GSDP

At $187.2 billion dollars, Maharashtra's GDP stands as the largest in India. Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bangal and Karnataka are the next largest contributors to the country's GDP.
Interestingly by size, Maharashtra's GSDP is no more than the annual sales of Glencore (An Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading & mining company that employs 57,000 people); Andhra Pradesh's is no more than that of Cardinal Health (Ohio based Health care services company that employs 30,000); and Karnataka's no more than that of Siemens (German multinational engineering & electronics conglomerate that employs 370,000).

GSDP at current prices as on 15-3-2012, Planning Commission, India

List of companies by revenue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue

Biodiversity

11.4% of the plant and animal species documented to exist on Earth are in India. The country ranks 7 in the world for hosting the largest number of endangered species.
With already 17.8% of world's population in India, are more species facing risks of extinction in the country?

ASSUMPTIONS
Estimated number of species in world:	8.7 million;
Number of species documented and named:	1.2 million;
(Source: PLOS Biology: How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001127)
Total number of species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:	19,817;
Number of species threatened in India:	935;
(Source: IUCN Red List - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUCN_Red_List#cite_note-7)
World population, 2011:	6.9737 billion;
India' population, 2011:	1.2415 billion;
(Source: World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance - Google Public Data Explorer. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://www.google.co.in/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&met_y=sp_pop_totl)

Smoking

Typical daily smokers of India spend a total of $313 million (~Rs. 1721.5 crores) on cigarettes/bidis every year.
If all these daily smokers donated this expenditure for charity, their cumulative contribution would stand as the 14th largest foundation in the US (a contribution that is ~2.3 times more than what the Rockefeller Foundation makes annually). In fact, this total charitable amount is enough to feed 25.5 million children in absolute poverty with healthy mid-day meals for the whole academic year.

ASSUMPTIONS
Number of daily cigarette smokers in India:	29.2 million;
Number of daily bidi smokers in India:	59.4 million;
Average monthly expenditure on cigarette by a daily smoker:	Rs 399;
Average monthly expenditure on bidi by a daily smoker:	Rs 93.4;
(Source: Global Adult Tobacco Survey, India, 2009-10)
Donation amount enough to feed a child for entire year:	Rs 675;
(Source: NGO in India – Food for Children | Feeding 1.3 million Children – Akshaya Patra. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http://www.akshayapatra.org/)
The Rockefeller Foundation annual giving:	$139.4 million;
(Source: Foundation Center - Top 100 US Foundations by Total Giving. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/topfunders/top100giving.html)
Number of children in India:	400 million;
Percentage of India children in absolute poverty:	60%;
(Source: BBC NEWS | South Asia | “Half Asian children” in poverty. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4174012.stm)

Elephants

Despite the ban on international trade in ivory in 1989, 25,000 elephants were killed in the year 2011. Estimated population of African elephants is 472,000- 690,000 and Asian elephants is 40,000 (of which 25,000 are in India).
Where do they get smuggled to? A quick Google Trends exploration shows that denizens of New York, Los Angeles, London and Sydney account for the highest search volume on the term "antique ivory". Is this any indicator?

Blood Ivory, National Geographic, Oct 2012

Google Trends

Organizational boundaries

On a cumulative account a typical Indian white-collar professional with an undergraduate degree would have spent 2 years of his/her lifetime at school/college and 10 years at workplace.
Nearly 1/5th of such an individual's lifetime is spent confirming to standards,rules and demands of organization.

ASSUMPTIONS
Education duration:	18 years (Age group 4-21);
Instruction hours per year:	1000 (Source: World Data on Education, 2011);
Employment duration of white-collar employee:	39 years (Age group 22-60);
Working days per year:	250;
Working hours per day:	9

Misspellings

According to the Oxford English Corpus 'millennium' and 'fahrenheit' are amongst the top misspelled words in English language ('millenium' and 'farenheit' are the common misspellings).
Surprisingly, as Google Trends show, New York, London and Chicago - regions where English is the first language - are among the top 10 regions accounting for these misspellings.

Google Trends

The Oxford English Corpus

Tigers

In the time period 1999-2009, while the world tiger population decreased from 6000 to 3200, the human population increased from 6000 million to 6800 million.
This implies that tiger population declined by 6.3 percent in the 10 year period, while human population increased by 1.3 percent.

Tiger Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2012, from http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/tiger/tiger.htm

Little, J. S., & Triest, R. K. (2001). Seismic Shifts: The Economic Impact of Demographic Change. An Overview. Conference series-Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Vol. 46, pp. 1–30). Retrieved from http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/conf/conf46/conf46a.pdf

Entrepreneurship

The top 10 regions accounting for search volume for the word entrepreneurship are all from Africa. In fact, India stands at 16th position and the US at a distant 28.
Does this indicate a new trend in global entrepreneurial buzz? When one looks at the search volume by city, two cities from Africa (Nairobi, Lagos), three from India (New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai) and two from the US (New York, Washington) make it to the top 10 list.

Google Trends, n.d. http://www.google.co.in/trends/explore.

Societies in India

In the time period 2000-2008, 11.35 lakh new Non-profit Organizations registered as Societies in India.
This would mean on an average, every day ~388 new Societies spring up in the country.

Note: These numbers are only for non-profit organizations registered under Societies Registration Act (1860) and does not include Trusts, Religious Endowments, Wakfs and Private Limited Non-profit Companies under Section 25 of Indian Companies Act (1956).

Final report on Non Profit Institutions in India, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Mar 2012.

Estimated output of Societies in India

The estimated total value of output of 3.17 million non-profit organizations (registered as Societies) in India is more than $7.6 billion dollars (USD).The estimates of total value of output of the societies was arrived at by summing up salary, wages and allowances, honorarium, interest, rent, other operating expenses (goods and services purchased for current activities of institution), provision for depreciation, taxes and consumption of stocks.

Note: These numbers are only for non-profit organizations registered under Societies Registration Act (1860) and does not include Trusts, Religious Endowments, Wakfs and Private Limited Non-profit Companies under Section 25 of Indian Companies Act (1956).

Final report on Non Profit Institutions in India, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Mar 2012.

Global cancer rates

US, UK and Canada top the search volume chart on cancer symptoms. Melbourne (Australia), Sydney (Australia) and Toronto (Canada) are top cities accounting for search volume on this term.
Note how these above search volumes correlate with actual cancer statistics. While Denmark has the highest cancer rate, Australia, US and Canada are amongst the ten worst countries on cases per 100,000 people. UK stands at 22.

Google Trends, n.d. http://www.google.co.in/trends/explore.

World Cancer Statistics | Overall | WCRF UK”, n.d. http://www.wcrf-uk.org/research/cancer_statistics/world_cancer_statistics_overall.php.