Paper I - Notes on Essay

India: Democracy, administration, Society, culture

1. India Since Independence
1. Is the Colonial mentality hindering India's Success? - 2013
2. In the context of Gandhiji’s views on the matter, explore, on an evolutionary scale, the terms ‘Swadhinata’, ‘Swaraj’ and ‘Dharmarajya’. Critically comment on their contemporary relevance to Indian democracy -2012
3. Dreams which should not let India sleep. -2015
4. Why should we be proud of being Indians? -2000
5. Whither Indian democracy? -1995
6. How far has democracy in India delivered the goods? -2003
7. What we have not learnt during fifty years of independence. -1997
8. What have we gained from our democratic set-up? -2001
9. My vision of India in 2001 a.d. -1993
2. Federalism, Decentralization
1. Water disputes between States in federal India. -2016
2. Cooperative federalism : Myth or reality. -2016
3. Creation of smaller states and the consequent administrative, economic and developmental implication -2011
4. Evaluation of panchayati raj system in India from the point of view of eradication of power to people.  -2007
5. Water resources should be under the control of the central government. -2004
6. The language problem in India: its past, present and prospects. -1998
3. Administration
1. How should a civil servant conduct himself? -2003
2. Politics without ethics is a disaster. -1995
3. The VIP cult is a bane of Indian democracy -1996
4. Need for transparency in public administration -1996
5. The country’s need for a better disaster management system. -2000
6. Politics, bureaucracy and business – fatal triangle. -1994
4. Judiciary
1. Justice must reach the poor -2005
2. Judicial activism and Indian democracy. -2004
3. Judicial activism. -1997
5. Poverty, Social Justice
1. Economic growth without distributive justice is bound to breed violence. -1993
2. The focus of health care is increasingly getting skewed towards the ‘haves’ of our society. -2009
3. Food security for sustainable national development -2005
4. Reservation, politics and empowerment. -1999
6. Indian Culture and Values
1. Indian culture today: a myth or a reality? -2000
2. Modernism and our traditional socio-ethical values. -2000
3. The composite culture of India. -1998
4. The Indian society at the crossroads. -1994
5. From traditional Indian philanthropy to the gates-buffet model-a natural progression or a paradigm shift? -2010
6. New cults and godmen: a threat to traditional religion -1996
7. Media, TV & Cinema
1. Responsibility of media in a democracy. -2002
2. Role of media in good governance -2008
3. Does Indian cinema shape our popular culture or merely reflect it? -2011
4. How has satellite television brought about cultural change in Indian mindsets? -2007
5. Is sting operation an invasion of privacy? -2014
6. Mass media and cultural invasion. -1999
7. The misinterpretation and misuse of freedom in India. -1998

Economy, Development

1. Growth vs Development
1. Digital economy: A leveller or a source of economic inequality. -2016
2. Innovation is the key determinant of economic growth and social welfare. -2016
3. Near jobless growth in India: An anomaly or an outcome of economic reforms. -2016
4. Crisis faced in India – moral or economic. -2015
5. Was it the policy paralysis or the paralysis of implementation which slowed the growth of our country? -2014
6. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) along with GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness) would be the right indices for judging the wellbeing of a country - 2013
7. Can capitalism bring inclusive growth? -2015
8. Resource management in the Indian context. -1999
2. Environment vs Development
1. Ecological considerations need not hamper development. -1993
2. Protection of ecology and environment is essential for sustained economic development. -2006
3. Should a moratorium be imposed on all fresh mining in tribal areas of the country? -2010
4. Urbanization is a blessing in disguise. -1997
5. Urbanisation and its hazards -2008
3. MNCs
1. Globalization would finish small-scale industries in India. -2006
2. Multinational corporations – saviours or saboteurs -1994
3. Special economic zone: boon or bane -2008
4. Is the criticism that the ‘Public-Private-Partnership’ (PPP) model for development is more of a bane than a boon in the Indian context, justified ?-2012
4. Sectors of Economy
1. BPO boom in India.   -2007
2. Tourism: Can this be the next big thing for India? -2014
3. Are our traditional handicrafts doomed to a slow death? -2009

Education

Values in Education

1. Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make a man more clever devil - 2015
2. Independent thinking should be encouraged right form the childhood. -2007
3. Are the standardized tests good measure of academic ability or progress? -2014
4. Irrelevance of the classroom. -2001
5. Is the growing level of competition good for the youth? -2014
6. Literacy is growing very fast, but there is no corresponding growth in education. -1996
7. Is an egalitarian society possible by educating the masses ? -2008
8. What is real education? -2005

Scheme implementation

1. “Education for all” campaign in India: myth or reality. -2006
2. Restructuring of Indian education system. -1995

Higher education

1. Privatization of higher education in India. -2002
2. Credit – based higher education system – status , opportunities and challenges -2011

Quote based, Philosophy, Ethics

Character, honesty

1. Need brings greed, if greed increases it spoils breed. -2016
2. Character of an institution is reflected in its leader. -2015
3. With greater power comes greater responsibility. -2014
4. Words are sharper than the two-edged sword. -2014
5. Attitude makes, habit makes character and character makes a man.  -2007
6. He would reigns within himself and folds his passions and desires and fears is more than a king. -1993

Knowledge

1. There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. -2003
2. Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of civilisation. -1995

Compassion

1. Compassion is the basic of all morality would -1993
2. Lending hands to someone is better than giving a dole. -2015
3. Be the change you want to see in others (Gandhi)-2013

Truth

1. Truth is lived, not taught -1996
2. When money speaks, the truth is silent. -1995
3. Search for truth can only be a spiritual problem. -2002

Youth, Discipline

1. Discipline means success, anarchy means ruin -2008
2. Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret -1994
3. If youth knew, if age could. -2002
4. Youth culture today. -1999
5. Fifty Golds in Olympics: Can this be a reality for India? -2014

Towards excellence

1. Quick but steady wins the race. -2015
2. Useless life is an early death. -1994
3. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. -1995
4. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. -2002
5. The pursuit of excellence. -2001

Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.

The word 'victory' calls to our mind names of men like Alexander, Caesar Napoleon, Chengiz Khan and Tamerlane who fought many wars, won victories and made themselves famous. Indeed, these are the men whom generally we adore as heroes.

There is no doubt those they were men of ability and power some of them might be mere soldiers of fortune, ravaging countries and destroying civilizations. But many of them were builders, too. Alexander left a large empire behind, and Julius Caesar laid the foundation of the grandeur that was Rome.

It is often said that Napoleon was the greatest soldier of all times, that he could work miracles, but although he might have brought glories to France, his wars killed so many thousands of Frenchmen that France was faced with depopulation.

One needs to speak of the countries that Napoleon warred on, in which damage to property was almost as great as the loss of lives, so that those who were left alive had to struggle against famine and chaos.

It is said that wars may destroy much; but they also build empires. But that in itself is a half-truth. An empire based on force can never be stable or create happiness and contentment. After Alexander's death his empire was broken into fragments that could never be united again.

Napoleon brought many countries under his sway but he could not retain his power, and it is these conquered countries that combined to overthrow him the conqueror was conquered by his own victims.

War is a kind of lust that is not satisfied until it has destroyed itself. Once men and nations yield to this passion, they will go on from destruction to destruction until they are themselves destroyed.

This is what victory in war effects in spite of all the glory that is associated with it. Contrast this with man's achievements in times of peace, which may appear to be uneventful. It is in peace that scientists can apply themselves to the invention not of newer and swifter means of destruction but of newer methods of improving the condition of mankind.

It is in times of peace only that scientists, philosophers and men of letters can devote themselves undisturbed to the advancement of learning, to the acquisition of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Quite accidentally, some beneficial scientific inventions have been made during the times of war.

But generally such times are barren so far as progress in knowledge is concerned. In times of war, the energy of the atom is applied to the making of atom bombs; in times of peace the same energy is utilized to add to the comfort and happiness of mankind.

In war man fights against his fellows, against other men; in peace he fights against poverty, disease and ignorance.

It might naturally have been expected that the largest number of votes would go to Napoleon who had dazzled the world by his successes on the battlefield. But it was not so.

The people of France by an overwhelming majority decided that the greatest Frenchman was Louis Pasteur, the eminent scientist, who, by his researches, had helped to save innumerable lives.

The victories of peace were, indeed, more renowned than war. Who is greater and more renowned: Socrates or Alexander, Shakespeare or the Duke of Marlborough?

Raja Ram Mohan Roy championed the cause of widow remarriage and abolition of slavery. Mahatma Gandhi and Ambedkar won victories in the abolition of the abhorrent practice of untouchability.

Such are a few of the victories of peace-victories far more worth winning than the most famous military triumphs.

It is not merely a question of tangible achievements, of the medicines Pasteur invented or the dramas Shakespeare wrote; it is a question of fundamental ideas. War is based on hatred. We generally make war on other nations whom we want to subjugate, whom we hate, whom we consider inferior to us.

Peace is the product of goodwill among nations; it promotes understanding between them, stimulates international trade and leads to cultural contacts.

From whatever point of view we may look at the matter, there is no doubt that the victories of peace are greater than those of war. It is only a mistaken sense of values that makes war popular, and it may be hoped that as men are drawn to one another by ties of friendship, war will be a thing of the past.

Women empowerment

National Politics

1. Greater political power alone will not improve women’s plight. -1997
2. Women’s reservation bill would usher in empowerment for women in India. -2006
3. The new emerging women power: the ground realities. -1995

World / Quote type

1. If women ruled the world -2005
2. The hand that rocks the cradle -2005

Empowerment overall

1. If development is not engendered, it is endangered. -2016
2. Whither women’s emancipation? -2004
3. Empowerment alone cannot help our women. -2001
4. Women empowerment: challenges and prospects. -1999

Compared to men

1. Woman is god’s best creation. -1998
2. Men have failed: let women take over. -1993
3. Managing work and home – is the Indian working woman getting a fair deal ?-2012

International, Internal Security

Globalization

1. Geography may remain the same ; history need not. -2010
2. Modernisation and westernisation are not identical concepts. -1994
3. ‘Globalization’ vs. ‘Nationalism’ -2009
4. National identity and patriotism -2008
5. Globalizations and its impact on Indian culture. -2004
6. The masks of new imperialism. -2003
7. As civilization advances culture declines. -2003
8. The implications of globalization for India. -2000
9. My vision of an ideal world order. -2001
10. India’s contribution to world wisdom. -1998
11. The world of the twenty-first century. -1998
12. Preparedness of our society for India’s global leadership role. -2010

International Org./ Bilateral

1. Restructuring of UNO reflect present realities -1996
2. The global order: political and economic -1993
3. India’s role in promoting ASEAN co-operation. -2004
4. Importance of Indo-US nuclear agreement -2006

Security

1. Good fences make good neighbours -2009
2. Terrorism and world peace -2005
3. True religion cannot be misused. -1997
4. In the Indian context , both human intelligence and technical intelligence are crucial in combating terrorism -2011
5. Is autonomy the best answer to combat balkanization? -2007
6. Are we a ‘soft ’ state ? -2009

Science-Technology

Science and Religion

1. Spirituality and scientific temper. -2003
2. Science and Mysticism : Are they compatible ?-2012

Science and Education

1. Modern technological education and human values. -2002
2. Value-based science and education. -1999
3. The march of science and the erosion of human values. -2001

Computer and internet

1. Cyberspace and Internet : Blessing or curse to the human civilization in the long run -2016
2. Increasing computerization would lead to the creation of a dehumanized society. -2006
3. The cyberworld: its charms and challenges. -2000
4. Computer: the harbinger of silent revolution. -1993

Sci-Tech: others

1. Technology cannot replace manpower. -2015
2. Science and technology is the panacea for the growth and security of the nation-2013
3. The modern doctor and his patients. -1997
4. The lure of space. -2004

The modern doctor and his patients

As medicine moves more and more into the clinic and seeks the unquestioned advantage of expensive laboratory and other diagnostic “hardware” in medical centers, more and more also the old-fashioned general practitioner’s awareness at first hand of the social, economic, emotional, and cultural context of his patients is lost. 

"If the 1940’s was an era of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic expansion, the 1950’s can be considered the introductory period of the social or behavioural sciences".

These days, our culture encourages patients to find a doctor who understands their needs best, and to seek out treatment that best suits them, health experts say. What is noticed in the last 10 or 15 years, is that the patients are now better at advocating for themselves. They are more critical of their options. They have the resources to make better-educated choices and, in turn, they know to make their preferences known when they seek medical help.

Technology is changing the information advantage between doctor and patient.  Used to be that doctors were the only ones educated in the science of medicine.  But with the ability to become half-doctor/half-supermom, you can know a lot more about your issues before you even set foot in the doctor’s office. Doctors have a new opportunity to have a meaningful relationship with their patients.  They must learn to really listen to the patient’s whole experience to satisfy what patients are figuring out…the truth! Patients have vital information regarding their bodies and are seeking the humble wisdom of a thoughtful clinician who listens, processes and presents her/his ideas so that both can implement the best strategy satisfying the needs of the doctor-patient relationship. 

‘It takes a village to heal a patient' and many healthcare providers are finding that they work best as a coordinated, cohesive team, rather than individually in the traditional model. For patients with complex or long-term conditions in particular, their care requires a host of experts to reach a successful outcome: perhaps a primary care physician, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, physician specialists, and home health aides, not to mention partners, children, friends, or neighbours. 

Compiled from <http://mrunal.org/2016/12/download-csm16-essay-paper.html>