Hassan Khan: GS4 answer copy

The questions

1. Q1(a)Public service requires not merely legal but also morally principled action. Public service requires the public servant to place loyalty to the constitution, laws, and ethical principles. Among the three, which do you think must acquire primacy while carrying out official functions? Why? Discuss.10 marks
2. Q1(b)What do you understand by "integrity-based civil disobedience"? Do you think a challenge to personal integrity can be a justifiable cause for responsible disobedience in civil services? Explain.10 marks
3. Q2(a)Recent research has shown that emotions significantly impact personal and professional lives. What are the primary emotions that negatively and positively impact workplace productivity? Explain with relevant examples.10 marks
4. Q2(b)Technical efficiency ensures resource utilization and social efficiency ensures fulfillment of social needs, what does ethical efficiency ensure? Do you think ethical efficiency is more important than technical and social efficiency? Why/Why not?10 marks
5. Q3(a)"Man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department." Gandhi. Do you think an individual's personal ethics impacts professional life or they both can be compartmentalized? Explain your position with relevant examples.10 marks
6. Q3(b)Goodness is the result of internal imperatives to do what is right, not sanctions from moral rules or rewards from expected consequences. Do you agree? Discuss.10 marks
7. Q4(a)Explain the meaning of the following quotations and discuss their contemporary relevance. "To tolerate is purely an act of the mind. That is the essence of virtue. To tolerate is a strength."10 marks
8. Q4(b)"It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our souls."10 marks
9. Q4(c)"Periods of peace are the empty pages in the history books"10 marks
10. Q5(a)In the context of civil service, distinguish between moral and nonmoral values. Identify 5 basic moral values that can serve as foundational values for all services irrespective of the department. Give reasons why those values can be considered foundational.10 marks
11. Q5(b)Citizens' involvement in decision-making is critical to ethics in governance. Do you agree that effective civic engagement mechanisms can facilitate an ethics-driven administration? What do you think are the mechanisms that citizens can use for ensuring ethics in governance?10 marks
12. Q6(a)Social transformation programs such as "beti bachao and beti padhao" believes in using advice, counseling, and persuasion but sometimes a little force is also necessary for getting the desired response. Do you think it is a good idea to mix little force with persuasion by public administrators while implementing social schemes of transformation? Explain with relevant examples.10 marks
13. Q6(b)Ultimately foreign policy of every country hinges upon the strength which the nation possesses. Strength may be military or financial and may be also...moral. Do you think ethical strength without military or financial muscle will be respected in today's world? Explain your position.10 marks
14. Q7You are a young officer working with the Municipal Corporation of an industrial city. The city was known for manufacturing ball bearings and auto parts. Most manufacturing units were small-scale units with very little production process automation. The units relied on manual labor, which was in abundance due to the villages close by. As the number of manufacturing units grew, the demand for labor increased, bringing in a steady inflow of laborers into the city. This influx of people into the town led to a mushrooming of slums and encroachments on the sidewalks. Once in a while, the Corporation conducted drives to clear out the slums, but after a time, the slums came back. The illegal slums had become an urban nightmare. You were given the responsibility of clearing out the encroachments and slums with the help of Police authorities. As you started the drive, you realized that the people living by the sidewalks were vulnerable compared to the slum dwellers. Many sidewalk dwellers had recently come to the city after selling their properties in their villages. Now if you drive them out, they have no place to go. Your heart went out to them, and you felt that the departmental action was inhumane, but your official responsibilities demanded stern impartial action. You are desperate to find a way to help the sidewalk dwellers without compromising your official duties. (a) What value conflicts do you notice in the above situation? (b) Can an administrator compromise the value of impartiality for empathy? Discuss. (c) What are the options available in the above situation? (d) Suggest viable solutions for tackling illegal slums and encroachments in urban areas.20 marks
15. Q8A certain State government was running a welfare scheme for promoting safe motherhood among rural landless laborers' families. The scheme involves the transfer of funds to the beneficiaries to enable them to mitigate income loss due to maternal care responsibilities. Since its implementation, the scheme has done reasonably well on maternal health and economic indicators. You are the Director of the Department responsible for implementing and operating the scheme. Recently you have been receiving reports of welfare fraud being committed by families by producing fake bona fide. The families committed the fraud with the help of local officials responsible for scrutinizing the bonafide. You were concerned because the fraud was seriously undermining the scheme's efficiency. You called for a departmental meeting to discuss and find a solution to the problem. In the meeting, it was decided to merge several available government data sets such as Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards, marriage certificates, birth certificates, bank details, and other personal assets. By merging all the data sets, the department would be able to develop the beneficiary's economic profile. And this will help the department scrutinize the documents and detect fraud. This was a comprehensive strategy, but it risked violating an individual's data privacy. As a Department head, you wanted to detect and prevent fraud, but at the same time, you were apprehensive about violating the Data privacy of the stakeholders. (a) What are the issues involved in the above case? (b) Do you think violating data privacy is justified to prevent welfare fraud? Why/ Why not? (c) What, according to you, can be the reasons for such welfare frauds happening in the country? (d) Are there any ways and means to prevent such fraud? Give your suggestions.20 marks
16. Q9You are posted in the Department of Mines, and one of your roles is to help your Department Head negotiate mining leases with private contractors. Recently, the state government demarcated a new mining zone and planned to invite bids for the mining blocs. You were instructed to oversee the bidding process and speed up the contract negotiations. As planned, the tenders were released, bids came in, and tenders were allocated as per the norms. All this happened at a breakneck speed. You wondered, why the hurry? But it was not your place to think and question; you quietly went about your work. As the contractors were about to start operations, you had to instruct them on environmental concerns to watch out for. And to do that, you read the environmental impact assessment report submitted by a consulting firm hired by the department. To your surprise, the report was shoddy and looked cooked up. You got suspicious and raised the issue with your Head, who politely instructed you to do what you were told, and he reminded you that the Department had revenue targets and was under pressure from the Ministry. After the meeting, you, on your own accord, did some digging and found out that the report was fraudulent and the mining activity that was about to start would lead to a massive environmental disaster which the State could not afford. (a) What are the issues and value violations you notice in the above case? (b) What are the options available to you? (c) Discuss the advantage and disadvantages of each option and identify your chosen course of action. (d) Do you think that environmental considerations are sometimes overrated at the cost of development?20 marks
17. Q10Promoting National interest and gaining influence and power in the International arena are the two basic mantras of every country's external policy. Since the last decade, country ABC has aggressively pursued power and expanded its business interests overseas. One of the businesses ABC was interested in developing was Defence equipment and Satellite technology. It was seeking markets for its space and defense products. The country encouraged its defense equipment manufacturing companies to find new markets and explore manufacturing collaborations with other countries. GAMA, one of the major defense equipment manufacturers, had recently struck a massive multi-billion dollar deal involving sensitive technology transfer and equipment with a country XYZ ruled by Military Junta. It was good business. As the business details became public, much criticism came GAMA's way because XYZ was an international pariah because of its poor human rights record. Further, the Junta indulged in a silent genocide of a minority ethnic community. There was a lot of uproar because the deal involved transferring sensitive technology that could be misused in the wrong hands. In short, it was good business but with questionable clients. Meanwhile, the government of ABC kept silent about the GAMA business deal, and other governments interpreted the silence as a subtle way of building relations with a nation that was an international pariah. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in the above case?20 marks
18. Q10(d)Do you think the Defence sector companies marketing sensitive technologies must be regulated by their respective governments, or regulation may curtail their entrepreneurial and innovation energy? Discuss.20 marks
19. Q11श्री शर्मा 400 करोड़ के टर्नओवर वाली एक फार्मास्यूटिकल कंपनी के ऑल इंडिया सेल्स हेड (बिक्री प्रमुख) थे। कंपनी के मुख्य बाज़ार छोटे कस्बे और टियर 2 शहर थे। इसके अलावा, कंपनी ने राज्य सरकार के अस्पतालों और स्वास्थ्य केंद्रों के साथ बड़ी मात्रा में कारोबार किया। श्री शर्मा ने फील्ड सेल्स एजेंटों को ग्राहकों के साथ सौदे करने और कीमतों पर बातचीत करने की बहुत अधिक स्वतंत्रता दे रखी थी। इस रणनीति ने कंपनी के लिए अच्छा काम किया। हाल ही में श्री शर्मा को खबर मिली कि कंपनी के तीन कर्मचारी सरकारी अस्पतालों और स्वास्थ्य केंद्रों को अन्य निजी अस्पतालों और स्वास्थ्य केंद्रों को बेचे जाने वाले उत्पादों की तुलना में अधिक कीमत पर उत्पाद बेच रहे हैं। ये कर्मचारी पाँच साल से अधिक समय से कंपनी में हैं और इनका प्रदर्शन अच्छा रहा है। कुछ बिक्री कर्मचारियों ने अनौपचारिक रूप से इन तीनों को उनके बढ़े-चढ़े सौदों के कारण अपेक्षाकृत अधिक कमीशन मिलने का मुद्दा उठाया। और इससे बिक्री कार्मिकों में बेचैनी की भावना बढ़ रही थी। तीनों के खातों की सतही समीक्षा से पता चला कि, कई मामलों में, सरकारी अस्पताल अन्य निजी संस्थानों की तुलना में अधिक भुगतान कर रहे थे। खरीद नियमों के तहत, सरकार से अपेक्षा की जाती है कि वह उचित मूल्य का भुगतान करे, जो कि अन्य लागत-सचेत ग्राहक भुगतान करते हैं। पूछताछ करने पर श्री शर्मा ने पाया कि इस कार्य में वे तीनों अकेले नहीं थे; इस घोटाले में सरकारी खरीद विभाग के अधिकारी उनकी मदद कर रहे थे। श्री शर्मा को एहसास हुआ कि उनके बिक्री कर्मचारी और कुछ भ्रष्ट सरकारी कर्मचारी काफी समय से राज्य के खजाने को चूना लगा रहे थे। श्री शर्मा ने तुरंत इसकी सूचना अपने सीईओ को दी और दोनों ने चर्चा की कि बिक्री कर्मचारियों के साथ कैसे व्यवहार किया जाए और क्या सरकार को घोटाले और उनके कर्मचारियों की संलिप्तता के बारे में सूचित किया जाए। इस मुद्दे के बारे में सरकार को सूचित करने का मतलब यह था कि इस बात की पूरी संभावना थी कि उन्हें ब्लैकलिस्ट किया जा सकता है, जिससे बहुत सारे व्यवसाय का नुकसान हो सकता है। श्री शर्मा और सीईओ इस बात को लेकर दुविधा में थे कि मामले को कैसे आगे बढ़ाया जाए। (a) इस मामले में कौन-से नैतिक और व्यावसायिक मुद्दे शामिल हैं? (b) श्री शर्मा और सीईओ के पास कौन-कौन से विकल्प उपलब्ध हैं? (c) क्या आपको लगता है कि बिक्री कार्यबल को स्वतंत्रता देने की संगठनात्मक संस्कृति के कारण समस्या उत्पन्न हुई या व्यक्ति की भ्रष्ट प्रवृत्ति के कारण समस्या उत्पन्न हुई? चर्चा कीजिए। (d) जैसा कि इस मामले में बताया गया है, ऐसे अनैतिक व्यवहार को रोकने के लिए कंपनी कौन-से नैतिक तंत्र और उपाय निर्माण और कार्यान्वित कर सकती है? (250 शब्दों में उत्तर दीजिए) 20 अंक20 marks
20. Q12Singh Garh is a primarily rural district with minimal relatively insignificant industrial activity, except for one consumer goods manufacturing plant, which was the primary source of employment. Development indicators such as health, literacy, etc., were much below the national average. Along with developmental issues, another grave concern was the slow rise in child marriages. Despite the legal sanctions, child marriage continued to rise unabated. Rashmi, a social work postgraduate who escaped an early marriage, started an NGO for rescuing and rehabilitating child marriage victims. In the last five years, she saved a lot of young girls from becoming victims of child marriage. Her modus Operandi was simple. She had developed a network of informants in villages who relayed information to her, and after verifying, Rashmi with help from local law enforcement personnel, prevented the marriage from happening. Rashmi did commendable work, but she made some enemies in the process. The local leaders resented her popularity with women and young girls in particular. To expand her activities, Rashmi contacted the management of the only industrial unit in the district. She successfully persuaded the company to contribute to her activities and the NGO. The company even gave her access to their facilities to conduct workshops for workers to raise awareness about the issue of child marriage. As she started her workshops and campaign on the company premises, the initial response was lukewarm and, at times, complete indifference. But she persevered. After a couple of months, one day, the company union members stopped her from entering the company and even threatened her with violence. Rashmi spoke with the management, who supported her and ensured her safety. The management issued a circular supporting Rashmi and her NGO. To management's surprise, after a week of the circular, the Union called for a flash strike and threatened to continue the work stoppage if the NGO activities continued. The workers believed that Rashmi's campaign was corrupting the women's minds and disrespecting their traditions. The company's management seeing the aggressive reaction sought to assuage the workers by stopping the NGO activities. Rashmi tried to persuade the management by highlighting their social responsibility to the community. But the management was curt in replying that every social problem is not their moral responsibility. Rashmi was disappointed with the management's decision and wondered how best to involve the company in her campaigns. (a) What are the issues involved in the above case? (b) What do you think Rashmi should do? Would it be a good idea for Rashmi to involve local administration? Suggest an implementable course of action. (c) Do you think companies should also accept responsibility for the social problems of the region where they operate? Why/why not? (d) What could be the reasons for such an aggressive reaction from the workers union? How do you think Rashmi should handle the workers union?20 marks

The answers