*Note – We have said earlier that Education essay in the section A is appealing ,however, there is a risk in it – the risk being can we write anything that may impress the examiner given that his/her profession itself is “education”. We will always have lesser understanding about a subject/job , unless we draw our livelihood from that subject or job.Hence the risk.But , nevertheless , if one writes holistically , one will get good marks.
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:-
1)Technology can not replace manpower :-
This a good essay for those who understand technology and how it changed the political and economic set up altogether.
There is a larger perception that technology will kill jobs, but it will kill only the conventional jobs ; and on the same hand it will create more sophisticated jobs.However there is a inherent danger in it- for eg- when you and I took birth – we never knew that there will be a sector called IT or job called Software engineer .By the 2000, it became a reality .Our parents would not have thought of this job and if you work in IT , you will know how difficult it is to make your parents understand the nature of your job – don’t mind if sometime they call you “clerks” (sitting in a desk , working with computer is an equivalent of clerk for them 🙂
In the transition phase though, those who were engaged in conventional job will lose employment.Technology creates a generational drift altogether.
Anyway- one can include – Artificial intelligence and Automation where the machines do cognitive activity can be cited which may kill jobs, but end of the day these are machines and to maintain them we need people, unless machine start repairing themselves.
One has to show the bad and good that technology can offer , one can start with industrial revolution and the impact of technology on jobs and then take it forward to contemporary times.Technology seems to replace manpower , only for a temporary span or time ; nevertheless no one ever thought that there will be a company called google or amazon or flikart who HIRE PEOPLE .So one has to give multiple examples on how technology has created jobs and not replaced manpower.
Moreover, one has to take Indian context too. For examples, if IT sector was not there – then this country would have seen some revolution as many of the engineers from other background would have been jobless- in this regard one can show, how sophisticated technology creates more jobs than conventional technology ( civil/electrical/mechanical etc)- this is an apt example in Indian context.One can show – how a new bunch of services are created out of thin air – from online shopping or online recruiting etc.
One can ask why emphasis on IT – simply because the question is not asking about conventional technology and the examples form this sector makes it relevant and contemporary.One can use mobile revolution too – how it left may STD BOOTH owners jobless for a short time and then again , the owners bounced back with top up services and many other such items to sell.
This is a good essay – one must attempt if he/she has in-depth insight into technology as a sector and can manage to give multitude of examples.
2)Crisis faced in India-Moral or Economic :-
This is a critical essay and it has dualistic nature and one can not conclude properly or stand on strongly any single point of view , hence better is to avoid this one.
The relevance is related to the multitude violence against women and unnecessary politicization of issues etc .
If economy would have been the cause of crisis in India – then we have been surviving as a country way too poor for the past 60 years and more after independence.Many foreigners could not digest the fact that even though their is poverty yet everyone seems contended and relatively happy – one can see a smile on the face of a poor in India and this baffles many foreign authors.
Many foreigners even wrote that poverty is a fit case for communism to survive and autocracy to rule , however India has none- hence India still remains as a mystery in the psyche.
So, as long as economy is concerned – it has never pushed India to crisis (broader sense).Moral crisis in India – is visible in all its ugly manifestations.
There is no correlation between the two either- you don’t rape becasue you are poor- as simple as that.
So , to score good , you have to paint the ugly pictures of moral crisis and be critical about it. End of the essay it will make the examiner sad (more or less) , however, contrary to popular belief it has a high scoring chance becasue , examiner is an elder person and he/she probably holds the same view on why this generation became so immoral , if you can just speak his mind in your writing , you are good to go.
Having said all that , one can still argue how poverty leads to crime etc, hence dualistic in nature and my view may not be similar to your view and both can be right too.
3)Dreams which should not let India sleep:-
This is probably most attempted essay , given the positive tone of the essay, however as we said in earlier essay – an essay is pessimistic does not mean that you will not score good or vice versa.The examiner is at the epicenter of it and dream is just another word for him/her at this age :)( in a general sense)
Anyway ,you have to paint a heavenly adobe called India and how to achieve it – the essay is as simple as that .
Start with Idea of India and proceed from there , the problem with this kind of essay is you will never finish that is no end to a dream and so this essay neither will have an end.
By the time you finish writing this essay , you will always feel you have left something or you could have done it better – as we said , its a dreamy essay and dreams have no ending and even if you end – you will never be satisfied with what you wrote , even though you have written very well.
This essay is vastly diverse, many people can write many ways and competition gets tough.
The difficulty is openness of the essay, however one can score decent marks , if you can take the examiner to see the heavenly adobe called India 🙂
4)Can capitalism bring inclusive growth :-
The straight forward answer to this essay is NO , however there is no alternative which is viable either . It is like democracy – it is not the best form of government , but there is no better alternative either.
The essay is not only about capitalism , it is also about socialism , hence you need to balance your view on how the mix of two can work together and succeed ,but will fail if tried in absolution.
Final view :-
Essay 1-ECONOMIC
Essay 2 -Even the word economic is there it is – ETHICAL
Essay-3 – Dreams can not be confined to any particular subject
Essay-4 – ECONOMIC
We think best essay to attempt is completely dependent on you.
Recent Posts
The United Nations has shaped so much of global co-operation and regulation that we wouldn’t recognise our world today without the UN’s pervasive role in it. So many small details of our lives – such as postage and copyright laws – are subject to international co-operation nurtured by the UN.
In its 75th year, however, the UN is in a difficult moment as the world faces climate crisis, a global pandemic, great power competition, trade wars, economic depression and a wider breakdown in international co-operation.
Still, the UN has faced tough times before – over many decades during the Cold War, the Security Council was crippled by deep tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. The UN is not as sidelined or divided today as it was then. However, as the relationship between China and the US sours, the achievements of global co-operation are being eroded.
The way in which people speak about the UN often implies a level of coherence and bureaucratic independence that the UN rarely possesses. A failure of the UN is normally better understood as a failure of international co-operation.
We see this recently in the UN’s inability to deal with crises from the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, to civil conflict in Syria, and the failure of the Security Council to adopt a COVID-19 resolution calling for ceasefires in conflict zones and a co-operative international response to the pandemic.
The UN administration is not primarily to blame for these failures; rather, the problem is the great powers – in the case of COVID-19, China and the US – refusing to co-operate.
Where states fail to agree, the UN is powerless to act.
Marking the 75th anniversary of the official formation of the UN, when 50 founding nations signed the UN Charter on June 26, 1945, we look at some of its key triumphs and resounding failures.
Five successes
1. Peacekeeping
The United Nations was created with the goal of being a collective security organisation. The UN Charter establishes that the use of force is only lawful either in self-defence or if authorised by the UN Security Council. The Security Council’s five permanent members, being China, US, UK, Russia and France, can veto any such resolution.
The UN’s consistent role in seeking to manage conflict is one of its greatest successes.
A key component of this role is peacekeeping. The UN under its second secretary-general, the Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjöld – who was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace prize after he died in a suspicious plane crash – created the concept of peacekeeping. Hammarskjöld was responding to the 1956 Suez Crisis, in which the US opposed the invasion of Egypt by its allies Israel, France and the UK.
UN peacekeeping missions involve the use of impartial and armed UN forces, drawn from member states, to stabilise fragile situations. “The essence of peacekeeping is the use of soldiers as a catalyst for peace rather than as the instruments of war,” said then UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, when the forces won the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize following missions in conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe.
However, peacekeeping also counts among the UN’s major failures.
2. Law of the Sea
Negotiated between 1973 and 1982, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) set up the current international law of the seas. It defines states’ rights and creates concepts such as exclusive economic zones, as well as procedures for the settling of disputes, new arrangements for governing deep sea bed mining, and importantly, new provisions for the protection of marine resources and ocean conservation.
Mostly, countries have abided by the convention. There are various disputes that China has over the East and South China Seas which present a conflict between power and law, in that although UNCLOS creates mechanisms for resolving disputes, a powerful state isn’t necessarily going to submit to those mechanisms.
Secondly, on the conservation front, although UNCLOS is a huge step forward, it has failed to adequately protect oceans that are outside any state’s control. Ocean ecosystems have been dramatically transformed through overfishing. This is an ecological catastrophe that UNCLOS has slowed, but failed to address comprehensively.
3. Decolonisation
The idea of racial equality and of a people’s right to self-determination was discussed in the wake of World War I and rejected. After World War II, however, those principles were endorsed within the UN system, and the Trusteeship Council, which monitored the process of decolonisation, was one of the initial bodies of the UN.
Although many national independence movements only won liberation through bloody conflicts, the UN has overseen a process of decolonisation that has transformed international politics. In 1945, around one third of the world’s population lived under colonial rule. Today, there are less than 2 million people living in colonies.
When it comes to the world’s First Nations, however, the UN generally has done little to address their concerns, aside from the non-binding UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007.
4. Human rights
The Human Rights Declaration of 1948 for the first time set out fundamental human rights to be universally protected, recognising that the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.
Since 1948, 10 human rights treaties have been adopted – including conventions on the rights of children and migrant workers, and against torture and discrimination based on gender and race – each monitored by its own committee of independent experts.
The language of human rights has created a new framework for thinking about the relationship between the individual, the state and the international system. Although some people would prefer that political movements focus on ‘liberation’ rather than ‘rights’, the idea of human rights has made the individual person a focus of national and international attention.
5. Free trade
Depending on your politics, you might view the World Trade Organisation as a huge success, or a huge failure.
The WTO creates a near-binding system of international trade law with a clear and efficient dispute resolution process.
The majority Australian consensus is that the WTO is a success because it has been good for Australian famers especially, through its winding back of subsidies and tariffs.
However, the WTO enabled an era of globalisation which is now politically controversial.
Recently, the US has sought to disrupt the system. In addition to the trade war with China, the Trump Administration has also refused to appoint tribunal members to the WTO’s Appellate Body, so it has crippled the dispute resolution process. Of course, the Trump Administration is not the first to take issue with China’s trade strategies, which include subsidises for ‘State Owned Enterprises’ and demands that foreign firms transfer intellectual property in exchange for market access.
The existence of the UN has created a forum where nations can discuss new problems, and climate change is one of them. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess climate science and provide policymakers with assessments and options. In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change created a permanent forum for negotiations.
However, despite an international scientific body in the IPCC, and 165 signatory nations to the climate treaty, global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase.
Under the Paris Agreement, even if every country meets its greenhouse gas emission targets we are still on track for ‘dangerous warming’. Yet, no major country is even on track to meet its targets; while emissions will probably decline this year as a result of COVID-19, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will still increase.
This illustrates a core conundrum of the UN in that it opens the possibility of global cooperation, but is unable to constrain states from pursuing their narrowly conceived self-interests. Deep co-operation remains challenging.
Five failures of the UN
1. Peacekeeping
During the Bosnian War, Dutch peacekeeping forces stationed in the town of Srebrenica, declared a ‘safe area’ by the UN in 1993, failed in 1995 to stop the massacre of more than 8000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces. This is one of the most widely discussed examples of the failures of international peacekeeping operations.
On the massacre’s 10th anniversary, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote that the UN had “made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality”, contributing to a mass murder that would “haunt our history forever”.
If you look at some of the other infamous failures of peacekeeping missions – in places such as Rwanda, Somalia and Angola – it is the limited powers given to peacekeeping operations that have resulted in those failures.
2. The invasion of Iraq
The invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003, which was unlawful and without Security Council authorisation, reflects the fact that the UN is has very limited capacity to constrain the actions of great powers.
The Security Council designers created the veto power so that any of the five permanent members could reject a Council resolution, so in that way it is programmed to fail when a great power really wants to do something that the international community generally condemns.
In the case of the Iraq invasion, the US didn’t veto a resolution, but rather sought authorisation that it did not get. The UN, if you go by the idea of collective security, should have responded by defending Iraq against this unlawful use of force.
The invasion proved a humanitarian disaster with the loss of more than 400,000 lives, and many believe that it led to the emergence of the terrorist Islamic State.
3. Refugee crises
The UN brokered the 1951 Refugee Convention to address the plight of people displaced in Europe due to World War II; years later, the 1967 Protocol removed time and geographical restrictions so that the Convention can now apply universally (although many countries in Asia have refused to sign it, owing in part to its Eurocentric origins).
Despite these treaties, and the work of the UN High Commission for Refugees, there is somewhere between 30 and 40 million refugees, many of them, such as many Palestinians, living for decades outside their homelands. This is in addition to more than 40 million people displaced within their own countries.
While for a long time refugee numbers were reducing, in recent years, particularly driven by the Syrian conflict, there have been increases in the number of people being displaced.
During the COVID-19 crisis, boatloads of Rohingya refugees were turned away by port after port. This tragedy has echoes of pre-World War II when ships of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany were refused entry by multiple countries.
And as a catastrophe of a different kind looms, there is no international framework in place for responding to people who will be displaced by rising seas and other effects of climate change.
4. Conflicts without end
Across the world, there is a shopping list of unresolved civil conflicts and disputed territories.
Palestine and Kashmir are two of the longest-running failures of the UN to resolve disputed lands. More recent, ongoing conflicts include the civil wars in Syria and Yemen.
The common denominator of unresolved conflicts is either division among the great powers, or a lack of international interest due to the geopolitical stakes not being sufficiently high. For instance, the inaction during the Rwandan civil war in the 1990s was not due to a division among great powers, but rather a lack of political will to engage.
In Syria, by contrast, Russia and the US have opposing interests and back opposing sides: Russia backs the government of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whereas the US does not.
5. Acting like it’s 1945
The UN is increasingly out of step with the reality of geopolitics today.
The permanent members of the Security Council reflect the division of power internationally at the end of World War II. The continuing exclusion of Germany, Japan, and rising powers such as India and Indonesia, reflects the failure to reflect the changing balance of power.
Also, bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank, which are part of the UN system, continue to be dominated by the West. In response, China has created potential rival institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Western domination of UN institutions undermines their credibility. However, a more fundamental problem is that institutions designed in 1945 are a poor fit with the systemic global challenges – of which climate change is foremost – that we face today.