What is Wellness Index ...? Economists and philosophers have expended time and energy to develop measurements for economic growth and development. One of the most prominent ones is the GDP based index, which does not account for the developmental aspects of human beings and income inequality. The Human Development Index was developed to overcome the limitations of GDP based measurements. This index, however, failed to fully reflect impact of structural factors on human development. A more comprehensive way was thought to be evolved in terms of the concepts of Index Wellness BRICS Towards Health Nature and Quality of Life: happiness, wellbeing and wellness. Though statistically robust, many such indices perhaps miss the wood for the trees. This volume is an attempt to develop a holistic wellness index that accounts for human development, material progress, and environmental sustainability. It is a new way of looking at development, but based on the ancient wisdom and traditions. With the global consensus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that focus on comprehensive development, there is an widened window of opportunity for the BRICS countries, themselves storehouses of ancient wisdom and home to the rich biodiversity, and as emerging economies of the world, to cut a new way of looking at measuring economic progress in its entirety, viz. the Wellness Index. About RIS Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) is a New Delhi-based autonomous policy research institute that specialises in issues related to international economic development, trade, investment and technology. RIS is envisioned as a forum for fostering effective policy dialogue and capacity-building among developing countries on global and regional economic issues. The focus of the work programme of RIS is to promote South-South Cooperation and collaborate with developing countries in multilateral negotiations in various forums. RIS is engaged across inter-governmental processes of several regional economic cooperation initiatives. Through its intensive network of think tanks, RIS seeks to strengthen policy coherence on international economic issues and the development partnership canvas. Core IV-B, Fourth Floor, India Habitat Centre Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110 003, India. Ph. 91-11-2468 2177-80, Fax: 91-11-2468 2173-74-75 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.ris.org.in Health, Nature and Quality of Life Towards BRICS Wellness Index Health, Nature and Quality of Life Towards BRICS Wellness Index ISBN: 81-7122-120-3 Copyright © RIS, 2016 Published in 2016 by: Core IV-B, Fourth Floor, India Habitat Centre Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110 003, India Ph.: +91-11-24682177-80, Fax: +91-11-24682173-74 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ris.org.in Contents Preface by Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS ................................................................. vii Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................ix SECTION I Ideas of Wellness in Brazil: A Concept under Deliberation.......................................................1 Helena Ribeiro, Maria da Penha Vasconcelos and Deisy Ventura Traditional Medical Systems in the Wellness Strategy in Russia..............................................5 A. Karilio-Arkas Wellness, Health and Ayurveda .................................................................................................11 Bhushan Patwardhan Chinese View on Subjective Well-being: Traditions and Current Trends .............................17 Ruijie Li and Yandong Zhao Wellness within China’s Context .................................................................................................23 Han Bing Wellness and Well-being Research in South Africa ..................................................................27 Rajen Govender, Rasigan Maharajh, Aquina Thulare, and Yosuf Veriava SECTION II Biological Resource Base for Traditional Medicines .................................................................41 T. P. Rajendran Traditional Medicine: Regulations, IPRs and Trade .................................................................69 T.C. James SECTION III Measuring Well-Being: A Survey of Literature and Initiatives ...............................................95 Amit Kumar, Sabyasachi Saha and Deepti Bhatia Framework for a BRICS Wellness Index ...................................................................................119 Sabyasachi Saha Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................................................................133 HEALTH, NATURE AND QUALITY OF LIFE: TOWARDSB BRIRICCSS W WELLELLNNESSESS F ORUMINDEX Preface Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi Director General, RIS With the beginning of the century, BRICS economies emerged as five bright stars comprising major share in world GDP and world trade with almost 43 per cent share in global population. Impressive growth rates in the last decade in these economies set new heights for economic growth, however, in the process the inclusive development in these economies has also emerged as a major challenge. As a result, several social programmes were launched for ensuring equity and equal opportunity across different strata of society. Growing exclusion and depletion of resource base have raised several issues related to well-being of a large number of people across these and other fellow developing countries. In light of this, the present Volume ‘Health, Nature and Quality of Life: Towards BRICS Wellness Index’ attempts to re-define the rationale that growth parameters have assumed in our development matrix. In this volume, RIS has tried to revisit the debate associated with income as a parameter of economic growth and has tried to reconcile it in light of contemporary commitments, particularly related to sustainable development goals. It is also pertinent to underline here that the contents of the present volume also carry forward the intensive research work that RIS initiated as far back as in 1992, while conducting the study on “Basic Needs Issues in Development: An Appraisal” by the research team led by Prof. V.R. Panchamukhi, the first Director General of RIS and comprising of Mr. G.A. Tadas and Prof. S.K. Mohanty. The Basic Needs Study had proposed an Aggregate Development Index (ADI) to cover aspects of productivity, structural changes, urbanisation, dependency rate of population, trade openness, energy consumption, etc. The time, for BRICS economies to take cognizance of wellness of their people in their domestic development strategies and capture that through adequate measurement of it, has come. We sincerely hope that the BRICS governments would take into account HEALTH, NATURE AND QUALITY OF LIFE: TOWARDS BRICS WELLNESS INDEX the rising aspirations of their people, societies and various stakeholders to redefine the way we look at the process of economic growth and how best the economic strategies may also ensure protection of environment and ecological balance. The volume is also attempting to bring out relevance of traditional insights from the rich knowledge base of BRICS economies and their perspectives on this idea of ‘one with nature’ in the larger context of ‘one world’. With reference to the issue of well-being, each BRICS nation has novel ideas which are presented in this volume, contributed by eminent scholars from these countries. We hope the policymakers and researchers from BRICS and other countries would find it relevant to consider the idea of BRICS Wellness Index. We are grateful to Ambassador Shyam Saran, Chairman, RIS for his guidance in this task. We should also place on record our gratitude to the Government of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of AYUSH, and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation for their consistent support and participation in this effort; in particular to Mr. Amar Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs; Prof. T.C.A. Anant, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Mr. Ajit M. Sharan, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH for their continued support and encouragement. I must also place on record the initiatives taken by Prof. T.C. James, Visiting Fellow, RIS in bringing out this publication with RIS Team and necessary guidance provided by Prof. Pulin Nayak, Member, Research Advisory Council of RIS and former Professor, Delhi School of Economics; Prof. Saikat Sinha Roy, Professor, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University; Prof. S.K. Mohanty and Prof. Ram Upendra Das of RIS. Dr. T.P. Rajandran, Dr. Sabyasachi Saha, Dr. Amit Kumar and Ms. Deepti Bhatia of RIS have also played a vital role in the preparation of this Report. Our publication team, led by Mr. Tish Malhotra and comprising of Mr. Sachin Singhal and Ms. Ruchi Verma, has also played an extremely important role in bringing out this volume in a short period of time. Sachin Chaturvedi VIII HEALTH, NATURE AND QUALITY OF LIFE: TOWARDS BRICS WELLNESS INDEX Introduction BRICS brings together five major emerging life and well-being that stresses on sustainable economies, comprising 43 per cent of the world resource use and sees life within the canvas population, having 37 per cent of the world of nature and environment. It has been GDP and 17 per cent share in the world trade. a long held perspective that degradation With strong economic performance in BRICS, of the nature comes at the cost of human the challenges of equity (in development)