Mains Answer Writing
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Questions
31 questions
CSE · GS-4
Pending
You are posted as Sub-Divisional Magistrate. A contractor offers you a bribe to expedite land acquisition for a highway project affecting hundreds of farmers. What ethical course of action will you take?U
Case Studies
📝 250 Words
🎯 15 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
You are a public servant facing ethical dilemmas involving pressure from seniors and public interest. How would you respond?U
Case Studies
📝 250 Words
🎯 15 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
You are a District Magistrate. A major infrastructure project in your area requires the displacement of a vulnerable tribal community. While the project promises regional prosperity, the community's cultural identity is at stake. How will you resolve this ethical dilemma?U
Case Studies
📝 250 Words
🎯 20 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
The Right to Information Act has strengthened probity in governance. Evaluate its impact and limitations.U
Probity in Governance
📝 250 Words
🎯 15 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Probity in governance ensures transparency and public trust. Discuss with examples.U
Probity in Governance
📝 250 Words
🎯 15 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Probity in governance requires a proactive 'Code of Ethics' rather than a reactive 'Code of Conduct'. Distinguish between the two.U
Probity in Governance
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Corporate governance and public service ethics share common principles of accountability and transparency. Discuss.U
Public Service Ethics
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Discuss the ethical concerns arising from the use of 'Algorithms' and 'Big Data' in the delivery of social welfare services.U
Public Service Ethics
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Objectivity and dedication to public service are foundational values for civil servants. Illustrate with examples.U
Civil Service Aptitude
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Aptitude may get you the job, but 'foundational values' like empathy and tolerance define your legacy as a civil servant. Comment.U
Civil Service Aptitude
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
The teachings of leaders like Gandhi and Ambedkar offer enduring lessons for ethical governance. Discuss.U
Human Values
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
How can educational institutions move beyond academic excellence to focus on the 'inculcation of values' in the era of social media influence?U
Human Values
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Distinguish between ethics, morals and values. Why are they important in public administration?U
Ethics & Human Interface
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
Ethics plays a foundational role in public life and governance. Discuss with examples.U
Ethics & Human Interface
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
CSE · GS-4
Pending
The 'essence of ethics' lies not in following rules, but in the development of a character that naturally seeks the common good. Discuss.U
Ethics & Human Interface
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 5 Pages
Pending
Do you agree with the statement - “Consistency in terms of Manasa-Vacha-Karmana (Thoughts-Speech-Action) is essential for a successful and worthy public service”? Why?U
Civil Service Aptitude
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 3 Pages
Pending
How do you rate your fitness for public service in terms of “Yuvasyatsadhu yuvadhyaayak ashishtho drudhishtho balishtha (The youth ought to be noble, studious, disciplined with strong will and physique)?U
Civil Service Aptitude
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 3 Pages
Pending
“The credibility of the Governance rests on the two pillars- Transparency and Accountability” - illustrate and suggest the means to strengthen the pillars.U
Probity in Governance
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 3 Pages
Pending
Which one would you pick up out of the two- “The Means justify the End” or “The End justifies the Means”? Why?U
Ethics & Human Interface
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 3 Pages
Pending
Explain: “My life is my message” is an infallible Mantra for the Value adding leadership.U
Human Values
📝 150 Words
🎯 10 Marks
📄 3 Pages
Pending
“Would you please sanction my leave Madam?” requested an office assistant ‘Y’ in apologetic way. “Why do you take leave so often?” Ms. H was annoyed with this frequent leave seeking employee. “Let him go Madam, we will manage” recommended a sympathetic senior assistant.
Ms. H is head of an office for welfare of women. She was known for strict compliance of the official procedures and duties. However, there was something in the eyes of the assistant that made her sanction the leave. She discussed at ease with the other assistant who’d recommended. He was hesitant at first but her persuasion made him speak candidly.
He revealed that Mr. ‘Y’ was a father raising three young daughters. His wife had left him and the children years ago due to family disputes and the divorce case was pending in family court. The daughters were cared by his mother for some time, but after the demise of the old mother, he was sole care-taker of the children.
“What was the dispute? I find the man quite sober!” Ms. H continued the dialogue with the kindhearted assistant. The assistant replied, “True madam. I have never heard him raising his voice at home”, replied the informed neighbor. “Then what was the issue?” her curiosity grew further. The noble assistant informed her that the third consecutive girl child born to his wife was the issue. The mother of ‘Y’ kept mentally torturing her and at last, the family was broken. Both sides were adamant and the ice is too tough to break now!
“Oh, that is indeed very sad. We ought to do something!” the wet voice of the boss was a surprise for the man. Next day, Ms. H was on her mission with the assistant. She succeeds in bridging a broken family.
What made Ms. H to take interest in the personal affair of her employee? Is it justified? What could be her course of action and the output? What could be the impact of this event on the image of Ms. H in the minds of the colleagues and their attitude towards duty?U
Case Studies
📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
“Good morning Sir! We have published a hallowing story with your photographs on front page in our newspaper. I am sending a copy to you”, a call distracted Mr. G in his morning meditation. He was keen to conclude the dialogue but the man had more to say. “Sahib, we have a few social media channels at our command as well.” He concluded with a warm invite, “Sahib, my friend has a nice resort. Let us celebrate on some weekend.” Mr. G’s response to this unexpected hospitality was cold and indifferent. He had just taken over as the Head of a Sub-Divisional Administrative team and he was praised by the evening news bulletin, out of context though.
Mr. G was a highly professional public servant who candidly listened to the grievances and took every challenge as an opportunity to serve people. He had an opportunity to interact with media persons on the Sanitation Campaign. The man who had called him on that morning was, as usual, extremely sycophantic whereas some were very critical of the maintenance of road, street light and sewage. The debate grew hot but Mr. G patiently handled it. He promised to conduct a reality check and strengthen the system of redressing the grievances. He developed a citizen centric mobile app based system for uploading the grievances and monitoring of the action taken. The app resulted into marked improvement in Civic services just in six months. Mr. G silently went on to reinforce the systems. Eventually, after a year Mr. G is transferred to another city and a farewell party was organized to felicitate him. He found on that day many happy faces, except the man who invited at the farm house!
What are the ethical issues you find herein? List the essential characteristics for a civil servant demonstrated by Mr. G. Can you suggest DOs and DON’Ts on media engagement by a civil servant as an advice by the departing officer to his junior incumbent?U
Case Studies
📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
Ms. F is a young post graduate with progressive ideology and strong commitment for social and gender equality. She possesses excellent background as an athlete and debater. She joins as a District head of the department of Education in a remote area of the State after recruitment and training. She conducts extensive tours of her District and keeps recording her observations for a month. She collates and analyses the data and presents them in the meeting of her colleagues. Her observations on Gender inequality are as under;
a. The gender gap in the registration of eligible students is nullified but the gender gap in the dropout rate at the higher education was still a concerning issue.
b. Science and Technology was believed to be a ‘Male’ subject and girls were prompted to take Arts or at the most, Commerce.
c. Participation of girls in outdoor sports and NCC etc. was generally discouraged while safai abhiyan and decoration were considered suitable to them.
d. The class monitors were generally selected from the boys.
e. There is a tendency among colleagues of tagging someone as “too forward” or “too bold” and backbiting in case a woman aspires to lead.
She allows an open discussion on these issues among her colleagues. This was followed by a debate at a larger audience. The District and Block teams agree to challenge these issues and gender inequality in general. Several initiatives were taken and the annual gender report of the district was appreciated by the State authorities as a ‘Path Breaker’.
What do you think about the causes of the issues delineated above? Who do you think were the stakeholders and what could be the probable interventions for the same? Could you list three-four traits of Ms. F that earned success for her?U
Case Studies
📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
Mr. E, an IT graduate from renown university joins Public Service in his early thirties. He is an honest, intelligent and patriotic youth having strong sense of constitutional morality. He was appointed as the Head of a District level office looking after General Administration.
In a week of his joining the office, he found that many of his colleagues are engaged in unlawful practices like corruption and large scale theft of the minerals such as limestone, sand etc. The Deputy in his office, who belonged to a powerful local community had illicit connections with land and mining mafias. He was extremely permissive and turned a blind eye towards the illegal activities. His predecessor never stayed in the headquarters and was happy with the ‘management skill’ of the deputy.
While Mr. E was deliberating over the situation, he received a call from a whistle blower. The caller gave him information about irregularities in a file for mining license pending for his approval. The caller requested him to keep his identity undisclosed. Mr. E promised him to do so. He put queries and returned the file to the deputy. Just in an hour, he received a call from the headquarters which insisted on quick approval of the same file. “You are new one sahib. You need to hear your deputy, who is the member of our community and a very loyal man to us. He will take good care of you too”, the caller X concluded with a vile laugh. The deputy comes in wearing a large smile soon after the conversation of the Head. He was followed by assistant carrying two cups of premium ice cream. “Sir, Mr. X is a very noble person and very helpful” the deputy eulogized his patron. Mr. E stares at the deputy and takes a deep sigh of determination.
What are the ethical dilemma before Mr. E? How can he put his own strengths to the best use in public interest? Explain with three or four practical remedial steps.
Case Studies
#Minerals & Energy Resources#Integrity & Probity#Corruption#Ethical Dilemmas#Mining#Constitutional Morality
U📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
Mrs. D is a sensitive lady with strong sense of self discipline. She loves nature. She is fond of tracking in forest and mountains. She joins as an Administrator at an urban local body after her selection in a competitive exam. The organization has many departments including road and building, sanitation, health, greening, education and taxation. She found during her visits of different areas of the town that the streets were full of garbage and the blocked sewage lines were over-flooding in many places. Most of the time she was engaged in replying complaints from citizens or responding to acrimonious reports in media. The housekeeping was poor in her own office as well. Visitor's toilets were stinking and walls were spotted with spitting of pan-masala. There was hardly any sensitivity to save electricity or water. Lights and fans were switched on at 9 am and switched off at 6 pm, irrespective of the presence of the employees in office. Office vehicles were used carelessly causing a lot of wastage of fuel. The same was true in case of use of paper in the office.
“What can we do Madam? We are in shortage of the manpower and the citizens hardly have any civic sense” thus was a typical response of her colleagues when she discussed in the staff meeting. Instead of responding to them directly, she resorted to make two presentations. The first one described the story of her visit of the city through her clicks with cellphone. The next narrated the unclean and untidy state of her own office. Then she gently added, “It is true that the citizens aren’t aware about sanitation but what about us? Are we not the citizens of this city? You must have heard that Mantra, which means ‘People follow the leading persons!’
Mrs. D has two choices – either to stay back and wait for transfer to a better location or to take on the challenges. What is your advice to her? What is the best course of action? Draw an action taken and outcome chart after six months.
Case Studies
#Sanitation & Swachh Bharat#Panchayats & Local Bodies#Health#Pollution#Integrity & Probity#Ethical Dilemmas#Urban Local Bodies#Waste Management
U📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
Mr. C is appointed as a leader of the team looking after law and order in a district. He was an honest man with strong personality with friendly attitude. The headquarter town had mixed population of various communities but living harmoniously over last many decades. But some recent events in the town lead to trust deficit among the communities. One day Mr. C received news of group clash among two communities. He rushed to the spot and found situation very volatile. He deployed his team on the job and also called for additional manpower from the headquarters. There was a lock-down for all the shops and educational institutions in the area. A notification was issued banning assembly of people. The situation was brought under control but it was still extremely tense.
Next day, he calls for a meeting of the community and social leaders at his office. There were counter allegations from both sides. Some of them also accused about partisan stand taken by his juniors. Later, he privately meets a few intellectual and wise citizens across the communities and seeks their view on the cause of the recent turbulences and their possible remedy. He learnt that the real cause of the trouble was business rivalry of liquor mafias further fueled by recent local body elections. “Sir, common people always wish peace and harmony. They have no time or money to waste in offices and courts”, a wise voiced. Someone confidentially hinted “Sir, take care of your junior Mr. ‘X’, highly corrupt and close confidante of the goons and also track the source of untoward posts on the social media”.
Mr. C decides to change the situation. What are the challenges before him? How does he convince the people to cooperate for peace and harmony while keeping the goons under check? What could be the practical steps and the outcome? Analyze and discuss.
Case Studies
#Communalism & Secularism#Integrity & Probity#Ethical Dilemmas#Armed & Central Police Forces#Impartiality & Non-partisanship
U📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
Mr. B, who was brought up in a small tribal village joins Public Service after graduating from an eminent Social Science institute. His study involved exposure in socio-economically marginalized areas.
One morning while he was climbing the stairs to his office, he found a few senior citizens sitting on the steps. He observed that the office assistant contemptuously asked the senior citizens to make the way for his boss. He stops there and starts talking to them. The assistant tries to intervene but he asks him to leave. He learns that their social security pension was discontinued since six months. “Have you met the concerned branch head?” he gently enquired. “Sahib, we met him several times but nothing is done. We are very poor and can’t even work at this age”, said an old man. Another adds, “We heard that a new sahib has come and he is kind, so we have decided to meet him.”
Mr. B takes one of the pensioners with him and calls the concerned branch head in his chamber and asks why the pension was withheld. “Sir, they are liars. Actually they were found missing when we conducted spot verification. We also found some of them begging. The scheme provides for discontinuation of pension in such cases,” a casual replied. The pensioner replied hesitantly, “Sahib, we aren’t habitual beggars but we are compelled to beg to fill our stomach in absence of the pension. I haven’t taken a meal over three days. I survive with little roasted gram gifted by a kind shopkeeper.” And he desperately added, “This sahib asks for the documents that we can’t produce”. This was a shocking revelation for the officer.
Mr. B decides to help these desperate citizens. In three months he was much happy with what he could do for all the beneficiaries. What can you say about special traits in his personality? Can you suggest at least three initiatives he might have taken? What could be his message to colleagues, who too were in a happy state of job satisfaction now?U
Case Studies
📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages
Pending
Ms. A is a Science graduate and after her recruitment she was placed at a District level office of the Department looking after Environment. She is an enthusiastic and good meaning youth having modest socio-economic background with excellent moral teaching from her parents. Ms. A was appointed as an assistant director and her duty involved visit and inspection of the sites and the industrial plants and reporting with her recommendations.
On one morning she was directed by the head of the office to urgently submit her report in relation to an industrial proposal. A junior colleague, who held the charge of the same post before her, said that he had visited the site and everything was as per norms and the report was ready for her signature. But she insisted on the site visit.
Her superior pressed again to submit the report at once. This haste raised doubts in her mind and she rushed to the spot. To her surprise, she found many discrepancies and some of them were serious and highly hazardous. She sought explanations from the site manager but instead of responding to her queries, he alerted her that the plant belongs to a powerful businessman having contacts at the Government headquarters. In a low voice he added, “Our promoters are very generous and always reward friends in Government!”
Next morning, the senior asked her to submit the report that was ready before her arrival. She tried to explain that there were serious lapses and it is not advisable. However, the senior was adamant and at last, he cautioned that this could be damaging to her career. Most colleagues, excepting a few, advised her to follow the suit.
Delineate the thought process she might have undergone. What are the options before Ms. A? What would you advise her as a well-wisher friend? Why?U
Case Studies
📝 200 Words
🎯 25 Marks
📄 4 Pages