Understanding Happiness

Saamdu Chetri, a pilgrim of love and compassion, was born in a cowshed in remote Bhutan. After working for 25 years in the private and development sectors and five years in the first democratically elected Prime Minister’s Office as Head of Good Governance, he instituted the GNH Centre as one of its founding members and headed it for five years. In his 35 years of life’s working journey, he has been teaching, consulting, and speaking at various international and national occasions on various topics, including in the House of Commons in the British Parliament, Senators of Philippines, among others, and dozens of universities and colleges in the world including India. He has many interviews with all kinds of media and wrote three books with several contributions to many books. Since December 2017, he is engaged as Visiting Faculty (Professor) at the Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, IIT Kharagpur, India, and his mindfulness journey continues. He is a recipient of Lord Buddha Peace 2016 from Samata Sahitya Academy, and he is reflected in the 100 Prominent People of Modern Bhutan, 2008, in the book by Dr. C.T. Dorji. He is dearly referred to by BBC as a Happiness Guru.Tanusree Dutta has been working as Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi. Prior to this, she has been working in other prestigious Institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Rajasthan, Banaras Hindu University, etc. Dr. Dutta had obtained her postgraduate and doctorate degrees from Banaras Hindu University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2000 and 2004, respectively. She has research publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals, which have been cited in manuscripts and books of national and international repute. She also has her credit to an edited book entitled ‘Bias in Human Behaviour’ and a book on ‘Neuromarketing in India: Understanding the IndianConsumer’. Apart from academics, she has also been actively involved in conducting various training programs and consultancy assignments for different companies.Manas Kumar Mandal is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He is also Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc, Bangalore. He was formerly Distinguished Scientist and Director-General of Life sciences in DRDO, India. He holds a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Calcutta University, India; completed his postdoctoral research as Fulbright Fellow, USA, and NSERC Fellow, Canada. As Visiting Faculty, Dr. Mandal completed his tenure at Harvard University, USA; Kyushu University, Japan; and Aachen University, Germany. Dr. Mandal specializes in the areas of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Sciences. He has his credit to 14 books and over 100 research papers in international and Indian journals of high repute. This research is citedin more than 300 international journals and books with over 5000 citations.Priyadarshi Patnaik is a Professor at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, and Chairman of Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, IIT Kharagpur. He is also Secretary of Nehru Museum of Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur, and Rector’s Nominee of Technology Students Gymkhana, IIT Kharagpur. His areas of research include Relationship and Well-Being, Visual Communication, Music and Emotion, Communication and Culture, Media Communication, Translation, and Digital Humanities. He has authored and edited more than 14 volumes of text, reference, and creative work. He has a number of research papers, translations, poems, short stories, illustrations, and photographs in many national and international journals.

• Money makes us happy or it doesn’t.- Spirituality & Happiness: A Neuroscientific Perspective.- On happiness and beauty: A force field view.- Wellbeing in the built environment.- Ecology, wellbeing and community resilience: Lessons from Deltaic South Asia.- Happiness & choice: Do happy people make better decisions?.- Happiness and subjective well-being: Exploration of inherent linkages.- Impact of laughter on health, happiness and well-being.- Happiness and health: The intricate relationship.- Exploring individual happiness through first-person action research.-   Experiencing others: The science of empathy.- Happiness: Perspectives from positive psychology.- Building personal resources for happiness.- Methodological issues in happiness measurement and rating.- Happiness a driver for innovation at the workplace.- Happiness and fulfilment in the workplace: It’s importance, definition, and determinants.- Conscious preparation for happier meetings.- Happiness-driven growth: Achieving business prosperity through happiness.-   Sustainable development and happiness: A perspective from Bhutanese schools.- Understanding consumer happiness: A holistic approach.