Salaries and GDP

· Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s salary of $2.46 million (Rs 123,079,932) is five times higher than that of the US president George W. Bush. His salary will be slashed to $1.99 million (Rs 99,505,769). Singapore’s GDP: $222.7 billion.

· Barack Obama, the next President of the world's largest economy, the United States of America, will get an annual salary of $400,000 (Rs 20,001,646). Obama has a daunting task of reviving the US economy, which is in the doldrums. United States’ GDP: $13.81 trillion.

· Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gets a salary of $330,300 (Rs 16,516,332). In the wake of the recession, Kevin Rudd has plans to cut down high salaries in the corporate sector. Australia’s GDP: $908.99 billion.

· The French president Nicolas Sarkozy's salary has nearly doubled in 2008. Nicolas Sarkozy's annual salary is now Euro 240,000 (Rs 15,429,191). France’s GDP: $2.59 trillion.

· The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel receives 220,000 Euro (Rs 14,138,899) per annum and a 22,000 Euro (Rs 1,413,577) as bonus. Germany's GDP: $3.32 trillion.

· The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, gets an annual salary of $280,000 (Rs 14,001,129). Media reports say that Stephen Harper's addition of more cabinet members could cost an additional $3.9 million in salaries. Canada's GDP: $1.43 trillion.

· British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gets salary as the First Lord of the Treasury and as a Member of Parliament. Gordon Brown receives Euro 127,334 (Rs 8,182,944) per annum, in addition to the salary of Euro 60,277 (Rs 3,875,418) as a Member of Parliament. The total salary is about Rs 12,05,8362. UK's GDP: $2.8 trillion.

· Compared to other heads of state, Russian prime minister's Vladimir Putin's salary is on the lower side. He gets an annual salary of $81,190 (Rs 4,060,214). Russia's GDP: $1.29 trillion.

· The Indian President Pratibha Patil gets a salary of Rs 150,000 per month (Rs 18,00,000 annually). The vice president's salary is Rs 125,000 per month, while the governors get a pay of Rs 110,000 a month. India's GDP: $1.1 trillion.

Note – Perks (free housing, free electricity, free travel, free telephones, free security, etc.) not included!

Hummm..........I feel I have really wasted time in medicine, Politics is better paying over and under the table.