Policy questions school students can research, by subject

What makes a policy topic researchable at school?

Lists of policy topics usually give a subject: air quality, jobs, health costs. A topic becomes researchable once it turns into a question, with an official source to read and a comparison to make. Four tests, our suggestions rather than any board’s rule, sort a workable question from a broad topic:

• It is open: either answer is possible, and the wording leans towards neither.
• An official page the student can open could answer it: a ministry’s page, an RBI page, a census table or a survey’s study page.
• It fits the time: one place, one measure and two points in time suit a term’s project.
• It sits in a subject the student already studies, so a subject teacher can judge the method.

Turning a broad interest into one question is covered in our guide to choosing a research question the student can answer. This page starts after that step, with policy questions only, by subject.

How should a question be worded so it carries no answer?

A loaded question has its conclusion built in. It names a cause before anyone has measured the effect, or counts only the part of a problem that suits one view. The repair is to ask what changed, by which measure and for whom, before asking why. Three worked pairs follow, our own generic examples, naming no party, government, scheme or person.

Our example 1. Loaded: “Why is coaching ruining school education?” It assumes harm and names the cause. Open: “How much of what households spend on schooling goes on coaching or tuition, and how does that compare with fees, textbooks and transport?” Read: MoSPI’s Comprehensive Modular Survey on Education. Our explainer on private tuition in India and what the data say carries figures for this pair.

Our example 2. Loaded: “How can we stop the air from getting worse?” It assumes the trend and skips the measure. Open: “In one city’s AQI bulletins, how many days last winter fell in each category, against the winter before?” Read: the Central Pollution Control Board’s current and archived bulletins.

Our example 3. Loaded: “Why don’t women work?” It counts only paid work and assumes a cause. Open: “How do women and men divide paid work, unpaid domestic work and caregiving, and did that change between the 2019 and 2024 surveys?” Read: MoSPI’s Time Use Survey.

Once the question is open, and where it touches a policy, the student lists who supports that policy and who criticises it, quoting each in its own published words, with the date: a ministry’s statement, a committee’s report, a published study. The student’s own sentences report the data; the arguments stay with the people who made them.

A last check: could a careful student, reading the same sources, land on either side? If only one answer fits the wording, the question needs another pass.

Where do the official numbers live?

Most questions below rest on one of the ten pages in Table 1. MoSPI’s survey data sit in an online microdata library, microdata.gov.in, whose Central Data Catalog has a study page for each survey. The study pages can be read online; before downloading any data file, the student reads the site’s “Policies and Guidelines” page.

Table 1. Official pages only: a ministry, the RBI, MoSPI’s survey office, the Census office, the Central Pollution Control Board, and IIPS, an autonomous organisation of the health ministry. Each row read on 13 November 2026; rounds change. Rows are alphabetical, not ranked.

Two more official pages carry single questions below: the RBI’s Payment System Indicators, in mathematics, and the India Meteorological Department’s Rainfall Information page, in geography. PRS Legislative Research’s Bills Track, used in civics, stays out of the table, which lists official pages only.

Which policy questions fit each school subject?

Each question below is our suggestion, worded to leave the answer open, with what to read and what to compare. Any of them can be narrowed to the student’s state, district or city.

Economics

The RBI’s Monetary Policy Framework page says that on 5 August 2016 the Central Government notified 4 per cent CPI inflation as the target, with an upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent and a lower one of 2 per cent. On 25 March 2026, in its second review, the Central Government kept the target and the band for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031.

Our suggestion: Since August 2016, how often has average inflation stayed inside the band, quarter by quarter?

• Read: the RBI’s page, with its test for failing the target (average inflation above the upper tolerance level, or below the lower one, for any three consecutive quarters), and the official Consumer Price Index series.
• Compare: each quarter against the band; August 2016 to March 2021 against April 2021 to March 2026.

Our suggestion: How do households split their spending across food, consumables and services, and durable goods, and how does that split shape the official Consumer Price Indices?

• Read: MoSPI’s Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24, in Table 1.
• Compare: the three groups, then the budget shares of commodity groups that the indices’ weighting diagram uses.

Geography and environment

Our suggestion: In the student’s district, how often in recent years has rainfall been above or below the normal, and by how much would a water plan that assumed the normal every year have been off?

• Read: the India Meteorological Department’s Rainfall Information page: district rainfall, “Rainfall Statistics” and normal rainfall maps; the student first checks which past years it covers for the district.
• Compare: each year against the normal.

Our suggestion: Which towns in the student’s state moved up a population size class between 2001 and 2011, and how did their growth compare with the state’s?

• Read: census tables A-04, on towns and urban agglomerations by population size class in 2011, and A-02, on decadal variation in population from 1901 to 2011. Our explainer on how India’s census works covers the count.
• Compare: each town’s growth from 2001 to 2011 against the state’s.

Political science and civics

Our suggestion: When a parliamentary committee reports on a bill, which of its recommendations, if any, appear in the text that is passed?

• Read: PRS Legislative Research’s Bills Track, which gives each bill a status, to choose a bill that went to a committee and has since been passed; then the bill as introduced, the committee’s report and the bill as passed.
• Compare: the two texts, clause by clause, with the report beside them.

Our suggestion: How did the Union’s transfers to the student’s state change between two budgets, and how does the state’s own budget describe that money?

• Read: the Union Budget documents on the Ministry of Finance’s site for two years, starting with “Budget at a Glance” and its section on the transfer of resources to states and union territories with legislature; then the state’s own budget.
• Compare: one budget against the next; the Union’s account beside the state’s. A view on how the money is shared is quoted as its publisher’s.

Sociology

Our suggestion: How do girls and boys divide the day between learning, leisure and self-care, and did that change between the 2019 and 2024 surveys?

• Read: MoSPI’s Time Use Survey, first checking which age groups its results cover.
• Compare: girls against boys; 2019 against 2024.

Our suggestion: In the 2011 census tables on migration, how many people in the student’s district were counted as migrants, and how does the district compare with its state?

• Read: the migration series in the census tables.
• Compare: district against state; women against men, where the tables give both.

Biology and health

Our suggestion: How much do households spend out of their own pockets on a hospital stay, and how does that differ between people with health insurance cover and people without?

• Read: MoSPI’s Survey on Household Social Consumption: Health, January to December 2025, on insurance coverage and out-of-pocket spending.
• Compare: insured against uninsured; hospital stays against out-patient treatment.

Our suggestion: For one indicator the student chooses, in maternal and child health or in nutrition, how did the student’s state change between two rounds of the National Family Health Survey?

• Read: the IIPS page on the survey, then the state’s fact sheets for both rounds.
• Compare: round against round; the state against India as a whole.

Mathematics and statistics

Our suggestion: How much does the unemployment rate change when the reference period is the last 7 days rather than the last 365 days, and what does each measure catch that the other misses?

• Read: MoSPI’s Periodic Labour Force Survey for calendar year 2025, which reports both: usual status (ps+ss) and current weekly status (CWS).
• Compare: the two measures for the same group of people.

A shorter exercise: the RBI publishes Payment System Indicators in editions named by month, with volumes and values for each payment system, UPI among them; the edition on the page read was March 2026. Our suggestion: Does the value of UPI payments grow at the same pace as their volume?

History

Our suggestion: How has the population of the student’s state grown decade by decade from 1901 to 2011, and which decades, if any, break the pattern?

• Read: census table A-02.
• Compare: each decade against the one before. A cause for any break goes into the paper only where a source states one, quoted as that source’s.

What should the student do with the question next?

Before reading further, the student writes one paragraph for the teacher: the question as worded, the page and round to read, the comparison, and one thing the paper will not claim. The teacher can check it against the four tests above, and narrow the place or period if time is short.

The school’s own guidelines may then settle the format. A question with one sharp comparison suits a short brief for a decision-maker, the form our guide on how to write a policy brief covers. A question that needs several sources suits a longer paper. Where such a paper can go next is the subject of our guide to public policy programmes and competitions.

Every figure carries its source, as our guide to citing sources in a school research paper shows, and the date the page was read. Before handing in, the student opens each page again: a new round may have replaced the one first read.

Where One Young India fits

We run programmes in this area, so weigh this section with that in mind.

Model NITI Aayog, which One Young India runs for students in Grades 8 to 12 interested in policy, economics and politics, is a simulation of NITI Aayog, India’s policy think tank, with policy analysis, evidence-based research and moderated debate. Model NITI Aayog is an independent educational programme. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with NITI Aayog or any government body.

The programme is a 16-hour online certificate bootcamp over four days on Zoom, live and not recorded. Every participant writes an original white paper, a Model Policy Document, submitted within a month of the bootcamp. Select papers are published by One Young India. Publication depends on review and is not guaranteed.

One Young India’s programme page adds: “Includes a year of Learnacy Essential”. Learnacy Essential pays for the tools, the courses and the feedback. It never buys acceptance. The programme also includes the self-paced course, 41 chapters in four parts, about 18 hours, taken online at the student’s own pace, which comes with the live programme, not with Learnacy Essential. Read the first chapter free.

Batch dates are left to the programme page, under “See every batch, timing and fee”. Questions can go first, through “Questions first? Register your interest”, where the page notes: “No payment is taken here, this just starts a conversation.”

The merit scholarship works as the page sets out: “Yes. Scholarships are awarded on merit: use ‘Request a scholarship’ below, tick ‘Apply for a merit scholarship’, and write one white paper on our brief.” The page adds: “We never ask about family finances.”

Without paying, a free Learnacy account lets the student draft and save in all 15 formats, white papers among them, with structure guides, rubrics and citation tools, keeping up to five drafts: “Create a free account for the student”.

For girls in Grades 9 to 12, One Young India also runs PolicyForHer, an online case-study policy-making competition with no fee. Registration is not open; the page asks girls to register their interest, through “Register your interest”.

Three points from this guide stay open on the programme page: who chooses the paper’s topic, which official datasets the sessions use, and whether students hear both sides. The page does not state any of the three; ask before paying.

Common questions

What are good policy topics for school students?

A good topic is one the student can turn into a question with an official source and a comparison. Air quality, jobs, household spending, health costs, migration and a bill’s passage through committee all qualify, once narrowed to a place, a measure and a period.

Can a school student use government data for a project?

Yes, as a reader: every page in Table 1 can be opened and read online, and the census tables come as Excel files. The project cites each page with the date it was read.

Can these questions be used for a Class 11 or 12 economics or political science project?

Many fit those subjects, but the school’s own project guidelines decide the format, the length and whether a policy question is allowed; this guide states no board’s rule. The student can take one to the teacher with the one-paragraph plan described above.

Which policy topics should a student avoid?

The school’s own guidelines come first. Beyond them, the trouble lies in the wording: a question that assumes its answer, or that passes a verdict on a party, a government or a leader. A school project also leaves aside questions that need data on named people or on other students.

Does the student have to pick a side?

Not at the start, and not always at the end. The student first reads what supporters and critics publish, and the paper attributes every argument to its source. If the evidence then supports a view, the student may give it as a reading of those sources. A paper that shows what the data leave open is finished too.

Sources

All outside pages were read on 13 November 2026.

1. Reserve Bank of India, Monetary Policy Framework: Overview and Payment System Indicators (March 2026 edition).
2. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), microdata library, Central Data Catalog, with the study pages for the Periodic Labour Force Survey, Calendar Year 2025, the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey: 2023-24, the Time Use Survey, 2024, the Comprehensive Modular Survey on Education (NSS 80th Round, 2025) and the Survey on Household Social Consumption: Health, 2025.
3. Ministry of Finance, India Budget: Union Budget (Budget 2026-2027 documents).
4. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Census tables.
5. Central Pollution Control Board, National Air Quality Index.
6. India Meteorological Department, Rainfall Information.
7. International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), NFHS Project.
8. PRS Legislative Research, Bills Track.
9. One Young India, programme page, first chapter of the self-paced course, the pricing page and PolicyForHer.

Related

• How India’s Union Budget is made and passed
• How the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee sets interest rates
• Economics, in our hub
• Education systems, policy and governance, in our hub
• Youth parliament at school: how it works in India and how to prepare
• Public policy as a career: what the work is, the degrees that lead to it, and how to try it at school