India, March 31 -- The latest World Happiness Report ranks India 116 out of 140 nations. This seems odd for a fast-growing nation, where the poverty rates are going down, and prosperity levels are up. India's global image is on the rise, despite the American rants, China's successful one-upmanship, and attempts by neighbours to denigrate Indians. Smaller nations, with fewer resources, and those whose material successes are way better than India, are ranked higher in terms of happiness. This indicates that happiness is a state of mind, and not a state of economy, which is driven by data, figures, metrics, and quantitative models.

Let us begin with how the report evaluates happiness. It single-mindedly pursues a single question, which pert...