President Sarkozy, who ordered the French national statistics office, Insee, to come up with a new array of measurements, isn’t the only global leader who has questioned current metrics for wealth. Barack Obama raised the issue during his campaign for the U.S. presidency, and David Cameron, leader of the U.K.’s Conservative Party, has called for thinking about “general well-being” instead of just output.

So far, some banks and at least one country, Bhutan, have used quality-of-life indicators as a measure of a nation’s success and as an alternative to GDP. Bhutan employs an economic model it calls Gross National Happiness.

“After 30 years of applying this ancient principle, we’ve discovered it’s more important than gross domestic product,” former Prime Minister Kinzang Dorji said in a March 2008 interview. “GNH is a method of balancing sustainable growth against the often damaging results of rampant wealth.”

The Happy Planet Index, compiled by the London-based New Economics Foundation, an independent group promoting alternative forms of economic thinking, ranks Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica as the countries with the highest happiness rankings among 143 countries surveyed in 2009. The U.S. ranked 114th and Zimbabwe last. The HPI takes into account factors such as life expectancy, life satisfaction and resource consumption. Read the rest of this entry »

Bhutan has secured the best place to live in among South Asian countries, after securing the 75th position overall out of 194 countries surveyed for standards of living, according to the 2010 Quality of Life Index published by travel magazine International Living. Read the rest of this entry »

The reservation system, which is linked to the Drukair website, has two categories to cater to businesses and individual customers. “It will now be possible to view the schedule, view the flight information, make reservations, view booked ticket and account statement and even reprint the ticket by just a click,” said Druk Air’s general manager (commercial), Tshering Penjor. “This service will remove difficulties faced with ticket reservation. Just log in to drukair.com.bt.”
Click on Drukair under Links.