Workers in Denmark are by far the happiest employees on the planet - a substantial majority (61%) describe themselves as “very satisfied” with their job. On the other side of the globe, middle- and upper-class urban Indians also show top levels of job satisfaction, with 55% describing themselves as “very satisfied” with their job.

“These results point to the importance of expectations and hopes as well as current conditions,” notes Gus Schattenberg, vice president of global research for Ipsos-Reid. “The Americans and Scandinavians, as well as the new urban middle class in India, still see themselves on the top of the world - their economies are clicking, unemployment is low, and many workers are reaping the rewards. But workers in the former Eastern Bloc countries are a long way from having their expectations met as their workplaces adjust to the new market economy, and Asian workers still feel beaten down and on the defensive from the economic crisis that hit them two years ago.”

Ipsos-Reid global poll finds major differences in employee satisfaction around the world. Results within each country are accurate 19 times out of 20. Interviews were conducted with 9,300 working-age adults in 39 countries last summer. Ipsos-Reid has been tracking public opinion around the world for more than 20 years and has become a leading provider of global public opinion and market research to private, public, and not-for-profit organizations in over 50 countries. It is a member of Paris-based Ipsos Group, ranked among the top ten research groups in the world. Ipsos is a global company providing clients with advertising, marketing, media, customer satisfaction, opinion and social research.

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Workplace: Go Ahead, Laugh. It Works at Work
14 February 2001, New York Times, By JOBERT E. ABUEVA

At her 7 a.m. staff meeting one Thursday last month, Bobbe White passed out an agenda that contained a cryptic item called "stress reduction technique" right after her marketing update. Her 45 bleary-eyed co- workers thought nothing of it until Ms. White, a business development officer at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Quincy, Ill., showed a two-minute ABC news feature on laughter clubs in India.

They knew something was up but they were not prepared for what happened next. First, Ms. White removed her blazer to show off a Laughter Tour T-shirt and announced, "Lucky you, I am a certified laughter leader." Then she asked the employees to stand with her in a circle and led them in warm-up breathing and stretching exercises. After that, she asked them to shake hands with the person on their left while chanting, "Ha ha ha," and then to do the same with the person on their right.

Next were other exercises with names like one meter, in which you stretch your arms straight ahead, swing them to the left shouting "ho," pull the right one in shouting `ho" again and finally throw your head back and exclaim "ha, ha, ha." In lion, you lift your hands to your shoulders, spread your fingers wide like paws, bug your eyes, stick out your tongue and imitate a lion roaring with laughter.

As they proceeded, members of the group erupted into giggles and guffaws. Ten minutes later, Ms. White concluded with a three- part cheer to which they were supposed to scream "yes" each time. They managed the response to "we are the happiest people in the world" and "we are the healthiest people in the world." But when she shouted, "we love our jobs," they broke into uncontrollable howls.

Some of the employees, at least, felt a rush from the experience. "At first, I thought, `Here is another of Bobbe's wacky team-builders,' " said Jim McDowell, a customer service representative. "But by the time we were through laughing, I felt so invigorated, I was ready to face the rest of my workday." The experiment was such a hit that the bank asked Ms. White to put tellers through weekly laughter exercises in the basement.

State Street Bank is a recent convert to one of the latest worker-motivation fads: laughter therapy. Laughter has always had the power to relieve stress, reduce anxiety and increase mental energy, of course, and smart managers have long used humor to soften up customers or placate restive employees. More companies these days are seeking to inject fun into the workplace with diversions like Foosball tournaments, treasure hunts and ice cream parties, and more than 20 humor-consulting firms have sprung up to help them.

But full-blown laughter therapy is something else again. It seeks to make laughter a regular, communal affair — and aims to provoke not mere chuckling but rather explosions of mirth. The theory is that group convulsions will put everybody in such a fine fettle that they will work harder and be friendlier to customers.

Ms. White is a believer. "For months, we tried telling jokes to one another at lunchtime but we started to run out of good ones," she said. "When I came across laughter therapy and laughter clubs, and attended a workshop in St. Louis to become a certified laughter leader, the pressure to be funny had been alleviated, yet the results from systematic laughter were just as, if not more, evident and lasting."

The movement originated in 1995 in a Bombay park, where Dr. Madandd Kataria, a physician and longtime student of humor, invited four strangers to join him for an impromptu laugh. Dr. Kataria subsequently refined the method, introducing elements of yoga, and came to the conclusion that a session of forced laughter in the morning gave people a strong sense of well-being.

He started a company, Laughter Clubs International, that has grown to more than 400 affiliates in India, with 50,000 members who meet on their way to work, usually outdoors. One of Dr. Kataria's promoters in the United States is Steve Wilson, a psychologist and self-proclaimed "joyologist" in Gahanna, Ohio. He invited the Indian doctor to start a World Laughter Tour in North America last year, and says dozens of clubs have opened since then. "Our mission is simple: think globally, laugh locally," he said.

Laughter therapy is not for everyone, of course. It involves physical strain, and may not be for hernia sufferers or pregnant women, Mr. Wilson says. For obvious reasons, it is also a good idea to keep out people with severe colds or the flu. The bank, in fact, has put out a memo emphasizing that the sessions are voluntary, and Ms. White acknowledges that she may have pushed the concept a little too hard. "I admit, I sneaked it up on my co- workers," she said. "I just know there are other folks in the bank that are dying to join us but aren't ready to. Others are also laughing behind our backs."

Such fear of rejection gives pause even to true believers. Barbara Safke, work director at the operations center of the Wells Fargo Bank in Minneapolis and a certified laughter leader, has reserved the company cafeteria to conduct early morning laughter exercises in March and has sent a memo to employees inviting them to take part. "The need clearly exists because we do a lot of trouble-shooting," Ms. Safke said. "It can get very stressful at times." Even so, she added: "I'm somewhat apprehensive about starting a club at work. I'll conduct a dry run with family and friends."

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To Go: A Sandwich Salute to India 14 February 2001, New York Times, By Eric Asimov A FRENCH friend of mine criticizes Americans for not respecting the culinary traditions of other cultures. I wonder what he would make of the Hampton Chutney Company, a cafe and takeout shop that opened two weeks ago in SoHo. Hampton Chutney takes dosas and uttapams, the traditional southern Indian crepes and pancakes, and uses them to make that most American of meals, the sandwich.

But even though the menu is thoroughly Westernized, Indian food is treated with the utmost respect. Gary MacGurn, a partner with his wife, Isabel, worked on an ashram in India, where he learned to turn a flour of rice and white lentils into huge, lacy dosas and smaller, thicker uttapams. The couple opened the original Hampton Chutney in Amagansett, N.Y., five years ago.

The dosas are excellent, crisp around the edges with a proper sourdough tang, and rolled around fillings that are fresh and well spiced. Together, they make an unusual sandwich. I particularly liked one with grilled chicken, roasted peppers, arugula and onions, and another of chicken with fresh curry leaves and spinach. Every order comes with lively chutneys.

The uttapams, thick pancakes the size of a small plate, must be eaten as open-faced sandwiches, which is less satisfying. My favorite Hampton Chutney dish, though, is an authentic Indian snack, masala dosa, in which the filling is spiced mashed potatoes. Any Indian restaurant would be proud to serve this version.

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India plans to test mega rocket in March
5 February 2001, CNN

BANGALORE - India's state-run space agency hopes next month to test a rocket that can launch heavy satellites deep into space, an official said Monday. "It will be the first experimental flight of the GSLV," a spokesman at the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), told Reuters.

The GSLV or the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle can carry satellites weighing up to two tons into high-Earth orbits and will put India in a group of among half-a-dozen elite nations with similar capability. The ISRO spokesman said the GSLV test flight would carry an experimental satellite, GSAT-1, to test the rocket's reliability. The rocket will be launched from ISRO's seaport in southern Sriharikota town on the Bay of Bengal coast, he said.

India's GSLV program has been hit by delays due to refusal by Russia -- under pressure from the United States - to stick to its deal to provide India with rocket engine technology in 1992. Russia instead only delivered the promised seven rocket engines, leaving India to develop the technology on its own.

Washington has, over the years, restricted access to technology that might have military applications and slapped significant sanctions on India after its nuclear tests in 1998. Aerospace experts have said that India can offer satellite launches at rates that would compete with those charged by the United States, Russia and recent entrant China. ISRO chairman K. Kasturirangan has said in the past that the launches could be about 25 percent cheaper than those of other countries.

India made a limited entry into the commercial satellite launch market in May 1999 when the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C2, launched two small foreign satellites into low-Earth orbits.

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ALL THE RIGHT MOVES: CENTURIES LATER, THE KINGS, BISHOPS AND PAWNS OF CHESS STILL COMMAND GREAT ATTENTION
11 February 2001, Chicago Tribune, By Charles Leroux

Around A.D. 600, someone, probably in the Punjab region of northwest India, had the idea of making a game of warfare, of translating armies in combat to pieces on a board. The game we now know as chess was called (in Sanskrit) Chaturanga, meaning the four divisions of an Indian army - chariots (evolved to the rook or castle in the modern game), cavalry (knights), elephants (bishops in the West) and infantry (pawns). Added to these was a king and his adviser (a vizier then, the queen now).

In the charming and informative new book, "Master Pieces: The Architecture of Chess" (Viking Studio; $23.95), author Gareth Williams notes that when Alexander the Great (un-successfully) invaded India, he was met by the army of Rajah Porus: "Fifty thousand foot soldiers, 1,000 chariots, 130 war elephants and 3,000 horsemen under his command. Alexander was looking at a living chess set."

That unknowable Punjabi from so long ago seems to have had an idea with real staying power. Chess is as popular today as ever. Its future, too, seems secure with a rising interest on the part of young players who, according to Mike Zacate of the Illinois Chess Coaches Association, are participating in tournaments in growing numbers with not just high school chess clubs but, increasingly, elementary level clubs.

Interest in the game goes beyond playing it. There are avid collectors of chess sets, people mesmerized by the often stunning miniature architecture of the pieces and the historical stories they may tell. As beautiful and interesting as chess pieces can be, the endurance of the game is due to the beauty and interest of play, a seemingly simple, infinitely complex mental challenge. Czech player Richard Reti, who died in 1929, noted that the pleasure of playing chess "lies in the feeling that a human mind is behind the game, dominating the inanimate pieces with which the game is carried on, and giving them the breath of life."

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