UPSCTREE
Essay : IMportant
Five Essays Worth
Thinking Deeply About
Although these essay topics are not part of our regular Test Series, they are important, contemporary and genuinely thought-provoking. Anybody who wants to write any of these essays and get it reviewed can send it to us. We will review it.
The Five Topics
| 01 |
Wisdom is not knowing all the answers, but knowing which questions to ask. |
| 02 |
Wars are no longer won with armies, but with algorithms. |
| 03 |
Climate justice cannot be separated from social justice. |
| 04 |
In the age of abundance, loneliness is the great epidemic. |
| 05 |
Water will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th. |
“Wisdom is not knowing all the answers, but knowing which questions to ask.”
This topic is about the difference between information and wisdom. Knowledge may give us answers. Wisdom helps us decide what needs to be questioned, which assumptions need examination and what consequences must be considered.
In an age where search engines and AI can provide answers within seconds, the ability to frame the right question becomes even more important.
- Difference between knowledge, intelligence and wisdom.
- Questions expose assumptions hidden behind accepted answers.
- Scientific progress often begins with doubt and curiosity.
- Democracy requires citizens who can question power.
- Good administration begins by identifying the real problem.
- AI makes human judgement even more important.
- World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025:
analytical thinking remains among the most important skills valued by employers. - AI and big data are rapidly growing skills, but creativity,
resilience and analytical ability remain important. - Machines may improve answers while humans must improve questions.
- Science: discoveries often begin when somebody questions an accepted explanation.
- Public policy: asking “Why are children not learning?” may be more useful than merely asking
“How many schools have been built?” - Constitutional democracy: judicial review is an institutional mechanism for questioning power.
- Insight:ask — Why did it happen? Who gains? Who loses? What are the long-term consequences?
- Begin with someone who has plenty of information but still makes a poor decision.
- Distinguish information, knowledge, intelligence and wisdom.
- Show how questioning creates scientific and social progress.
- Move to governance and policy-making.
- Bring in AI and the growing importance of human judgement.
- End with disciplined curiosity rather than absolute certainty.
“Wars are no longer won with armies, but with algorithms.”
This statement should not be taken literally. Armies and soldiers still matter. The deeper argument is that modern warfare increasingly depends on information, software, satellites, drones, sensors, cyber capability and AI-enabled decision-making.
Algorithms have not replaced armies. They are changing what makes an army effective.
- AI-assisted intelligence and target identification.
- Autonomous and semi-autonomous drones.
- Cyber attacks on infrastructure.
- Satellite imagery and surveillance.
- Electronic warfare.
- Deepfakes and information warfare.
- Algorithm-driven logistics.
- SIPRI: military expenditure remains extremely high globally, showing that conventional capability still matters.
- SIPRI research highlights growing military use of AI in targeting, planning and intelligence analysis.
- ICRC: autonomous weapons raise concerns about accountability, predictability and meaningful human control.
- Russia–Ukraine war: drones, satellite intelligence and electronic warfare are major battlefield tools.
- Cyber warfare: critical infrastructure can be attacked without physically crossing a border.
- Satellites: navigation, surveillance and communication are central to precision warfare.
- Insight: technology changes the conduct of war, but political goals, territory and human judgement remain important.
- Trace warfare from physical force to machines, nuclear weapons and data.
- Explain why information and decision-speed matter.
- Discuss drones, AI, satellites and cyber warfare.
- Examine ethical risks and autonomous weapons.
- Challenge the statement by showing that human beings still control territory.
- Conclude that technology, strategy and human judgement must work together.
“Climate justice cannot be separated from social justice.”
Climate change is environmental, but its causes and consequences are deeply social. People most exposed to heat, floods, droughts and displacement often have the least capacity to protect themselves and recover.
Climate risk is unequal. The same cyclone, flood or heatwave can affect rich and poor households very differently.
- International: unequal historical emissions.
- Inter-generational: today’s choices affect future generations.
- Economic: poorer households have fewer resources to adapt.
- Gender: women may face greater post-disaster burdens.
- Labour: energy transition must protect workers.
- Procedural: affected communities should participate in decisions.
- IPCC AR6: communities that contributed least to climate change are often disproportionately affected.
- Vulnerability is closely linked to poverty, marginalisation and climate-sensitive livelihoods.
- UNEP Adaptation Gap Report: developing countries face a major gap between adaptation needs and available finance.
- Heatwaves: outdoor workers cannot simply move into air-conditioned spaces.
- Urban flooding: informal settlements are often located in vulnerable areas.
- Just Transition: closing mines without alternative employment can create another form of injustice.
- Odisha: cyclones can be linked with coastal livelihoods, displacement and unequal recovery capacity.
- Insight: climate justice exists not only between countries, but also between classes, genders, regions and generations.
- Begin with two families facing the same climate disaster.
- Show how inequality affects their ability to recover.
- Move from domestic inequality to historical responsibility between nations.
- Discuss women, workers, farmers and vulnerable communities.
- Bring in climate finance and Just Transition.
- Conclude that sustainability without justice is incomplete.
“In the age of abundance, loneliness is the great epidemic.”
Modern societies have more goods, entertainment, communication technology and digital connectivity than ever before. Yet material abundance does not automatically create friendship, belonging, community or meaning.
We may be digitally connected to hundreds of people while feeling genuinely known by very few.
- Migration away from familiar communities.
- Smaller households and ageing populations.
- Urban anonymity.
- Remote and gig work.
- Consumer culture.
- Online comparison.
- Weakening community institutions.
- WHO Commission on Social Connection, 2025: around one in six people worldwide experience loneliness.
- Loneliness is also significant among adolescents and young adults.
- WHO links social connection with health, education and wider social outcomes.
- Young people: constant online comparison can coexist with insecurity and isolation.
- Elderly: longer life may sometimes mean longer periods of social isolation.
- Migrant workers: employment can separate people from family and familiar communities.
- Urban design: parks, libraries and public spaces can create opportunities for interaction.
- Insight: do not blame smartphones alone. Migration, urbanisation, ageing and work patterns also matter.
- Open with someone receiving many notifications but having nobody to call in a crisis.
- Differentiate isolation from loneliness.
- Discuss technology, migration, urbanisation and work.
- Examine health and social consequences.
- Add balance: technology can also build communities.
- Conclude that prosperity without belonging is incomplete.
“Water will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th.”
Oil shaped twentieth-century industry and geopolitics. Water may increasingly shape agriculture, cities,
migration, food security, public health and international relations.
Water is becoming strategically important, but unlike oil it is essential for life and has no substitute.
- Population growth and urbanisation.
- High agricultural demand.
- Groundwater depletion.
- Climate change and irregular rainfall.
- Water pollution.
- Transboundary rivers.
- Industrial and energy demand.
- Food and livelihood security.
- UNESCO / UN-Water: a large share of humanity experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.
- Agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals.
- India’s groundwater assessments show that agriculture remains the dominant user of extracted groundwater.
- Cauvery: water can become an issue of federal politics and regional identity.
- Indus Basin: transboundary rivers connect water with geopolitics.
- Chennai: urban water crises show dependence on reservoirs, rainfall and groundwater.
- Cape Town: “Day Zero” became a symbol of urban water insecurity.
- Insight: the strongest essay moves from water conflict to water governance. Scarcity does not automatically create war.
- Begin with the role of oil in twentieth-century power.
- Explain why freshwater is becoming strategically important.
- Connect water with agriculture, cities, health and energy.
- Discuss interstate and international disputes.
- Challenge the oil analogy because water is essential and irreplaceable.
- Conclude with conservation, cooperation and better governance.
Do not turn the essay into five GS answers joined together.
Facts, reports, examples and quotations should support your argument. They should never become the argument itself.
- Interpret the statement before accepting it.
- Identify the hidden tension or paradox.
- Move across dimensions naturally.
- Use examples to prove arguments.
- Introduce counter-arguments.
- Return to the central theme.
- Individual
- Society
- Economy
- Governance
- Technology
- Ethics
- Environment
- National Security
- International Relations
- Future Generations
Whenever you use a fact, report or example, ask:
- What does this prove?
- How does it support my argument?
- Is there another side?
Write them if they make you think.
These topics are outside the formal Test Series, but that should not stop you. If you want to attempt any one of them, write the essay and send it for review.
The purpose is not simply to prepare for a possible examination question. It is to become better at seeing connections, questioning assumptions and building an argument of your own.
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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.