Essay Paper Analysis (CSE MAINS 2015)
Section- A
- Lending Hands to someone is better than giving a dole.
- Quick but steady wins the race
- Character of an institution is reflected in its leader
- Education without values . as useful as it is, seems rather to make a man more clever devil
Section – B
- Technology can not replace manpower
- Crisis faced in India-Moral or Economic
- Dreams which should not let India sleep
- Can capitalism bring inclusive growth.
Analysis-
First of all, it was a very pleasant and welcoming , since 2014 , that UPSC is asking 2 essays rather than one.Which gives ample opportunity to amplify the marks.It is difficult to get more than 120 on a single essay and marks depends on connecting with the examiner.If your view point in a single essay , speaks to the mind of the examiner, you will get good marks , if not – only god can save you:).
Moreover , it is rather difficult to write 2500 word on a single topic, one usually runs out of material and digresses.
But now, when one has 2 essays , it gives real latitude to the aspirants and also helps diversify and increase one’s marks.Moreover, it is good for the UPSC too as they get to know more about you.
In general sense , Essays are all about personality and how to interpret and answer them.The essays needs in-depth understanding of a subject and this need critical thinking and one’s continuous effort to learn.
Lets analyse the essays of this year:-
There is a departure from dominance of quote based essays, which are mostly philosophical .And unless, one knows why a particular author made the quote , what is the background of it , one would not able able to answer satisfactorily.
For eg- in 2013 – “Be the change you want to see in this world ” .To answer this essay one needs to understand who said it,why he said it, was he the only one who said, how it was popularized by certain philosophy or person in our culture etc and the multiple angles of it.
Hence, quote based essays are little vague in nature and attempting them either can be very rewarding or very disastrous depending on one’s understanding and connect with the subject.Chance of digression is very high.One of the reason why who scored 140 one year scores 60 in the next year – we have personally endured this.
This year essays like – Lending Hands to someone is better than giving a dole and Quick but steady wins the race may look like quotes, but they are statements . Now how to answer them is important .
1)Lending Hands to someone is better than giving a dole –
This essay is completely relevant and a contemporary issue.If any of you have read economic survey of 2014 , you will know why this statement came. The survey is critical of the non performing , extravagant burden on Indian exchequer – rather known as SUBSIDY.How the subsidies are creating troubles rather than helping the needy.
One might think this as an philosophical essays- but it is not- it is an economic essay.There is little space for philosophy though .
Also we have asked you to read one particular article in one of our Sunday diaries , and if one has read this , he/she would be able to answer this perfectly.
Here is the link –
http://upsctree.com/2015/11/15/sunday-diaries-the-aura-of-simplicity/
and the quote in the article – ““Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” is very apt for this occasion.If you have read the article , you can even cite the example of particular IAS officer, there by making the answer more relevant to contemporary topic.
The core of the essay is however subsidy , but you cannot put figures and numbers per se, they have to be used judiciously and essay is probably checked by English professor, hence, excessive economic terms would make your essay technical and will hamper your marks. Thus it has to be answered by one of our principle philosophy – “Simplicity“.
One might argue that the essay is more philosophical (can cite examples/stories of the past) and no need to put SUBSIDY as the core theme, but remember, to make it relevant you have to use SUBSIDY , because there is a reason why UPSC has asked it this year and connecting it with contemporary issue is the single most important factor.
In conclusion ,this is an economic essay .Now you have to make the English professor understand economics.If you keep that in mind and write , this is a very nice essay to attempt.
2)Quick but steady wins the race:-
Lets understand why this was asked ?
The political development in the last year , the anti-corruption movement, Jan Andolan etc , gave rise political parties and instantaneous decisions led to unproductive log jam.It was quick but it was not steady.The product of the movement – Jan Lokpal bill is yet to do anything substantial on curbing corruption.Though it was a great movement as it generated the necessary social condition for anti-corruption in Indian Psyche.This is a fit case example of – if you are quick and not steady how it is going to to fail.
The theme of the essay is both quick and steady – that means – India is a young country and it is the time to harness India’s demographic dividend, this needs both – quick development and steady development that are sustainable.
India has been steady but not quick , hence we have lost 2 decades of opportunity as compared to China.
This essay can also be answered from citing examples from past . Once can cite examples such as Jadev Payeng (Forest man of India) – who single handedly brought a large number of area under forest through his actions. He was quick to realize that the Majuli Island can sink and only way to save it – is to grow forest cover , which can stop soil erosion and absorb excessive rainwater and he was steady in his action to plant the trees- day in – day out .We know that flood happens when forest covers on the banks were lost as forests act as sponge – they capture the water and release it slowly- hence stooping the flood.Many more such examples can be cited.One can cite historical examples – related to administration as well.
It is usually said that slow and steady wins the race , however the essay is quick and steady- that means UPSC is asking on the contemporary theme not on the age old idea of perseverance.
The relevance is , as pointed before how our governance structure should change from Slow and steady to quick and steady.
This essay has to be answered – If you are quick and not steady how it is going to fail and if you are slow but steady then how it is going to fail.
Another example can be environment – how it needs quick but steady action to succeed across globe.How we are on the verge of climatic catastrophe and how only fast and steady action can save it.
So , this is a question related mostly to – administration/policy – “designing action- taking decision-implementing it and sustaining it ” is the core.
The question mocks the rabbit and tortoise story of the past- slow and steady wins the race.
Various examples can be cited for this essay and can be both person centric/example centric or administration/policy centric .If one uses the larger objective such as administration and policy issues then it will connect with the reader , however one can use both – as one may see fit.
3)Character of an institution is reflected in its leader:-
This is a far too direct statement . If one has ample name of leaders and the institutions they led and how they changed and strengthened/weakened it – one can answer this.
This is a simple theme – the essay should delve in to – how a good man can lead a bad institution is a better way and how a bad man finds loophole in a good institution and makes it worse.
One fodder material for this can be the different Governor- Generals of India in British period. How the good one tried to do better while the bad ones tried to make it worse , even though they all were part of same institution and how their character changed the perception of their institution in the public psyche , thus painting a good/bad character of the institution altogether.
There can be multiple ways to answer this, however one should list down all the names institutions before hand and then answer the question.
Overall, this is a good essay for Public administration students , for others it is usually less attractive.
4)Education without values . as useful as it is, seems rather to make a man more clever devil
This is a quote by C.S. Lewis , however unlike past , this quote does not need greater understanding of the background of the quote and one can comfortably answer this .
It is essentially an Ethics question related mostly to Sociology. Because, we have seen , in recent times how educated ones are leaning towards extremism .
How absence of value based education has led to moral denigration in contemporary times.
How only technical education is only creating a man of skill who are devoid of ethics and take the garb of their education to justify their means.
How we are creating younger generations , who are only chasing money , becoming self-centered and disconnected from the society.
How education is creating a clever ones , yet the devil ones.
How our education is designed to teach skills to humans and not humanity .
This is a very broad topic and many examples can be cited for it , it is worth the attempt , moreover this lets one to show their understanding by ending it with a positive note and giving the necessary way forward.
Out of the 4 topics :-
- Lending Hands to someone is better than giving a dole -ECONOMIC- Worth the attempt- One can gather enough to write about it- topic is not digressive in nature-once can end with a very good conclusion
- Quick but steady wins the race:- ADMINISTRATIVE/POLICY- Worth the attempt – One can gather 1300 word easily – topic is not digressive in nature- one can end with a good conclusion , but it will be not as appealing as the previous one (we might be wrong though :))
- Character of an institution is reflected in its leader:-PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION- Good for the optional people
- Education without values . as useful as it is, seems rather to make a man more clever devil– SOCIOLOGY – worth the attempt- topic is very appealing yet can be dangerous if you digress, one needs Gandhi’s Idea of Education to get good marks on this- Many would have attempted this one- theme is bound to be critical , little scope for optimism as this is a critical topic.
As you have seen above , each topic has a specific core area – Sociology /Pub Ad/Economy.
The analysis for SECTION B will follow.
Recent Posts
Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.
On March 31, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. The Global Gender Gap report is an annual report released by the WEF. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The gap between men and women across health, education, politics, and economics widened for the first time since records began in 2006.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]No need to remember all the data, only pick out few important ones to use in your answers.
The Global gender gap index aims to measure this gap in four key areas : health, education, economics, and politics. It surveys economies to measure gender disparity by collating and analyzing data that fall under four indices : economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The 2021 Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity. The index aims to serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy, and politics.
Although no country has achieved full gender parity, the top two countries (Iceland and Finland) have closed at least 85% of their gap, and the remaining seven countries (Lithuania, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Rwanda, and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap. Geographically, the global top 10 continues to be dominated by Nordic countries, with —Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden—in the top five.
The top 10 is completed by one country from Asia Pacific (New Zealand 4th), two Sub-Saharan countries (Namibia, 6th and Rwanda, 7th, one country from Eastern Europe (the new entrant to the top 10, Lithuania, 8th), and another two Western European countries (Ireland, 9th, and Switzerland, 10th, another country in the top-10 for the first time).There is a relatively equitable distribution of available income, resources, and opportunities for men and women in these countries. The tremendous gender gaps are identified primarily in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
Here, we can discuss the overall global gender gap scores across the index’s four main components : Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
The indicators of the four main components are
(1) Economic Participation and Opportunity:
o Labour force participation rate,
o wage equality for similar work,
o estimated earned income,
o Legislators, senior officials, and managers,
o Professional and technical workers.
(2) Educational Attainment:
o Literacy rate (%)
o Enrollment in primary education (%)
o Enrollment in secondary education (%)
o Enrollment in tertiary education (%).
(3) Health and Survival:
o Sex ratio at birth (%)
o Healthy life expectancy (years).
(4) Political Empowerment:
o Women in Parliament (%)
o Women in Ministerial positions (%)
o Years with a female head of State (last 50 years)
o The share of tenure years.
The objective is to shed light on which factors are driving the overall average decline in the global gender gap score. The analysis results show that this year’s decline is mainly caused by a reversal in performance on the Political Empowerment gap.
Global Trends and Outcomes:
– Globally, this year, i.e., 2021, the average distance completed to gender parity gap is 68% (This means that the remaining gender gap to close stands at 32%) a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries. On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
– The gender gap in Political Empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps tracked, with only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020 edition of the report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 Parliament seats and 22.6% of over 3,400 Ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of State as of January 15, 2021. At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.
– The gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity remains the second-largest of the four key gaps tracked by the index. According to this year’s index results, 58% of this gap has been closed so far. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 edition of the report, and as a result, we estimate that it will take another 267.6 years to close.
– Gender gaps in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival are nearly closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been closed globally, with 37 countries already attaining gender parity. However, the ‘last mile’ of progress is proceeding slowly. The index estimates that it will take another 14.2 years to close this gap on its current trajectory completely.
In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed, registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19), and the time to close this gap remains undefined. For both education and health, while progress is higher than economy and politics in the global data, there are important future implications of disruptions due to the pandemic and continued variations in quality across income, geography, race, and ethnicity.
India-Specific Findings:
India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The pandemic causing a disproportionate impact on women jeopardizes rolling back the little progress made in the last decades-forcing more women to drop off the workforce and leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence.
India’s poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card hints at a serious wake-up call and learning lessons from the Nordic region for the Government and policy makers.
Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 percent of Parliamentary seats and 22 percent of Ministerial positions. India, in some ways, reflects this widening gap, where the number of Ministers declined from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 percent. In India, the gender gap has widened to 62.5 %, down from 66.8% the previous year.
It is mainly due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, a decrease in women’s labor force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, and income inequality.
The gap is the widest on the political empowerment dimension, with economic participation and opportunity being next in line. However, the gap on educational attainment and health and survival has been practically bridged.
India is the third-worst performer among South Asian countries, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report states that the country fared the worst in political empowerment, regressing from 23.9% to 9.1%.
Its ranking on the health and survival dimension is among the five worst performers. The economic participation and opportunity gap saw a decline of 3% compared to 2020, while India’s educational attainment front is in the 114th position.
India has deteriorated to 51st place from 18th place in 2020 on political empowerment. Still, it has slipped to 155th position from 150th position in 2020 on health and survival, 151st place in economic participation and opportunity from 149th place, and 114th place for educational attainment from 112th.
In 2020 reports, among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap of 64.6% is larger than the political gender gap of 58.9%. In 2021 report, among the 156 countries, the economic gender gap of India is 67.4%, 3.8% gender gap in education, 6.3% gap in health and survival, and 72.4% gender gap in political empowerment. In health and survival, the gender gap of the sex ratio at birth is above 9.1%, and healthy life expectancy is almost the same.
Discrimination against women has also been reflected in Health and Survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex. The wide sex ratio at birth gaps is due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. Besides, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.The gender gap in the literacy rate is above 20.1%.
Yet, gender gaps persist in literacy : one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) than 17.6% of men. In political empowerment, globally, women in Parliament is at 128th position and gender gap of 83.2%, and 90% gap in a Ministerial position. The gap in wages equality for similar work is above 51.8%. On health and survival, four large countries Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and China, fare poorly, with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.
The pandemic has only slowed down in its tracks the progress India was making towards achieving gender parity. The country urgently needs to focus on “health and survival,” which points towards a skewed sex ratio because of the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices and women’s economic participation. Women’s labour force participation rate and the share of women in technical roles declined in 2020, reducing the estimated earned income of women, one-fifth of men.
Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions, and public life is the catalyst for transformational change. Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.
Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions. Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls. Research and scientific literature also provide unequivocal evidence that countries led by women are dealing with the pandemic more effectively than many others.
Gendered inequality, thereby, is a global concern. India should focus on targeted policies and earmarked public and private investments in care and equalized access. Women are not ready to wait for another century for equality. It’s time India accelerates its efforts and fight for an inclusive, equal, global recovery.
India will not fully develop unless both women and men are equally supported to reach their full potential. There are risks, violations, and vulnerabilities women face just because they are women. Most of these risks are directly linked to women’s economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages in their daily lives. It becomes acute during crises and disasters.
With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, women become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless women are valued more.