So what's this happiness skill?

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" were declared to be "unalienable rights" in the US Declaration of Independence over two centuries ago, but the latter has been rather elusive in most parts of the world.

Indeed, only Bhutan has famously deemed it to be a matter of national importance years ago. And in India, only Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh governments appear to take happiness seriously. Whether a ministry of happiness — as mooted by MP — is the right catalyst to infuse good cheer may be debatable but the need for a deeper study of this coveted state of being is manifest. Especially since India languished in the bottom half of the UN’s 2012 World Happiness Report, unhappily behind even China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The recent decision of the IIT Kharagpur to offer a " science of happiness" option to its students is therefore welcome. Those behind the project believe that happiness and wellbeing are "skills that can be researched and taught", and hopefully they will have reason to smile about the fruits of their endeavours.

Psychologists have been investigating this jolly field for a while and may not be too, well, happy about it being appropriated by engineering boffins. But if the goal is to spread the "skill" — happiness being famously infectious anyway — such cross-disciplinary approaches should not irk anyone then. More the merrier, as they say.