How do you quantify happiness in a diverse nation like ours? Growth levels, value-based structural changes, what can affect it? Life is Elsewhere?     Bhutan’s GNH: Based on the Buddhist doctrine of harmony with environment and fellow beings besides material comfort     UNDP Human Development Report: Ranks nations on quality of life—adjusted real income, life expectancy, education etc     World Values Survey: Started in 1995, it explores impact of social and political changes...

-BBC   A judge in India has sentenced eight men to death and 20 others to life imprisonment for three so-called honour killings that took place in 1991. The men were found guilty of murdering a Dalit boy and a girl from a higher caste who had eloped together, as well as the boy's cousin. All three were set alight and hanged, the court in Uttar Pradesh state heard. A BBC correspondent says the sentences...

-The Telegraph   The Bengal government today pulled out of its hat Jagori Baskey, once a feared member of the Maoist action squad and a purported ace shot, saying that the woman and her husband had surrendered this morning. Conflicting versions flew about Jagori’s current status in the Maoist outfit and the actual time of the surrender, the announcement of which at Writers’ this afternoon coincided with a dramatic escalation in hostilities between...

Child malnutrition in Gulbarga and Bijapur districts is a blot on Karnataka's image. Ba Ba Basavanna Anganwadi Hogona Avarekaalu Tinnona Ah, Aaa, Ee, Eee, Bariyona Mane Kadege Hogona (Come, Come, Basavanna Let's go to the anganwadi Let us eat beans And write A, B, C, D, And head towards home.) As Savitri Nimbad sings this ditty, the more than 20 children seated in a circle around her repeat each line in shrill voices. Almost all of them are between three and...

‘There is no such thing as self-regulation, every institution is accountable to the people.' We publish here an edited excerpt from a clarification issued by Press Council chairman Markandey Katju. The full text of his clarification can be read at www.thehindu.com. ‘No doubt, the media should provide some entertainment also to the people. But if 90 per cent of their coverage is devoted to entertainment, and only 10 per cent...