A well-being fiscal Budget

There are lessons for India in New Zealand's path-breaking attempt at taking a philosophical approach to budgeting

India just presented its annual Budget along traditional lines. New Zealand just presented its annual Budget using a well-being framework. It is a path-breaking first attempt. What New Zealand has essentially done is to adopt an “overarching philosophical approach” as its conceptual basis and world view. It has used indicators contained in a Living Standards Framework (LSF) to assess well-being, and has used carefully delineated information for technical definitions and laborious data sets for chosen indicators that are currently accepted internationally as well-being criteria¹.
 
As I have explained earlier, “subjective well-being” has become a concept that is currently quite