 b New earth-like planet discovered!

Earth is brimming with people, aroud 7 million! Population explosion is becoming a big problems. Space and resources have been diminishing.
What to do?
Don’t worry, a new earth is located! Hey, don’t make haste; it is only a ‘habitable’ earth-like planet, which is orbiting around a sun-like star some 600 light years away. The planet, called Kepler-22b, joins a list of more than 500 planets found to orbit stars beyond our solar system. The discovery has been made by a team of researchers from NASA’s Kepler Mission.  This is a large, rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, which is so good climate as per our parameters!

The discovery team, led by William Borucki of the NASA Ames Research Center, used photometric data from the NASA Kepler space telescope. The host star lies toward the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus. The star, a G5 star, has a mass and a radius only slightly smaller than that of our Sun, a G2 star. As a result, the host star is about 25 percent less luminous than the Sun.
The planet orbits the G5 star with an orbital period of 290 days, compared to 365 days for the Earth, at a distance about 15 percent closer to its star than the Earth from the Sun. This results in the planet’s moderate temperature. It orbits in the middle of the star’s habitable zone, where liquid water is expected to be able to exist on the surface of the planet. As we all know liquid water is necessary for life, and this new planet might well be not only habitable, perhaps even inhabited!
This new exoplanet is the smallest-radius planet discovered in the habitable zone of any star to date. It is about 2.4 times larger than that of the Earth, putting it in the class of exoplanets known as super-Earths. The study will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Chakkulathukavu Pongala on 9th December 2011

Chakkulathukavu Temple                                                                                             Pongala            
The famous Hindu festival Chakkulathukavu Pongala, (Chakkulathu Kavu Pongala), is on 9th December 2011. The festival is being held every year at the Chakkulathukavu Sree Bhagavathy Temple located at Neerattupuram in the border of Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha Districts in Kerala. Chakkulathu Kavu Ponkala is celebrated during the Malayalam month of ‘Vrischikam’ (November - December) on the Thrikarthika day. The word ‘Pongala’ means ‘to boil over’ and this ritual is exclusively performed by women devotees.
On Pongala day the Chakkulathukavu temple premises and the surrounding areas are filled with the devotees. The devotees bring rice, coconut and jaggery and earthen pots for cooking. The temporary hearths made by bricks are kept in lines on either side of the streets. After lighting the main hearth from the sanctum sanctorum by the chief priest, the fire is exchanged to all the hearths of the devotees. Another interesting feature is that every year at the time of lighting the main hearth, a Brahminy Kite eagle flies round at the sky. Devotees believe that this is the blessing of  Chakkulathamma or Goddess Bhagavathi.
At the end, there is a ritual of burning the Karthika Stambam (pillar) which is made of dried leaves of coconut tee, banana, elanhi (a tree usually found in temple premises), old clothes and crackers.
History of Chakkulathukavu Pongala
According to legends, Chakkulathukavu Devi Temple in the forest was created by a tribal  family. As they were busy involved in the temple work, they were not able to prepare their food in time. Feeling dejected, they prayed Goddess Bhagawathi and moved out to prepare the food. To their surprise, they found their utensils full of prepared food. The family realized that the food was prepared by the Goddess and they prayed her to save them from all evils. At that moment, a revelation stated that the food was prepared by the Goddess for them and that she was happy with the ardent devotion of the family. Today’s Pongala festival is celebrated to comemorate this holy event.

Football Legend Socrates No More

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The football loving world is mourning over the death of one of the magician on the field, none other than Socrates, one of football's most iconic stars. The Brazilian soccer star died at 52 of a gut infection. He had been in hospital twice recently after suffering bleeds in his digestive tract. He has wife and six children.

Born in Belem do Para, Socrates started his career at Botafogo. He played in two World Cups for Brazil, winning 60 caps and scoring 22 goals. He played for Brazil between 1979 and 1986, captaining the team in 1982, when they were knocked out by Italy. He was part of a squad that was widely considered the greatest team never to win the World Cup. He later joined Brazil's fight to overturn a military regime in the 80s. His heroes included Cuban revolution icons Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and John Lennon.
Socrates, who rose to prominence with Corinthians, also played for Fiorentina in Italy before returning to Brazil to finish his career. After he retired, he became a full-time doctor and later a popular TV commentator and columnist, famed for his controversial views. Socrates was appointed coach of Garforth Town for a brief period.

Chariot, Vehicle that can be Worn!!!

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There are lots of innovations have been taking place in the field of transportation. Newer amd newer vehicles with much improved capabilities and facilities are coming forth. Latest technologies urge for making vehicles with high fuel efficiency and compatibility with alternate enrgy sorces. Amidst all there are other news also are coming, some strange thinking...

This is about Chariot, a new wearable transportation device concept that a company named, Exmovere Holdings has presented. This is just like a pants! Actually, the device is specifically intended to help people who have difficulty in standing, with a range of sensors used to let the wearer control the device at speeds up to 12 miles per hour with a minimum amount of physical effort.

I really suspect whether this is a reality or a concept. How is this effective when taken to the roads? Is it possible to ride for pretty long distances? If there is any rain, dust protective  Hope it will become a reality soon.

Jnanpith Laureate Indira Goswami passed away

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Famous Assamese writer Indira Goswami (Mamoni Raisom Goswami) passed away on 29th November 2011. She was 69. Doctors said she died of multiple organ failure at 7:45 am at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital. She was a recipient of the Jnanpith(2000), India’s most prestigious literary award. Popularly known as Mamoni Baideo among the Assamese people, she was an Assamese editor, poet, professor, scholar and writer

Known by her pen name, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, she had been a teacher at the Department of Modern Indian Languages at Delhi University. Goswami also acted as a mediator in the peace talks  between the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Central Government.
Goswami’s death comes just weeks after Bhupen Hazarika, Assam’s most famous singer, who died on Nov 5.

Oscar Maron Filho died in Panaji

Brazilian film director Oscar Maron Filho died on 27th November 2011 due to a heart arrest, in Panaji, Goa. He was in Panaji to attend the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). He was 56.

Mario Filho, speaking in the Open forum, just before his death

It was while attending the open forum that Filho suffered a heart arrest. He was rushed to the Goa Medical College where he breathed his last.
Filho, the director of the biggest production house 'Atlantica Cinematographica' in Brazil, was in Panaji with his film 'Mario Filho: The Creator of Crowds' as a part of the Soccer package. The film tells the story of a sports journalist and the man credited with creating much of the mystique and mythology that surrounds Brazilian football today.

Some of Oscar Maron Filho's other films include "Bye Bye Romario", "Pele" and "O Papa da Bola".

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace to Ela Bhatt

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Renowned social activist Ela Bhatt was selected for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2011. She was awarded for her lifetime achievements in empowering women through grassroots entrepreneurship.
Bhatt, basically a labour lawyer, who is the founder of an NGO, Self-Employed Women's Association(SEWA), was selected for the award constituted by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. Bhatt founded the SEWA in 1972. Bhatt, founder of the SEWA Cooperative Bank, the first women's bank in India, is also one of the dozen global leaders who constitute 'The Elders', set up at the initiative of Nelson Mandela in 2007 to promote human rights and peace.

The jury consists of international memebrs headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Announcing the award, Trust Secretary Suman Dubey said Bhatt's life is a lesson in dedication and commitment, in caring for the under-privileged and weak, in devoting oneself to the welfare of others, in living by principles and making a difference to the lives of millions.
Bhatt has been selected for the award for her "lifetime achievements in comprehensively empowering women in India and elsewhere through grassroots entrepreneurship, access to shelter, healthcare, micro-finance, micro-insurance, skills, legal services, collective bargaining power and many other means, and thereby promoting equitable development and peace, following Gandhian path of self reliance and non-violence", he said.

Intel Unveiled Solar Powered Processor!

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Intel unveiled Claremont, an experimental processor chip which can be operated from a tiny solar cell.  The new processor allow transistors to operate a super low voltages, which increases efficiency dramatically.

This has 5 times the efficiency of current chips and can be operated from a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. Intel CEO Justin Ratner also unveiled the new Hybrid Memory Cube, which has 7 times the efficiency of DDR3 memory, with astonishing data transfer rates.

Mario Monti, New Italian PM

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Noted economist Mario Monti is the new Prime Minister of Italy. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi submitted his resignation amid widespread celebration on the streets of Rome.
Monti, a former European Union commissioner, is to form a new technocratic government that will try to navigate Italy out of the debt crisis. Italy is the world's eighth-largest economy, but now in crisis.

Baby girl born to Bachchan Family

Baby girl born to Actor Abhishek Bachchan and actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan! The delivery took place on the morning of 16th November 2011, at the Seven Hills Hospital in Marol, Mumbai. A proud grandfather, Amitabh tweeted  "T 561 - I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl !!"
Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai had married on April 20, 2007 at 'Prateeksha', the Bachchan residence in Juhu, Mumbai.

Petra Kvitova, WTA player of the year 2011

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Czech Republic tennis star Petra Kvitova is theWTA player of the year 2011.
The 21-year-old - also voted Most Improved Player - won six titles in all including Wimbledon, her first Grand Slam crown. She also won end of season WTA championships and led her country to the Fed Cup trophy. She actually rose from the 34th rank to second behind Caroline Wozniacki.

Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu won Newcomer Of The Year after a breakthrough season that saw her reach two finals - both on clay at Marbella and Budapest - and rise from 214 in the world to 38, eventually finishing it at 40th.




This Year's Awards 
Player Of The Year: Petra Kvitova (CZE)
Doubles Team Of The Year: Kveta Peschke (CZE)/Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)
Comeback Player Of The Year: Sabine Lisicki (GER)
Most Improved Player Of The Year: Petra Kvitova (CZE)
Newcomer Of The Year: Irina-Camelia Begu (ROM)

Usain Bolt, the Athlete of the Year

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The Jamaican star sprinter Usain Bolt was presented the Athlete of the Year Award. This is for the third time that Bolt received this award. Sally Pearson of Australia, the world 100m hurdles champion, won the women's award. Both athletes got checks for $100,000!

Bolt was previously honored in 2008 and 2009 by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body of athletics. He was under the clutches of an injury in 2010 but returned to form in 2011 and defended his 200m world championship. He also anchored the  Jamaican relay team to win the 4x100m relay in a world record time of 37.04 seconds.Bolt was disqualified for a false start in the 100m final won by his compatriot Yohan Blake, but managed to win his other five 100m races. He also scored the best time of 9.76 seconds. The 25-year-old Pearson won gold in South Korea and set a timing of 12.28 seconds, the fastest for 19 years. This is also the fourth best time in history.
Other award winners included Blake for best male performance of the year with his 19.26 seconds run in the 200m at the Diamond League final in Brussels. Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya won the women's prize for her 5,000/10,000m double gold haul in Daegu.

Nobel Laureate Har Gobind Khorana passed away

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Nobel prize-winning Indian-born biochemist Har Gobind Khorana has passed away on November 9, 2011, in Concord, Massachusetts. He was 89. Khorana was born in 1922 in Raipur village of Punjab.
A Panjab University alumnus, Khorana shared the Nobel prize in medicine in 1968 with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that helped to show how nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the cell's synthesis of proteins. Khorana and Nirenberg were also awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in the same year.
Khorana did his BSc from Punjab University, in 1943, and MSc from the same university in 1945.  He was awarded the Government of India Fellowship that enabled him to go to England where he studied for his PhD at the University of Liverpool.

!968 Nobel Laureates in Medicine

Khorana spent eight years in Vancouver, Canada, carrying out work on proteins and nucleic acids before moving in 1960 to the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the US, where he became co-director of the Institute for Enzyme Research. The work he and his colleagues did at the institute on the RNA codes for the synthesis of proteins led to the Nobel prize in 1968.
Khorana became a naturalised citizen of the US in 1966, and subsequently received the National Medal of Science. In 1970, he became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked until his retirement in 2007.

Two New Elements to the Periodic Table!

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An international team of scientists has agreed to add two new elements to the periodic table, element 114 and element 116. These new elements are the heaviest elements yet to appear on the periodic table, with atomic masses of 289 and 292 atomic mass units, respectively.

The existence of these elements has been suspected for quite some time, but required rigorous verification. In 1999, a single atom of element 114 was produced by bombarding plutonium-244 with calcium-48. Element 116 decays into 114, which undergoes alpha decay to become copernicium.

As is traditional, the discoverers of the elements will get the honor of proposing their names. The Dubna team at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia has proposed "flerovium" for 114, after Georgy Flyorov, a Soviet scientist who discovered elements. The proposed name for element 116 is "moscovium", after the Russian Moscow region.

Lucas Papademos the new Greek Prime Minister

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Lucas Papademos was designated as Prime Minister of Greece on 11 November 2011 to head an interim coalition government. He was Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002 and Vice President of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010. He was also a visiting professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Financial Studies at the University of Frankfurt. Lucas Papademos, aged 64, has been named as the replacement for outgoing Prime Minister George Papendreou.
Papademos was instrumental in Greece’s transition to the Euro. Greece is now under a major political crisis caused by the country's debt crisis. Being a famous economist, all believe that Papademos can save the country from the crisis.

Kavery Kalanithi, the highest paid Indian woman!!!

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Who is the highest paid Indian woman? The first name in your mind may be ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar and the like. But she is no where near some other ‘real earning ladies’. Sun TV Network’s joint MD Kavery Kalanithi, the wife Kalanidhi Maran, is the highest earner with an annual salary of $13.09 million. This is equivalent to 64.4 crores! That means a monthly salary of 5. 37 crores!!!

Urvi & Preetha

Can you imagine such a  salary?! Kochhar does not find a place among the ten highest paid women executives in the country. Strange, isn’t it?
Chairperson of the real estate company, Peninsula Land,  Urvi A Piramal is at the second place with $ 1.74 million pay (about 8.7 crores). At third place there is  Preetha Reddy, hte MD of Appolo Hospitals, with $ 1.11 million (about 5.5 crores) and at fourth there is Vinita Bali, the managing director of Britania Industries with $ 1.03 million (about 5.1 crores).
What about these figures? Try today itself. You may one day get such salary! Just imagin if you get those awesome salaries, what would you do? The rest is upto you guys...