MyTake

[pc: https://www.livehappy.com/relationships/community/celebrate-international-day-happiness] The size of an economy and level of development is predominantly measured in terms of GDP. Economic progress has been determining the speed of development through the eyes of Kuznets and Stone via production, income and output. It has its roots in Adam Smith and the invisible hand as described in The theory of moral sentiments and The wealth of nations. Paul Samuelson viewed GDP as one of the great inventions of the twentieth century. None of these economists would have imagined that the nations would get so obsessed with GDP that all their policies and practices would target growth indicators surrounding GDP and the progress of nations would be measured and compared based on this key coinage.   It is discussed at length by economists and psychologists that improvements in GDP have not translated in enhancing life satisfaction of people.   Though their physical s...

[PC: http://www.mpnewsflash.com/anand-activities-to-be-introduced-on-experimental-basis] Around a decade back while interacting with Professor Suresh Tendulkar I suggested that we should have some question to track happiness level of people at national level by having a question or two in the National Sample Survey conducted, as it is done in the US through General Social Survey. My suggestion was driven by the fact that we lack data on happiness from India and the world depends on some unorganized data collected through a very small sample size. He showed concern for the issue and replied that it is not proper time for India to go for this as there are sizable amount of people living below poverty line and not just this, people are dying out of miseries and the size of such population is not small. Around the same time Adrian White of University of Leicester developed World Map of Happiness compiling secondary data of 178 nations in which Bhutan had 8th rank and India ...