📝 Essay Crash Course Starts Monday – 16th June at 8:00 AM!
📲 Access via App (Android and IoS)
🎁 1-Year Full Access | Includes World History
Course + Full Essay Test Series Assessed by Jawwad Kazi sir
📞 For queries, WhatsApp: 9689867863

🔥 Recommended by Toppers:
✅ Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89) – Improved by 30 marks to score 132
✅ Vivek Shukla (AIR 355) – Gained 44 marks to notch 138 , one of the highest amongst selected candidates,
And many more toppers

Led by Jawwad Kazi Sir, this 6-day LIVE intensive is your chance to master Essay writing with proven methods and personal guidance.

🚀 What You’ll Gain:
✍️ 8-Step Method to writing a winning UPSC Essay
📚 Hands-on practice in class with live writing & review
🧠 Decode GS & Philosophical topics with clarity
📝 Full Essay Test Series – 8 Tests (4 Full-Length + 4 Half-Length)
🌍 BONUS: World History Crash Course
🎥 1-Year Access to all recordings
👨‍🏫 One-to-One Mentorship by Jawwad Kazi Sir

🎯Enroll now and start transforming your preparation!

👉 Visit: civilscatalyst.akamai.net.in
📲 WhatsApp: 9689867863

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTPt70vA39k

A great case study that can be connected to multiple essay topics. Great watch otherwise too.

Essay Copy of UPSC Topper Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89). Essay score improvement from 102 to 132. I would urge you to see the rough page at the end. In the essay crash course we work on this template to have a very structured, meticulous and well planned rough work so that the actual writing of the essay becomes super easy.

I will be sharing some good copies of essays here in the days to come. These are written in real time constraints so these won't be perfect so to speak but will surely be helpful in understanding several nuances of essay writing. Happy reading.

📝 Essay Crash Course Starts Monday – 16th June at 8:00 AM!
📲 Access via App (Android and IoS)
🎁 1-Year Full Access | Includes World History
Course + Full Essay Test Series Assessed by Jawwad Kazi sir
📞 For queries, WhatsApp: 9689867863

🔥 Recommended by Toppers:
✅ Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89) – Improved by 30 marks to score 132
✅ Vivek Shukla (AIR 355) – Gained 44 marks to notch 138 , one of the highest amongst selected candidates,
And many more toppers

Led by Jawwad Kazi Sir, this 6-day LIVE intensive is your chance to master Essay writing with proven methods and personal guidance.

🚀 What You’ll Gain:
✍️ 8-Step Method to writing a winning UPSC Essay
📚 Hands-on practice in class with live writing & review
🧠 Decode GS & Philosophical topics with clarity
📝 Full Essay Test Series – 8 Tests (4 Full-Length + 4 Half-Length)
🌍 BONUS: World History Crash Course
🎥 1-Year Access to all recordings
👨‍🏫 One-to-One Mentorship by Jawwad Kazi Sir

🎯Enroll now and start transforming your preparation!

👉 Visit: civilscatalyst.akamai.net.in
📲 WhatsApp: 9689867863

Mega Scholarship Test of UPSC Guide. Refer to the attached pdf for details.

UG_PAMPHLET_MEGA SCHOLARSHIP TEST 2025.pdf

A lot of students while writing essay write the well known phrase as - Vasudeva Kutumbakam. Kindly note that it is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Vasudha means Earth or World. So the phrase means the World is one family.

Vasudeva on the other hand is a revered mythological figure.

In essays, contrasts are powerful tools. They help to articulate ideas very clearly. Sharing a few here for your reference, you can build on these -
A.Q. Khan vs Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam ( scientific genius for destructive power (nuclear proliferation) or for national development and inspiration.)
Dr. Josef Mengele vs Dr. Viktor Frankl ( intellect used for cruelty (Nazi medical experiments) or compassion and hope (logotherapy, "Man's Search for Meaning").
South Africa vs Zimbabwe (leadership choices - South Africa's reconciliation post-apartheid, Zimbabwe's economic collapse and ethnic strife.)
Vasily Arkhipov vs Adolf Eichmann (Moral courage vs blind obedience — Arkhipov prevented nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Eichmann became the face of the "banality of evil" through bureaucratic genocide.)
Nogales (USA) vs Nogales (Mexico) (Geography and social composition is the same, but governance, institutions, and rule of law create vastly different social and economic realities)

Jawwad Kazi
https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

And yes in contrast examples always give the negative one and then contrast it with the positive example.

Two contrasting stories about A.I.
Useful for topics on AI, Tech, Choices etc.

Student Speaks Out After AI Chatbot Allegedly Told Him to ‘Please Die’
https://people.com/college-student-speaks-out-ai-chatbot-allegedly-told-him-please-die-8750125


ChatGPT saved a pregnant woman's life
https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/woman-credits-chatgpt-for-saving-her-life-after-asking-a-question-just-for-fun-101744873502504.html?utm_source=ht_site_copyURL&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ht_site

Some great quotes by Nelson Mandela. Sharing here since I share many anecdotes from his life in the class and a lot of students use them in essay. You can end that story or anecdote with a relevant quote -

💢“You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”
💢“It never hurts to think too highly of a person; often they become ennobled and act better because of it.”
💢“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
💢“Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That’s why it’s such a powerful weapon.”
💢“Reconciliation does not mean forgetting or trying to bury the pain of conflict, but that reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.” – From a 1995 speech
💢“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Written during 27-year imprisonment
💢“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. They must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Long Walk to Freedom (1995)

Movie: The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse and social worker, orchestrated a secret network of women who rescued over 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Despite the constant threat of Nazi surveillance, she smuggled children to safety and preserved meticulous records to reunite them with their families after the war. In 1943, the Gestapo captured and tortured her, demanding information on her operations. She refused to betray anyone, and though sentenced to death, was miraculously saved by a bribed German guard via the Polish Resistance. While the children survived, the new Communist regime in Poland silenced many stories of resistance, and Irena's heroism remained largely unsung for decades.

While Oscar Schindler is widely known due to Schindler’s List, his example has become cliched in essay writing and ethics case studies. So you could use Irena Sendler’s example as it has many advantages - a gendered lens on resistance and humanitarianism, richer ethical complexity - civil resistance, moral silence under torture, and post-war injustice and it is not used by aspirants as yet. It can be useful in essays related to courage, empathy, resilience, perseverance etc.

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

Good Copy

Often when it comes to representation of women in governance, UPSC aspirants quote Rwanda, but that example has become too cliched. an alternative could be Mexico. Read this para for the same -

A seminal but old study by Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo had demonstrated that when women are given leadership roles, they tend to prioritize policies addressing the needs of women, such as health, education, and welfare. Mexico offers a compelling real-world validation of this finding. In 2014, Mexico introduced a gender parity reform mandating that 50% of all candidates for federal and local legislatures be women. This quota system has led not just to greater female representation but also to tangible policy shifts. A recent study by John Hassett and others found that female mayors (alcaldes) in Mexico have introduced significantly more initiatives related to health, education, and gender equality than their male counterparts since the reforms, echoing the earlier insights of Chattopadhyay and Duflo.

Having checked countless UPSC papers through the years, I’ve lost track of how often Jacinda Ardern makes an appearance as the poster girl for women’s leadership. So much so that, even the word cliché might quietly excuse itself the embarrassment. Here are some examples you might like to consider

1. Sanna Marin ( ex PM of Finland - 34 year old when she assumed the role. Led a coalition of women leaders)

2. Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Internationally known as “Africa’s Iron Lady,” is a leading promoter of freedom, peace, justice, women’s empowerment and democratic rule. As Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state, she has led Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following the nation’s decade-long civil war, as well as the Ebola Crisis, winning international acclaim for achieving economic, social, and political change. Awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace in 2011.

3. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim the former President of Mauritius, is a renowned scientist and a powerful symbol of women in science and leadership in Africa. She served as the 6th President of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018, making history as the first woman to hold the position. Beyond her presidency, she is a prominent biodiversity scientist and entrepreneur, with a strong focus on sustainable development and women's empowerment.

Case Study Summary: Amazon’s Biased AI in Hiring (2015)
In 2015, Amazon attempted to use Artificial Intelligence to automate its hiring process. The AI system was trained on historical data — resumes of past successful employees — under the assumption that past top performers could be a model for future hires.

However, this well-intended strategy backfired. Since the existing workforce was predominantly male (reflecting broader gender imbalances in the tech industry, often referred to as “Brotopia”), the data fed into the AI was already biased. As a result, the AI learned to favor male applicants and penalized resumes that included the word "women" — such as mentions of “Women’s College” or “Women’s Rugby Team.”

This failure is a textbook example of the Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) principle: flawed input data leads to flawed AI decisions. Amazon ultimately scrapped the tool, recognizing that it reinforced discrimination rather than eliminating it. In 2018 Amazon scrapped this 'sexist' recruiting tool.

Key Takeaways for Students: Understanding AI's Limitations
AI reflects human biases
If the training data mirrors societal or institutional prejudices, AI will not correct them, it will amplify them.

Historical data can be discriminatory
Using past data as a benchmark can unintentionally reward the status quo and suppress diversity, especially if past decisions were themselves biased.

AI is not neutral or objective by default
Despite appearing data-driven, algorithms can encode hidden assumptions and reproduce inequalities unless explicitly checked.

Lack of transparency in AI decision-making
It’s often difficult to understand how AI systems reach a decision (the “black box” problem), which makes accountability challenging.

Ethical design and auditing are critical
Building fair AI requires deliberate design choices, ethical oversight, regular audits, and inclusion of diverse perspectives at every stage.

AI needs context and human judgment
Algorithms can process patterns, but they lack the contextual understanding, ethical reasoning, and nuance that human decision-making brings.

Responsibility lies with creators, not just code
The case shows that organizations cannot blindly trust AI — they must take responsibility for outcomes and consequences.

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

Photo from Jawwad Kazi