Intellectual Thoughts by Sanjay Panda: April 2015


Swiss claimed the Gold in World happiness ranks



Switzerland is the happiest place for people to live, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada, according to a United Nations index 2015.
  
Togo, Burundi, Syria Benin, and Rwanda  were least happy.

The annual report looks at 158 countries across the world and bases its rankings on data from the Gallup World Poll which takes into account a range of metrics that includes  not just individual satisfaction and wealth, but also broad contentment  like real  per capita GDP, healthy life expectancy,  freedom to make life choices,  perceptions of corruption.

‘Increasingly happiness is considered a proper measure of social progress and goal of public policy. A rapidly increasing number of national and local governments are using happiness data and research in their search for policies that could enable people to live better lives,’ the report says.

All things considered, it doesn't look too good for India. Already rated an unhappy place in 2014 with a ranking of 111, the country dropped six places to 117 out of 158 countries ranked in the 2015 list, which took into account data from 2012-2014. 

Pro-social behavior including honesty, benevolence, cooperation, and trustworthiness, entails individuals making decisions for the common good that may conflict with short-run egoistic incentives, the report explains.

Countries that are at the top of the rankings show evidence of high social capital, while those at the bottom show the opposite: generalized distrust, pervasive corruption, and lawless behavior

No prizes for guessing where & why  India lies!!!!!!!!!!!..