Anjali Thakur: GS4 answer copy

The questions

1. Q1(a)"The State took taxes from the people only to ensure their prosperity in return like the sun takes moisture from the earth only to give it back in thousandfold measure." Kalidasa. Explain the Indian concept of "giving it back" and its relevance as a guiding value for civil servants.10 marks
2. Q1(b)Public service takes place in a bureaucratic structure with clear lines of authority, value standardization, and accountability mechanisms. Working within such a structure, what do you think are the influences that impact the public servant's ethical decision-making? (Answer in 150 words) 10 Marks What influence/impact public servants ethical decision making? What do you understand by the terms ‘ethical behavior’ and ‘emotionally intelligent behavior’? Identify the relevant emotional intelligence components that act as a reliable guide to ethical behavior. (Answer in 150 words) 10 Marks "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." (Answer in 150 words) 10 Marks "While competence without compassion can be brutal and inhumane; similarly, compassion without competence can be meaningless for persons seeking help." Explain the above with the help of a suitable illustration in the context of public services.10 marks
3. Q1(c)“Men must have corrupted nature a little, for they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves.”10 marks
4. Q1(d)What do you understand by dignity? Distinguish between human and social dignity? Identify the common dignity violations that one notices in government departments.20 marks
5. Q2(a)What do you understand by the terms 'ethics' and 'integrity'? Do you think they are interrelated? Explain with examples the relationship between ethics and integrity in the context of public administration.10 marks
6. Q3(a)"To achieve a good life, duty is not sufficient; one needs to develop one's sympathetic feelings for others, and neither duty alone nor good will alone are sufficient to be moral." Do you agree with the above statement? Justify your position.10 marks
7. Q3(b)Developing a Scientific temper, innovative mindset, and civic-conscious citizens are major objectives of higher educational institutions. Can higher educational institutions be instrumental in promoting integrity education among youth to establish a public culture of integrity and a corruption-free political culture? If yes, how?10 marks
8. Q4(a)The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.10 marks
9. Q5(a)As professionals, civil servants are career focused and are also self-interested. At the same time, their service ethos imposes an obligation to serve the public interest selflessly. Is it possible for a civil servant to reconcile career and service obligation? Explain your position.10 marks
10. Q6(a)Does the suffering of individuals in one part of the world generate moral demands of assistance on those foreigners who live far away from them? Are these moral demands of assistance justified? Can governments be held morally responsible for failing to help the international community in times of deprivation? Discuss.10 marks
11. Q6(b)Civil Services ethics has everything to do with management. It is as much a Departmental as a personal issue. Leaders who fail to create systems that facilitate ethical conduct are equally to blame as much as those who indulge in ethical misconduct. Do you think the Departmental culture leads to ethical misconduct or is the individual with weak willpower culpable? Discuss.10 marks
12. Q7You are posted as a District Development officer in a district with a low literacy rate and poor health indicators. As you took charge, your Health Secretary had given express instructions that your priority is to improve health indicators by enhancing the delivery of healthcare services. After taking over, you traveled around the district to study and identify ways of improving healthcare services. During your field trip, you discovered that the issue was not the accessibility of services; it was something else. You found the problem was the myths, misconceptions, and malpractices that hindered the uptake of health care services. For instance, people believed that vaccines caused impotence, immunization was equivalent to birth control, using antenatal care was counterproductive to the health of the mother and baby, and so on. You realize that these beliefs were the behavioral barriers that stood in the way of health and nutrition services. And these behavioral barriers made it difficult for front-line workers to reach out. You discussed your observations with the Health Secretary, and he advised you to seek inputs from the neighboring district DDO who was doing some good work. When you met with the neighboring DDO, you learned he was experimenting with using the Faith leader's influence and reach to persuade people. You were unsure about roping in faith leaders to help you overcome the behavioral barriers. As a civil servant, you felt it would be a mistake to involve faith leaders in health service schemes. When you shared your apprehensions with the Secretary, he firmly instructed you to try and innovate. (a) What are the issues involved in the above case? (b) What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Faith leaders as influencers and persuaders?20 marks
13. Q7(c)If not faith leaders, what are your other options for breaking the behavioral barriers?
14. Q7(d)Do you think it is ethically right for a civil servant to involve faith leaders in promoting government schemes? You are the Head of an Agency, a special purpose vehicle, responsible for overseeing the last-mile delivery of essential services and sorting out bottlenecks and grievances of the citizens within your jurisdiction. The essential services included Maternal and infant health care, nutritional support to BPL families, drinking water availability, etc. Your agency employed a staff of 15 to carry out regular official operations and handle grievances. Since the agency dealt with complaints, there was an enormous amount of public dealing daily. Sometimes the agency officials had to work beyond office hours to finish the regular office work as public dealings took away most of the office hours. The employees were unhappy doing the extra bit as they were not paid any overtime. A few of them informally raised the issue with you, but you were helpless as the agency rules didn't allow any travel or overtime allowances. You tried taking up the matter with HQ but to no avail. The work stress gradually started showing up among the staff, they became irritable with the complainants, and at times they shouted at them. Besides rudeness, the staff's language became abusive, derogatory, and sometimes casteist. You could notice that there were 4 of them in particular who were getting very abusive and discriminatory while handling grievances. As the Head, you warned them, but there was no marked change in your work attitude. To compound your problem, some of the villagers, through their Sarpanch, raised the issue of rude, disrespectful, and discriminatory behavior with your HQ. The HQ immediately instructed you to take action and create a respectful and dignified workspace. (a) What are the issues involved in the above case? (b) What are the action options available to you?20 marks
15. Q9A major pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai had worldwide operations. It was a big producer and exporter of generic drugs. It has production facilities spread around the country. After the pandemic, the company saw an exponential growth in demand for its generic drugs, and to meet the demand, the company contracted out production to small manufacturers. The deal was that the contracted supplier would supply a specified quantity of drugs within the prearranged schedule, and on delivery, the payments were released. The company didn't bother about the supplier's facilities, policies, or safety standards. It was a simple business deal of keeping the supply chain running without liabilities. Some suppliers saw this as an opportunity to make some quick money. They started stretching the limits of their production facility and didn't mind compromising with safety and labor laws. Unfortunately, a supplier's storage facility caught fire, and 22 workers died in the tragedy. The production facility was closed, and the dead workers' families sued the supplier and pharmaceutical company for damages. The supplier agreed to pay the damages, but the company denied any liabilities as they were not directly involved. Meanwhile, the lawyers representing the family claimed that the company was morally responsible for the tragedy because they didn't inspect the production facility for safety and were indifferent to everything. The families considered the company to be outright consequentialists worried about keeping their supply lines running, whatever the cost. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in the above case? (50 words) 5 marks (b) Ethically analyze the company's position on paying damages and justify why/ why not the company should be liable for damages. (120 words) 10 marks (c) What do you understand by the term moral responsibility? When do you think a person or an entity becomes morally responsible for actions committed or omitted?
16. Q9(b)Company's position of paying You and Ajay were in college together, qualified for the civil services examination, trained, and worked in the same State. Over the years, you and Ajay became good friends and colleagues. Even the families became close to the extent of taking vacations and celebrating festivals together. Professionally, in the last 15 years, both grew, but the paths you and Ajay took differed. You kept your distance from political masters, preferred to be neutral, and refrained from being identified with any group, lobby, or ideology. But Ajay was not discreet about his leanings, and he was well-networked and connected. Because of his networking, Ajay always had postings considered "plum postings." Ajay was posted as CMD of Urban Infrastructure Projects, a high-profile Project with a huge outlay. At the same time, you were working in State Planning Commission for three years and were awaiting your promotion and new posting. When new postings were announced, you were surprised to see your transfer to Vigilance Department. Within a month of taking charge, you were ordered by your Departmently Secretary to conduct an inquiry discreetly into land dealings involving a Minister and his family. You were strictly told to keep it discreet and not to share any information about the investigation with anybody besides the Secretary.20 marks
17. Q9(null)As you started the inquiry, you realized Ajay was closely involved with the Minister and his deals. As evidence started piling up, you were shocked to notice Ajay's questionable decisions favoring the Minister and friends. Further, you found evidence of Ajay having assets disproportionately much higher than his declared sources of income. When you shared the details with the Secretary, he immediately ordered you to search Ajay's office and home as he believed Ajay was the medium through which they could catch the Minister for shady land deals. You were in a bind as you knew a search operation would tarnish Ajay's reputation and be traumatic for the family. (a) What are the ethical issues and dilemmas involved in the above case? (b) What are the options available to you? (c) Select your chosen course of action after analyzing the options. (d) What must be your moral motivation in the above case? Should it be duty, care, or consequences?20 marks
18. Q11You are a young police officer undergoing field training along with some of your batchmates. You and Vikas are spending two weeks in a police station learning the nitty gritty and nuances of field-level policing. Every day there was something new to learn. One afternoon the Station received a distress call from a beat constable working the wholesale market beat. A quarrel had broken out between two groups of traders and which soon turned violent. He tried intervening with his colleague, but they failed to keep things in control. Some traders turned against the constables and started beating them with iron rods. The call came in when one of the constables had taken severe blows to the head, and he needed emergency attention. A team rushed to the spot to help and take charge of the situation. By the time the team reached, the miscreants had fled the scene. The injured constable was rushed to the hospital in a very precarious condition. Seeing their colleague severely hurt and struggling for life, the station was enraged and determined to apprehend the culprits. By late evening the station team had rounded up a few miscreants, but some were still missing. The rounded-up miscreants were kept in custody for the night and were to be presented in court the following day. That night you and Vikas noticed that a few senior policemen were seriously beating up the miscreants for more information and to teach them a lesson to keep off from policemen. The "treatment" continued for a few hours, and by the time it stopped, one of the miscreants was severely shaken that he had a minor stroke because of a prior history of a heart condition. He was rushed to the hospital; fortunately, he survived. When the events of the night reached HQ, an inquiry was instituted. During the inquiry, everyone in the Station was called in for questioning. All of them present played down the beatings as few slaps and nothing more. You and Vikas were also informally requested to play down the incident. Vikas was comfortably underplaying it, but you were uncomfortable and felt it was against your integrity to speak something far from the truth. You were wondering if police are for safety, custody is for protection, and what happened was abuse which was against the service values. You were tensed and weighed the options. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in the above case? (b) What do you think principle-oriented and rule-abiding police personnel must do in the above case? Why? Justify (c) What do you think must assume priority in civil service, loyalty to the department, or being impartial and non-partisan in your decisions and service values? (Answer in 250 words) 20 Marks You are a Foreign Service official working in an embassy overseas. One of your duties was to liaise with the local Indian community, one of the country's largest immigrant groups. A group of wealthy Indian immigrants wanted to build a place of worship and a school to promote their language and culture. The school was intended to act as a center for promoting and preserving Indian culture among the immigrants. The Indian community leaders went through all the legal procedures to acquire the land, got the building plans approved by the city council, and with all the approvals in place, the construction work began. A few months into the construction, the locals started complaining about noise, and slowly a campaign began against the construction of a religious structure. The local city councilors joined in and raised the issue of how Indian immigrants having their own cultural space will lead to a similar demand from other immigrant communities. And this may escalate intolerance among different ethnic groups. The local politicians filed a public lawsuit to halt the construction and demolish whatever was built. Indian community responded with their lawsuit and approached the embassy for help. They wanted the Ambassador to take up the issue with the government. Meanwhile, the Ambassador deputed you to meet the Indian community leaders to understand the issue and prepare a report. You met with the community leaders and found that the reason for local antipathy towards the Indian community was just an expression of latent racism and intolerance. You presented your observations to the Ambassador and requested him to do something as the Indians were on the right and were being victims of racist behavior. The Ambassador, in turn, replied that he would not like to get involved in local politics. The Indians were citizens of that country; they had nothing to do with India besides ethnicity. Further, a crucial Economic agreement was about to be signed between the two countries in the coming weeks, and he did not want to jeopardize the growing relations between the two countries over some local politics. You were shocked to see economics getting priority over the diaspora. (a) What are the issues involved in the above case? (b) Do you agree with the Ambassador's position of prioritizing economics over helping the diaspora? Why/why not? (c) Among Care, Consequentialism, and Duty, what do you think is the appropriate perspective to guide Indian Foreign policy? Justify.20 marks

The answers