Ethics, polity, society, economy and IR in long form, with CSAT-style comprehension questions.
UPSC pattern, marking & dates ↓
UPSC Essay papers 2013–2026, model essays free →Essays on ethics, polity, society and IR →
A hunted man wrote the most confident book about human improvement in March 1794. Malthus, two world wars and the Indian Constitution have each answered it since, and none has closed the argument.
A famous prediction of mass famine failed, yet the fear behind it shaped policy in India and still shapes arguments about numbers, fairness and the future.
India built its great dams in the name of the many, and the reservoirs rose over the homes of a few. The question of who may be asked to pay for a public good has never been fully settled.
India's Constitution names an official language, a list of scheduled languages and a promise to review. Seven decades later the review has still not ended the argument.
India stopped counting caste in 1951 and is preparing to count it again. Whether a census describes a society or helps to build it is a question older than the Republic.
The man who made the word famous meant it as a satire. A look at his warning, at India's long argument over merit and reservation, and at what deserving can mean.
A famous parable says shared resources are doomed, yet villages in India and elsewhere have long proved otherwise, and the hardest cases are the ones nobody can see.
India ended its dependence on imported wheat within a decade, and the methods that delivered plenty are now draining the soil that grew it. Can a nation judge a success whose bill arrives half a century late?
Ambedkar warned that India was entering a life of contradictions, with equal votes and unequal lives. Seven decades later, the warning has neither expired nor been fulfilled.
Ashoka's edicts confess to the horror of Kalinga, and in the same breath warn the forest peoples of his power. The tension between a state's conscience and its coercion has never been resolved, in his empire or in the Republic that adopted his symbols.
In 1943 millions starved in a province that, on much of the evidence, still held food. The economist who watched it as a child spent a career arguing that famines are not about what a country grows but about who is allowed to eat.
In the Odyssey the hero orders his crew to tie him to a mast so that he can hear a song that has killed every sailor before him. The knots look like the end of freedom, and the story has been used for three thousand years to argue that they are its proof.
UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) · Union Public Service Commission
CSE 2027 Prelims: 23 May 2027 (notification expected 13 January 2027, per the UPSC calendar).
| Section | Qs | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims GS Paper I (counts for cut-off) | 100 | 2 h |
| Prelims CSAT Paper II (qualifying) | 80 | 2 h |
| Mains Essay paper | 2 essays | 3 h |
Yes. You need 33% (66 of 200) in CSAT. Its marks aren’t added to your Prelims ranking.
80 questions, 2.5 marks each; a wrong answer loses one-third of the question’s marks.
Very. Reading comprehension is one of the largest parts of CSAT, and many aspirants lose marks there.
The UPSC calendar puts CSE Prelims 2027 on 23 May 2027.
Dates and patterns can change. Always confirm on the official website.
