What gives meaning to your life. PEW research survey in 17 developed countries. Relevant for essays like There is no path to happiness, happiness is the path.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/11/18/what-makes-life-meaningful-views-from-17-advanced-economies/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/odisha-ias-officer-hailing-from-tripura-caught-taking-bribe/articleshow/121736252.cms

Can be a good example in multiple contexts. Very recent case. Try to give some very recent examples in your essay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8ajoGL8jII
This is a beautiful recent documentary. Relevant on themes around ecological ethics. Sharing a summary based on the transcripts over here. Some good perspectives and case studies also embedded in it. It might be useful.

Summary of "Churning The Earth"
Environmental Crisis and Critique of Development:

The Earth is facing ecological collapse driven by unchecked economic growth, mass consumption, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

Over a billion people are already affected by climate change, with the situation projected to worsen.

The dominant model of "development" is seen as extractive and unsustainable, benefiting a few while harming communities and ecosystems.

Alternative Models and Local Solutions:

Ladakh Tourism: Once a low-impact region, tourism exploded, leading to ecological strain. A solution emerged through homestays, which reduced environmental damage and shared income with local communities.

Sustainable Farming: In various regions, communities have shown how traditional farming—using native seeds, local knowledge, and minimal inputs—can ensure food security and ecological balance.

Recognition of Indigenous Knowledge: Farmers and communities possess deep experiential knowledge often overlooked by mainstream science and policy. Valuing diverse knowledges is crucial for justice and sustainability.

Framework of Transformation – The ‘Flower’ Model:

A metaphorical flower represents five spheres of transformation:

Political Transformation – Community empowerment and local governance.

Social Justice – Addressing caste, gender, and ability-based inequalities.

Economic Justice – Localization, self-reliance, and a caring economy.

Cultural & Knowledge Diversity – Celebrating languages, crafts, and indigenous learning.

Ecological Wisdom – Respect for nature and interdependence.

Intersections of these spheres represent shared values like solidarity, justice, and sustainability.

Grassroots Examples:

Kunariya Village: A model of inclusive rural development focusing on equality, ecological resilience, and youth engagement.

Education at 'Muddam': An alternative learning space emphasizing play, nature, and community-based knowledge, especially post-COVID.

‘Third Share’ Model: A sustainable harvesting initiative where nature, local communities, and consumers each receive a fair share.

Nagaland Weaving Initiatives: Revival of indigenous seeds, traditional crafts, and women’s economic empowerment linked to cultural identity and resilience.

Resistance and Rebellion:

Activism and rebellion are portrayed as natural responses to exploitative development models. Movements resisting urban mega-projects or defending forests embody hope and alternative visions for progress.

Storytelling, music, and art are tools to express dissent and envision better futures.

Global Connection:

The film is part of a broader movement called the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, connecting similar grassroots efforts worldwide to build collective momentum for systemic change.

Final Message:

While dominant systems push a narrow vision of progress, countless communities are building viable alternatives rooted in justice, sustainability, and cultural richness.

Dreaming of better worlds and sharing these stories is essential to inspire broader transformation.

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

10 inspiring women sarpanches featured by The Better India

1. Chhavi Rajawat
Village/District, State: Soda, Tonk district, Rajasthan

Background: MBA graduate who left a telecom corporate career

Work: As Sarpanch since 2010, she introduced clean water, solar power, paved roads, toilets, a bank, and championed digital connectivity—earning a platform at the UN Infopoverty Conference
Wikipedia


2. Sushma Bhadu
Villages/District, State: Salam Khera, Chablamori & Dhani Miyan Khan, Haryana

Background: Mother of three; from a traditional setting resisting girls’ education

Work: Since 2010, abolished ghunghat norms, set up women’s training centre, achieved zero school dropouts, improved sanitation, and promoted the best sex ratio in the district


3. Meena Behen
Village/District, State: Vyara district, Gujarat

Background: Former member of a self-help group supported by World Vision

Work: Headed an all-women panchayat, empowered women, and spearheaded infrastructure improvements like roads, healthcare centres, and schools


4. Vandana Bahadur Maida
Village/District, State: Khankhandvi, Madhya Pradesh

Background: Homemaker; overcame family resistance and local patriarchy

Work: As first woman sarpanch, drove projects for bridges, schools, and livelihoods; recognized in the UN Women 2013 calendar


5. Arati Devi
Village/District, State: Dhunkapara, Odisha

Background: Former investment banker who relinquished her job

Work: Revived traditional folk arts, ensured effective access to welfare schemes, and promoted transparency—recognized by the US State Department’s leadership initiative


6. Atram Padma Bai
Villages/District, State: Eight tribal villages, Telangana

Background: Tribal farmer cultivating cotton, pulses on her land

Work: Used a ₹30,000 loan to start an equipment-sharing coop, built roads, implemented rainwater harvesting and school water pumps


7. Bhakti Sharma
Village/District, State: Barkhedi Abdulla, outskirts of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Background: Political Science graduate who returned from the U.S.

Work: Elected 2014, she delivered government benefits effectively and aims to make the panchayat a model; listed among India’s 100 most influential women


8. Radha Devi
Village/District, State: Bhadsiya, Nagaur district, Rajasthan

Background: Educated up to class 5

Work: As sarpanch, protested schoolgirls doing manual chores, reprimanded authorities, boosted enrolment, and reduced dropout rates


9. Hinal Patel
Village/District, State: Sisva, Anand district, Gujarat

Background: Nursing graduate; led an all-women panchayat of educated, unmarried women aged 21–26

Work: Since 2011, they convene weekly, design and execute a structured development agenda, bringing professionalism to village governance


10. Nauroti Devi
Village/District, State: Harmada, Ajmer district, Rajasthan

Background: Dalit, illiterate, former stone-cutter; fought wage inequality

Work: Elected in 2010, she campaigned for fair wages, built toilets and homes, reclaimed land for a health centre, and introduced computer training. Left a ₹1.3 million surplus in the panchayat fund

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

Select any four diverse case studies and remember them. Make it a cross cultural, regional pick.

Costa Rica’s "Payments for Environmental Services Program" highlighted by UNFCCC

What Is the PES Program?
Costa Rica’s Payments for Environmental Services (PES) is a pioneering national state-backed incentive scheme launched in 1997 to support forest conservation and restore degraded ecosystems.
Landowners are paid directly for delivering four key environmental services like carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection, water regulation, and landscape beauty, through sustainable land use, reforestation, and forest management

How It’s Funded
• Financed from fuel taxes and water usage charges
• Revenue also comes from carbon credits, Certificates of Conservation, and collaborations with public and private sector partners

Impact & Reach
• 18,000+ families have benefitted
• Covers over 1.3 million hectares via long-term (5 or 10 years) contracts
• Attracted over USD 524 million in investments by 2020

Why It Matters
• Reversed decades of rampant deforestation: forest cover dropped from ~50% in 1950 to 25% by 1995, but has since rebounded
• Integrates social justice features for e.g., extra points for female landowners and tailored opportunities for indigenous people thus ensuring equitable participation and benefits

Ecosystem & Climate Benefits
• Successfully protects primary and secondary forests and fosters sustainable plantations
• Supports integrated watershed management, local biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and scenic preservation

Human & Community Gains
• Families use payments for essentials like food, schooling, healthcare, and to fund community projects (e.g., health centre construction)

Costa Rica’s PES illustrates that well-designed, publicly funded ecosystem services payments anchored in fairness, gender-responsiveness, and community engagement can effectively restore forests, enhance biodiversity, regulate water systems, sequester carbon, and uplift local livelihoods.

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

A case study that can be used in multiple different types of essays - Forest are the best case studies for economic excellence. Ecology is permanent economy. There are better practices to 'Best Practices'. All ideas with large consequences are always simple and many more.

Remember you need the skill of connection more than you need content.

Inderjeet Singh Sidhu 88 year retired senior police officer cleans his locality at 6am every day. Hats off to the hero. He is a great example to be emulated.
What are the virtues that you can notice in his sense of duty? Can it be a great example for multiple themes in essay topics.

https://new.uniquejapan.com/ikebana/ma/

Read this Japanese concept of Ma which means empty space in literal sense but is a lot more deep. Can it be relevant in multiple areas?

Excerpted - The key point I would take away from the concept of Ma is to slow down and step back, feel and see from a whole perspective. Not only does this lead to personal growth, it reminds us that our actions play a role in shaping the world we share. This is ultimately where we find fulfillment.

Can Ma be used before we enter into solutions section.? Your thoughts?

In one of the tests I have given the topic - Public trust and effective governance hinge on the integrity of institutions.
Several students have referred to the ECI in it. I think these quotes can add some sharpness to that.
“India’s election is of a size which is just unthinkable - more voters than all 50 countries of Europe, 54 of Africa, and 43 of North and South America put together."
“This is not just the biggest election in the world. I dare say - it’s the biggest human event management in the world.”
“In a forest in Gujarat, we set up a polling station for just one priest. A team sleeps there overnight just so he can vote.”
S Y Qureshi (former CEC and author of the book on Indian elections The Undocumented Wonder)

The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review

@ Commissioned by the UK Treasury and led by Professor (Sir) Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University
@ Highlights the urgent need to recognize nature as a core part of economic decision-making.
@ It argues that humanity is demanding more from nature than it can sustainably provide, resulting in degraded ecosystems, lost biodiversity, and increased risk to future prosperity.
@ Biodiversity provides resilience and insurance against ecological shocks. Loss of species weakens ecosystem stability and increases the risk of collapse.


Our economies rely on the services nature provides, such as clean air, food, water, and climate regulation. However, these are often undervalued or ignored in traditional economic models.
GDP, for instance, fails to reflect environmental degradation and loss of natural capital.

Key solutions include
1. replacing GDP with measures that track inclusive wealth
2. reforming subsidies that harm biodiversity (e.g., fossil fuels, unsustainable agriculture).
3. investing in nature-based solutions, and fostering global cooperation.
4. Education and community empowerment. Indigenous and local communities should be central actors in conservation. Recognize and support their rights and traditional ecological knowledge.
5. Embed nature in economic decision-making.
6. Invest in natural capital.

The report calls for a fundamental shift in how we think, measure, and act on development to ensure a more resilient and equitable future.

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

To make our essays stand out, we can refer to authors and book takeaways on the given subject. It helps to add some intellectual heft to our content. Hence I am sharing such things with you all here. This book can be useful in any essay pertaining environment or ecology.

Eg. Forests precede civilizations deserts follow it. 2024

A good essay. I would urge you all to read it.

"The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you" Werner Heisenberg, a Nobel Prize-winning German physicist and pioneer of quantum mechanics. (Quote for religion, science, spirituality debates)

In challenges and solutions we often use digital addictions and over usage of screen times but lack sharpness. These data points can be used. From yesterday's news on CNBC.

Vinod Kamble crying because UPSC aspirants keep comparing him with Sachin in their essays and make him feel inadequate even today. On a lighter note😁

At least compare Prithvi Shaw with Shubman Gill for a fresh perspective.

James Mcgregor Burns gave the idea of transformational leadership that can be useful in many essays and Ethics paper. It is defined as a process in which leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality, motivation, and purpose. Unlike transactional leadership, which is based on exchanges or rewards for compliance, transformational leadership inspires and transforms people by appealing to their values and sense of meaning.

It is based on - mutual elevation, based on morality, change oriented and driven by a vision.

Key ideas -
1. Leader acts as a role model, earning respect and trust by demonstrating strong values and ethics.
2. Leader communicates a clear, compelling vision that energizes and unites followers.
3. Encourages creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving among followers.
4. Treats each follower as unique, mentoring and supporting their personal development.

Examples of blend of science and religion -
I. Indian
• Traditional examples -
○ Charaka saw health as a balance of body, mind, and spirit, aligning closely with Vedic metaphysics.
○ Sushrutha's Sushruta Samhita invokes the Goddess Dhanvantari.
○ Nagarjuna was a Buddhist monk and expert in Chemistry and material transformation.
○ Kanada -the Founder of Vaisheshika or atomist school in India. Saw anu i.e. atoms as created and guided by God.
○ Ayurveda - Blends both.
• Modern examples -
○ Prafulla Chandra Ray - Swadeshi science rooted in both modern rationality and Indian spirituality.
○ Ramanujan was a devout Hindu. He even attributed his mathematical insights to the Hindu goddess Namagiri. For him an equation "had no meaning unless it revealed the mind of god".
○ Dr. Kalam too believed in God. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam viewed religion as a path to spiritualism and unity, emphasizing that great individuals use religion to foster connections while smaller minds use it for division.
○ Isro Chief S Somanath recently stated - "Process of science and spirituality are the same. They both start at 'I do not know(something)'. The difference is that the former is external and the latter is internal."
II. Western
• Traditional
○ Mendel was a monk & his famous pea plant experiments were conducted in a monastery garden.
○ Galileo was in fact a devout catholic.
○ Kepler was a devout Christian and once said on his discoveries - "I was thinking God's thoughts after him."
○ Michael Faraday is a pioneer in Electromagnetism. Refused to work on weapons research due to Christian beliefs.
• Modern
○ Einstein believed in a cosmic religion and was awe inspired by the universe’s harmony.
○ Max Planck, the father of Quantum Physics - “Both religion and science require a belief in God.”
Francis Collins, the former director of the Human Genome Project, is a devout Christian and author of The Language of God.