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Volume XLIII Number 3; For the week
January 9-15, 2018, published on every Friday
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
O
f late, there has been considerable
criticism of the news business. Those
in the establishment in the West and
in India have suggested we are unfair, bi-
ased and a little too interested in “negative”
news. We in the media business have been
called purveyors of fake facts, uninformed
biases and personal agendas. But as a jour-
nalist for over 40 years, I can only say we
reflect the society we live in, and the times
we are going through. If there is violence,
it is our duty to report it; if there is corrup-
tion, it is our job to expose it; and if there is
incompetence or inefficiency, to flag it. This
often makes the powerful uncomfortable
and angry. Unfortunately, the tendency to
malign the mainstream media is backed by
the power of social media where everyone
thinks he or she is a journalist. Like in any
other profession, the media makes mistakes
and has some bad apples, but a free and re-
sponsible press is essential for a functioning
democracy. I can proudly say, by and large,
the mainstream media in India has been
responsible. With today’s intense scrutiny
from the powers-that-be and social media,
the onus is on the media to get its facts right.
Having said that, I will admit that the
mainstream media does tend to focus
more on what may be termed negative
news, whether it is violent events, natural
disasters and scandals rather than stories
of achievement, hope and aspiration. It was
with this thought that we began the Good
News Issue in 2016, to highlight stories that
fall through the cracks of our everyday news
grind. In this issue, too, we feature people
of various backgrounds who all have one
thing in common: they like to fix things,
helping change millions of lives. Like
Umesh Malhotra, an IIT Madras graduate,
whose learning centres give 11,000 children
affordable, quality, pre-school education
from 600 teachers in 285 schools. Or Sha-
meek Chakravarty, Gitanjali Rajamani
and Sudaakeran Balasubramanian, who
launched Farmizen to supply organic
vegetables to customers from farms that
customers themselves manage through a
mobile app. Or Ankit Mehta, who co-
founded Ideaforge Technologies, and is
making drones to be used by major security
forces to rescue people during calamities.
Executive Editor Damayanti Datta, who
curated this issue, has done an accompany-
ing story on the science and art of happi-
ness. Happiness, she says, is galvanising
top universities across the world to study it.
Equally, governments are no longer content
to examine the progress of their people
through GDP data. The corporate world is
hiring chief happiness officers. Google has
a resident ‘Jolly Good Fellow’ to promote
emotional intelligence. Consciousness
lecturers are doing the rounds, from TED
to Davos. How to achieve a state of constant
happiness is the new obsession, but it is
an elusive bird to catch. As noted author
Yuval Noah Harari has said, the glass ceil-
ing of happiness is held up by two pillars,
one psychological and the other biological.
Says Harari, “On the psychological level,
happiness depends on expectations rather
than objective conditions. We don’t become
satisfied by leading a peaceful and prosper-
ous existence. Rather, we become satisfied
when reality matches our expectations. The
bad news is that as conditions improve so
do expectations.” So it is common to find
that developed countries have higher suicide
rates than poorer countries. Obviously,
economic well-being is not the panacea for
happiness. Unfortunately, India ranks a
low 122nd among 155 countries in the UN’s
World Happiness Report 2017—a drop of 10
points from 2012.
Yet, the pursuit of happiness contin-
ues. In Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu is dreaming of
retrofitting the ancient city of Amaravati
for happiness. “It will be a happy city,” he
has declared of his prospective capital.
Madhya Pradesh, India’s first state to set
up a Department of Happiness, held a
week-long Happiness Festival and Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is tying up
with IIT Kharagpur’s brand new “happi-
ness lab”, to chalk out a Happiness Index.
Mental wellness is emerging as the next big
frontier of research. Soon, we will not only
know what makes us happy, but also how to
achieve that state. Now that’s a good news
story that makes me happy. Have a great
new year filled with happiness, well-being,
wisdom and wonder.
(Aroon Purie)
JA N UA RY 15, 2 018
INDIA TODAY
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