WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT

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Context: The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network has released the World Happiness Report 2023.

Details

• India ranked 125th in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network's World Happiness Report, which ranks the level of happiness in more than 150 countries worldwide.
• World Happiness Day is celebrated on March 20; to mark the occasion, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network released the World Happiness Report.
• Many standards, including both domestic and foreign factors, are used in the reports to quantify overall happiness.
• The study measures peoples' levels of happiness based on their replies to questions on their current levels of life satisfaction from a national survey sample of people.
• Despite progress, India still has a very low position in the survey, and several of its smaller neighbours are placed higher.

 World Happiness Report

• The World Happiness Report includes articles and rankings of national happiness based on respondents' assessments of their own lives, which the study also compares with numerous (quality of life) criteria.
• In 2011, The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted resolution 65/309 Happiness: towards Holistic Definition of Development urging member nations to assess their citizens' levels of happiness and use the results to shape public policy.
• In 2012, the first UN High-Level Meeting "Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm", which was co-chaired by Bhutan's Prime Minister and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
  • Bhutan is a country that uses gross national happiness as its primary development indicator rather than gross domestic product.
• The UN High-Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Creating a New Economic Paradigm used the first World Happiness Report, which was published on April 1, 2012, as its fundamental document.
  • In the first report, case studies were used to highlight the policy implications and provide an overview of the situation of happiness around the world.
• The second World Happiness Report was released in 2013, and the third in 2015.
• Since 2016, the report has been released on yearly basis on the 20th of March; the UN's International Day of Happiness.
• The rankings are based on factors such as; GDP per capita, social support, low levels of corruption, compassion in a community where people watch out for one another, and the freedom to make important life decisions.
• An international sample survey was used to compile the rankings of national happiness. Respondents from samples across the country are asked to imagine a ladder with the best possible life represented by a 10 and the worst possible life represented by a 0. On a scale of 0 to 10, they are then asked to score their current lifestyles.

Global Happiness Report 2023

• COVID-19 and other key problems had a considerable impact on the triannual review of 2020–2022 that became the 2023 World Happiness Report.
• Finland was ranked first for the sixth year in a row, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel, and the Netherlands.
• Afghanistan, which is governed by the Taliban, came in last place and has the lowest levels of happiness. Lebanon, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other places are also near the bottom of the list.
  • The report highlights that these nations have high levels of corruption and short life expectancy.
• India's ranking has improved from 136 (in 2022) to 125 (in 2023), however, it is still lower than its neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal, and China.
  • India has consistently placed low in the index while having the fastest-growing economy in the world, and some have even questioned how It could place lower than nations that are experiencing crises.
• Russia and Ukraine have been at war for more than a year, but when it comes to happiness, the two nations—70th-ranked Russia and 92nd-ranked Ukraine—are ranked higher than India.
  • The report claims that between 2020 and 2021, compassion increased in both nations. In 2022, compassion increased significantly in Ukraine but decreased in Russia.

 

PRACTICE QUESTION Q. Consider the following Statement about World Happiness Report 2023? 1. The World Happiness Report is published by the World Health Organisation. 2. India ranked higher than Bangladesh in the report. Which of the following Statement is/are incorrect? (A) 1  only (B) 2 only (C) Both 1 and 2 (D) Neither 1 nor 2 Answer: C Explanation: Statement 1 is incorrect: The World Happiness Report, a publication of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, is based on data from international surveys conducted in more than 150 nations. Statement 2 is incorrect: India's ranking has improved from 136 (in 2022) to 125 (in 2023), however, it is still lower than its neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal, and China.

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