GDP as the only measure of progress is illogical

Dasho Karma Ura, one of the world's leading happiness experts, has guided Bhutan's unique gross national happiness (GNH) project. He uses empirical data to show that money cannot buy happiness in all circumstances, rather it is family and health that have the strongest positive effect on happiness. Excerpts from an interview:

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

DASHO KARMA URA

PRESIDENT, CENTRE FOR BHUTAN & GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS STUDIES

Q/ Bhutan is a unique country which focuses on gross national happiness, not GDP.

A/ Gross national happiness takes a far broader and multidimensional measurement of happiness than the way happiness is measured in the World Happiness Report where you judge your life on a simple 0-10 scale measure. GNH includes both subjective and objective conditions to account for challenges of modernity such as collapse of environment, culture, communities and time. Moreover, unlike GDP, consumer price index or Dow Jones index, where quantities of things are measured in themselves, GNH deals with both quantities of goods and incomes and people's qualitative experiences of feelings, satisfaction and perceptions. All these measure conditions of happiness.