Its currency is pegged to the India rupee. Sixty per cent of its budget expenditure is financed by India's Ministry of External Affairs. It's a secluded country which even still doesn't have a railway network. It's the only country to measure Gross National Happiness.
It overstated its population some decades back as there was a perception that only countries with over a million population are admitted to the UN. It's economy is entirely agrarian and what's non-agrarian is cottage industry. The country keeps making efforts to preserve its traditional way of life. Amid all this, it seems to be largely peaceful.
I read this piece on Wikipedia about Bhutan. It's surely one of its kind. A very fascinating read, actually. What kind of society will hold on to such a lifestyle without dissent?
Another interesting insight provided in that write-up was that cable TV was introduced only a few years back and since then crime rate is said to have increased! The article actually raises a lot of questions, interesting ones.
4 comments:
I read/heard just sometime back (was it your blog?) this question abt the only country to vote the same way as India in some major issue at the UN(?) since its foreign policy is decided by the Indian policy. Fascinating.
It wasn't mine. But true, quite fascinating country. I don't think any other country tries to preserve its culture this way (un-Taliban like, I am not wrong), which means there's quite a bit of peace there. And does it with other country's generous aid!
It's also the only country where the king wants to 'impose' democracy, but people want monarchy.
Or atleast that's what i remember reading in a newspaper sometime back.
What a country man! Very strange. Some sort of constitutional monarchy, I guess.
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