United Nations: Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi chose Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymn Vaishnava Jana To while Oscar winner A.R. Rahman contributed his own composition to a global music playlist launched by the UN on the International Day of Happiness.

Mr Satyarthi says the song he nominated makes him happy because it helps him believe that the world will end child slavery one day, UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters.

Rahman chose his composition Infinite Love, which he has called an “aspirational” video with the message that “an ideal world can definitely be created with a pure mind and optimistic results”, according to information on his website.

The UN Secretary General nominated a song by Stevie Wonder, whom he designated as a Messenger of Peace in 2010.

Mr Ban chose Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered, saying that, to him, “it sounds like a new climate agreement and a new sustainable development agenda”.