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Bhutan News Service

Bhutan News Service

Britain to learn GNH tactics from Bhutan

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:27 AM PST

The British government is poised to join the Kingdom of Bhutan and a handful of other countries in attempting to officially monitor happiness, the Guardian wrote Wednesday.

Despite ”nervousness” in Prime Minister David Cameron’s office at the prospect of testing the national mood amid deep cuts and last week’s student riot in London, the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked to produce measures to implement his long-stated ambition of gauging ”general well-being”, the daily mentioned.

Interestingly, when Bhutan’s former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, first suggested measuring ”gross national happiness” in 1972, it was considered eccentric.

"But France and Canada are now looking at initiatives similar to Britain’s as governments come under pressure to put less store on conventional economic measures of prosperity," added the report.