The PRESS Pad

The UPSC Mains 2026 Essay Paper once again raises an important question for Civil Services aspirants: is UPSC gradually moving away from conventional, information-heavy essays towards topics that test a candidate's personality, intellectual maturity and ability to think through ambiguity? According to Daksha Jain, UPSC faculty and one-to-one mentor for Civil Services aspirants, the 2026 Essay Paper should not be viewed simply as a collection of eight topics. Taken together, t