SECTION B
Essay
125 marks
What is research, but a blind date with knowledge!
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The topic compares research to a blind date: one sets out with hope and preparation but cannot know what will be found, and surprises, disappointments and serendipity are part of the process. The examiner expects an essay on curiosity, uncertainty and openness in research, and on how India supports it.
ThesisResearch thrives on prepared curiosity meeting the unexpected, so societies must fund open-ended inquiry and tolerate failure rather than demand guaranteed results.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Nature of research: hypotheses guide inquiry, but the most important findings often arrive unplanned
- 2Serendipity: chance discoveries happen only to minds trained to notice them
- 3Funding: outcome-driven grants discourage risky inquiry, yet basic research produces the foundations for later applications
- 4India: low private research spending and weak university research have long held back innovation, prompting new institutions
- 5Ethics: like any encounter, research needs consent and integrity, especially in human trials and data use
- 6Failure: negative results are part of research, and science suffers when only successes are published
Counter-view
- A counter is that research is systematic and methodical, not a blind gamble. The essay should agree that method is essential, and say the 'blind date' metaphor refers to the uncertainty of outcomes, not the absence of preparation
Open and close
- Open: Open with Alexander Fleming returning from holiday in 1928 to find a mouldy petri dish he might have thrown away, and instead asking why the bacteria around the mould had died
- Close: Conclude that a nation that wants great discoveries must keep sending its researchers on blind dates, funding curiosity and accepting that not every meeting will lead somewhere
Where marks usually go
- Treating the 'blind date' literally and writing about relationships
- Writing a GS answer on India's R&D statistics without the theme of uncertainty and curiosity
- Suggesting research is pure luck and ignoring method, preparation and rigour
Examples that fit
- HistoryAlexander Fleming noticed in 1928 that mould contaminating a culture plate had killed surrounding bacteria, leading to penicillin.Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945, nobelprize.org
- HistoryC.V. Raman's curiosity about the blue of the Mediterranean on a 1921 sea voyage led to research on light scattering and the Raman effect, announced on 28 February 1928.Nobel Prize in Physics 1930, nobelprize.org; National Science Day, Department of Science and Technology
- CaseThe Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023 set up a body to fund and coordinate research across universities and institutions.Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023; Department of Science and Technology
- ThinkerVannevar Bush argued that basic research, pursued without thought of practical ends, is the pacemaker of technological progress.Science, the Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush (1945)