India is among the world’s least happy nations, says the United Nations World Happiness Report, released last week on International Day of Happiness. India ranks a lowly 122nd of 155 countries surveyed. No surprises – the Scandinavian nations were on top. While the report considers many things – health, wellbeing, GDP, democracy – it also factors in employment with a whole chapter devoted to work and happiness. It talks about how happiness relates to types of jobs people do, with manual labour correlates with lower levels of satisfaction. Being well paid is conducive to happiness, but other aspects include work-life balance, autonomy, variety, job security, social capital, health and safety risks, says the report.
Teaching happiness
Can happiness be taught? Online education company Coursera seems to think so. Believe it or not, it has been offering a course on A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment since 2015, created by the Indian School of Business. The course aims to create deeper understanding of the science of happiness for its learners, and claims to be the fourth most popular course in India. Developed by Dr Rajagopal Raghunathan, professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, who explores how people’s decisions affects happiness, the six-week course draws its content from pyschology, neuroscience and behavioural decision. The next one is slated to start on April 10.
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