No Happiness in India?

I've been tasked to do some of the preparation for a research trip to Bhutan to study the economics of happiness. Due to logistics of the project (and the high cost of spending time in Bhutan), India will be the launching pad for most of the work. So, in my remaining weeks in India, I'm to have some preliminary discussions with various 'relevant' people in India doing research on alternative economic development models generally, and the economics of happiness and Gross Happiness Index of Bhutan specifically.

The economics of happiness, while perhaps not a core topic of research most places, is also far from a fringe idea. Over the past 30 years, it has made the news, been discussed and criticised, and had think tanks and academic programmes founded around it. Documentaries and TED talks extolling the virtues of economic localisation use some kind of quantification of 'happiness' as a departure point. While it's not a yet a particularly cohesive field of study, there are emerging theories and debates (equality is important. So is the environment. It's harder to figure out what culture is).

So, I was enthusiastic about getting the ball rolling. The problem is, the ball game doesn't seem to interest Indian academics much. I can find virtually no evidence of work being done on the economics of happiness - or even really different models of economic development. Why not? Is there some agreed on vocabulary about 'Gandhian economics' that plays this role, and I just don't know about? Has the spurt of rapid economic growth distracted all academic discourse on economics in India? Is it considered to 'fluffy' for more cash strapped universities?

I'm quite surprised that from the intellectual home of 'Development as Freedom', more isn't being said on this. I'd welcome any leads, or insight into why they are so hard to find...