India's rank in happiness survey lower than Pakistan, war-hit Ukraine and Russia

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• Mar 23, 2023 | Dhupali Das

Amid government claims of improved 'ease of living' and India emerging as the world's fastest-growing economy, the nation did not done well on the World Happiness Report 2023...

Digital Desk: Amid government claims of improved 'ease of living' and India emerging as the world's fastest-growing economy, the nation did not done well on the World Happiness Report 2023.

Despite improvements, India remains the worst-ranked country in the index, a barometer of the success of countries judged by the happiness of their people.

Earlier, India was ranked 136th, which has now reached 126 after a slight improvement of 10 points. However, it is below Pakistan, which is experiencing its worst fiscal crisis in history. Pakistan is ranked 108th out of 137 nations.

War-hit Russia and Ukraine were rated higher than India in the Happiness Report 2023 after being evaluated by experts on the basis of various factors covered in the larger survey. Russia, who is considered as India's all-weather friend, is placed at position 70, while Ukraine was 92nd in 2023 from 136 in 2022.

Though there has been no formal government response to the report, most Indian netizens have questioned India's ranking in the report. Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprise from Mumbai in his tweet on the report, said: "I am saddened to see India perform miserably in what I believe is the most important parameter to reflect the state of the nation -- Global Happiness Index-2023."

Another netizen, author-founder of Garuda International Publishing Venture Sankrant Sanu, tweeted his thoughts on the report."I would not take these surveys seriously. Pretty much everything is about the data design." Sanchit Khandelwal, another netizen of India, rejected the report, terming it ‘biased’ and agenda-driven indexes," Sanu wrote. 

According to the report, India's neighbor Nepal is rated 78th, far better than India in the happiness index. Sri Lanka, which recently experienced the worst economic crisis in its history and recovered somewhat with the support of India, has been placed 112th, higher than India.