Author: Pooja_CD

Syllabus mapping

Paper 4 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | Ethics in private and public relationships

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Note4Students

This initiative is a part of Target Mains programme for Mains 2017.

You can post your answers in the comment section. But mentor review of answers will not be available. Just like various other CD community initiatives, this will also be a peer-to-peer review exercise.

Model answers are available below in PDF format and can be used for personal evaluation.

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Question 1:

You are posted as SDM in a tehsil. Your husband is also a Civil Servant and remains busy throughout the day because of the work pressure. You have a small child aged 2 years. You are finding it difficult to manage your job with the child as your job sometimes requires you to work in odd hours.

One day when you discuss the matter with your husband, instead of finding a solution or cooperating you, he abruptly asks you to leave the job and look after the child as he earns well. You have no financial burdens as such and quitting the job would also give you sufficient time to spend with your child who is too young.

Given below are some options. Discuss them with their merits and demerits. Also suggest which course
of action would you take and why?

(i) Resign from the job and look after your child.
(ii) Continue your job and call your mother in law to look after the child or appoint a caretaker for the child.
(iii) Have an argument with your husband that why only you should compromise with your job.
(iv) Getting your child admitted in a crèche near your office.

Question 2:

You are posted as a senior officer in forest department. Your office deals with granting clearances to new projects. Your son has recently started a new project where he wants to set up a new factory in a forest area. This would involve clearing some area of district through which forest passes.

The government has presently been not giving clearances to such projects as it has been emphasizing on forest conservation. Your son asks you to get the clearances done from your department. You have always been an upright officer and have not taken any benefit of the post held by you. However, this project is important for your son as you want him to get settled.

Will you use your authority to get the project cleared? What are the ethical conflicts that arise in the case? What are the options that are available to you? Discuss them with their merits and demerits.

Question 3:

A two year old male child is suffering from physical deformities and also is mentally retarded. The Physician informed that he would probably have lived to his fifth birthday but not more than that. The parents of the boy have no formal education and are working at a factory with a monthly salary of Rs. 3000 to sustain their life and another 3 children with no health insurance.
Monthly expense for medication and special diet for the child is Rs 2,500. The parents have requested for the Physician to provide any sort of help as they don’t have enough money to take care of the child. They even said that if there could not be any way out, it will be better for them to let the child die.
What should the doctor do and why? How the doctor should balance the Beneficence and non-maleficence?

Syllabus mapping

Paper 4 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | Codes of Conduct

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Note4Students

This initiative is a part of Target Mains programme for Mains 2017.

You can post your answers in the comment section. But mentor review of answers will not be available. Just like various other CD community initiatives, this will also be a peer-to-peer review exercise.

Model answers are available below in PDF format and can be used for personal evaluation.

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Question 1:

You are posted as a senior officer in the health department. One day during a visit to a government hospital, you came to know about the poor state of the hospital. The staff is not punctual when it comes to timings. The patients told you that the doctors rarely come on time for the regular round in the ward.

When you discussed this with the staff, you came to know some of the doctors had private clinics and came to hospital only after visiting patients there. The uniform of the other staff was also not proper. There was no display regarding the time of duty of the doctors in the ward.

Do you think there should be a code of conduct of doctors and other staff in hospitals like those for civil servants? If you are to make such a code of conduct, what all points will you focus upon? Draft a code of conduct in above case.

Question 2:

X and Y are married to each other and own a business together. Z is X’s friend who works in a bank. Z notices that every month Y deposits a fixed amount into one’s (P’s) account. P’s account does not reflect a fixed monthly deposit from any other source.
Z passes on this information to X. X is upset but chooses to confront P first. She lands up at P’s house and is even more annoyed to find that P has been hospitalized because she is expecting a baby. In her frustration, X storms into her house where Y is with his relatives and confronts him to know the truth. Y though, taken aback replies that P is her half sister and he hid this fact in order to avoid any ill feelings concerning his late father. Was it just a blunder or was an ethical duty done by X and Z? Justify.

Question 3:

Crime against women is on the rise in the Capital and also in some other parts of India. Government has taken some steps in its bid to improve the situation. However, the steps still lacks concrete measures. Even the bill on quota reservation for women keeps getting shelved. The reports are coming at regular intervals from the media. However, nothing concrete is being done by the government. Vasundhara who works in the Cabinet in the human resource department finds the whole cacophony distasteful. She decides to express her thoughts on the present situation on her personal blog and in the printed media to spread awareness on the matter.
What is your take on Vasundhara’s action? Explore the following option and suggest the suitable action (other than the mentioned also if need be) with proper justification.
Is she right in doing so because someone has to take the step out to make a change?
She should have restricted herself to personal blogging that way no one questions her freedom of expression?
She must step out in the open and fully take the cause in her hands.

Syllabus mapping

Paper 4 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behavior

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Note4Students

This initiative is a part of Target Mains programme for Mains 2017.

You can post your answers in the comment section. But mentor review of answers will not be available. Just like various other CD community initiatives, this will also be a peer-to-peer review exercise.

Model answers are available below in PDF format and can be used for personal evaluation.

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Question 1:

You are CEO of Zila Parishad. One day, you go to inspect a gram sabha meeting in a village which is headed by a female sarpanch. But, you find her absent in the meeting. When you ask the villagers about it, they tell you that

When you ask the villagers about it, they tell you that it is her husband who takes all decisions and attends the meetings. You decide to have a meeting with her. When you meet her, she tells that her husband does most of the things as he thinks that being a female she can not handle the work of being a headwoman.

Do you think the real motive of the government behind providing reservation to women in Panchayats has failed? Is the husband’s interference in this case justified? What should she do to convince her husband that she can handle the work herself?

Question 2:

You are the director of an NGO which looks after setting up Anganwadi centers for small children and providing MDM in schools. Your organization had received a grant of twenty lakhs to set up Anganwadi centers. You make all efforts to identify areas where the Anganwadi centers can be established. However, even after a year, you are still not able to set up the required number of Aganwadis to spend the allotted amount. Now the time is around the corner to submit the accounts for the grant sanctioned and he has been able to spend only ten lakhs out of twenty lakhs allocated to you.
When you set to compile the records to account for the spending what are possible temptations you will face. What course of action would you take?

Syllabus mapping

Paper 4 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service

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Note4Students

This initiative is a part of Target Mains programme for Mains 2017.

You can post your answers in the comment section. But mentor review of answers will not be available. Just like various other CD community initiatives, this will also be a peer-to-peer review exercise.

Model answers are available below in PDF format and can be used for personal evaluation.

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Question 1:

You are posted as DSP who is known for his integrity and sense of duty. You find two people violating traffic rules and when you give them challan, they tell you they belong to ruling party and refuse to pay challan. When you insist, they start misbehaving with you. You have a heated argument with them. They ask you to leave them or ask you to be ready to face the consequences.

Next day you get a call from a local politician that you should apologise to the party workers else you will be transferred to a remote area. You have lived all your life in metro cities. Even your husband advises you to apologise, as he has a permanent job in the city and if you are transferred you might face family problems.

Given below are some options. Discuss them with their merits and demerits. Also suggest which course of action would you take and why? Your course of action could be different from the options given below.

(i) Apologise from the leader so that you are not transferred.
(ii) Asks your husband who also knows some senior minister to help you get out of the matter.
(iii) Be firm on your stand and decide to go to your new posting.
(iv) Highlighting the matter in the media to get more people support.

Question 2:

You are a District Magistrate and also assigned the work of Returning Officer of a constituency where by-election is being announced by election commission due to death of an MLA (who happened to be the Chief Minister of the state). This constituency is very sensitive and high profile because of the candidates contesting there.
As an officer your duty is to ensure free and fair election. You found that the voters are being influenced by distributing money and gifts by the candidates and political parties. This all is being done with very secrecy. The voters also seek benefits out of the elections in form of freebies and they don’t see this distribution as illegal. However, use of money power in elections goes against the ethos of democracy. You have been an upright officer all your life and want to ensure that elections are conducted fairly.

1. Considering the above facts what are the options available to you?
2. Discuss the merits and demerits of each option. Also, choose the option which you consider best with suitable justification.

Question 3:

‘Jaridharla’ is a village on the extreme north-eastern side of India-Bangladesh border where local residents use to cross the border to reach a town ‘Moghulhat’ (just a 15 minute walk away) in Bangladesh to get even the basic necessities of day to day living. The village lacks basic facilities like Hospital, concrete road, drinking water facilities, school, police station and so on, and nearest Indian town falls about 100 km away from the village.
The people of the village have no other option than to cross the border to get their health checkup and necessary medicines. Often in an emergency, the people use to carry the patients on their shoulders across the border where Border Guards of Bangladesh stops them for security reasons which delay patient’s treatment.

Consider the following statement:
1. The area falls under your jurisdiction of being a district collector. In the above facts what course of actions do you think are possible?
2. A district magistrate has authority to do many things and if he wants he can transform the village into modern one. How will you act in this situation and what contribution will you make for the village?
3. Bordering areas are too sensitive and causes security problems. Open border with Bangladesh has many of such implications and caused many such damages in local areas like robbery, killing, smuggling etc. How will you manage to such security scenario?

Question 4:

You are working for Air India Ltd. The Managing Director has asked you to write a speech that will be delivered at an International Air Transport Association gathering in Geneva, Switzerland. Air India is suffering from financial difficulties, and the MD hopes to use the speech as a springboard to open discussion about the subsidiaries and increased investments in State-owned carriers. MD holds that decrease in subsidiaries and investments create problems for the consumers as the State Carriers are forced to increase fairs and reduce the standard of service.
Your deadline is immediate and you have the worst writer’s block ever had in your life. Through some random electronic searches, you find the perfect speech on YouTube. It was delivered by a member of Labour Party who opposed the UK Government’s proposal to cut subsidiaries of the country’s state-owned airline and was posted with subtitles.
You are ready to copy it and present it to the MD because it is exactly what you have been directed to write. But you are feeling uncomfortable because you know the speech will not be your own work. The deadline is immediate. What will you do?
Justify the ethical values in the case with proper explanation. Discuss what ethical principles will guide you in decision making in this case? Make a decision and offer a brief rationale.

Question 5:

Modern education in India is often criticized for encouraging rote learning, rather than comprehension, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Students spend most of their time memorizing a syllabus with no thought given to learning or playing. Textbook knowledge, rigid ideas, and test scores take precedence over open debates and logical reasoning. Little room is left for creativity to thrive.
Moreover, there are growing concerns about student learning outcomes, teacher training, curriculum quality, assessment of learning achievements, and the efficacy of school management. Faced with such problems, many children drop out of school before even completing five years of primary education. Those children who do stay on often learn little.
Most resources and research are directed towards improving quantifiable factors such as enrolment, dropout rates, teacher-to-student ratios, etc. while not enough has been done to examine the quality of education given to India’s children.
You are posted as a Sub Divisional Magistrate and are assigned to look after the problems of Education System. What suggestions would you like to give in order to improve the education system?

Question 6:

A newly appointed Medical Superintendent of a district Government Hospital receives complaints about the negligent attitude of the doctors in times of casualties. The patients are not properly attended. Incidentally it is the only hospital in the city and the vicinity for the poor and needy. While on the round in the hospital, the Superintendent finds that the doctors were not found on duty, there was no proper display of duty timings and shifts. The relatives of the patients complained about the negligent attitude of the doctors.
1. What do you propose the Medical Superintendent should do? Evaluate various options and suggest suitable measures to improve the condition.

Question 7:

Your state has been witnessing on and off Monsoon showers for quite some time now. You are local MLA and in your Constituency majority of your electorates are from weaker section of society. You have come to know that five members of a family have been washed away in flash flood and only two children of the poor family having age of 12 years and 8 years have survived. The children are weeping bitterly as they have nothing to eat and depend upon. On the spot visit, you find the situation to be very pathetic.
How you would handle the situation. Discuss various options that are available before you? What course of action would you take and why?

Question 8:

One Evening, driver of the state MLA was driving his personal vehicle within the limits of the city. He was driving faster than the prescribed speed limit. He jumped a red light and consequently he was stopped by the traffic police officer. The policeman confronted the driver and proceeded to write challan for the offence. The driver stopped him from writing the challan and blatantly informed him that he is the driver of the state MLA. The policeman is in dilemma as the driver may work as influence for the policemen for getting some personal benefits with the support of MLA.
Do you think, policeman is under certain obligation? What are the various options available to him? What suggestion you would like to provide to policeman in order to help him overcome from dilemma?

Question 9:

Mr. Biswas is a civil servant in the PMO office. Lately there has been a lot of activity happening around the present education policy and the right to education. Mr. Biswas gets an invitation from a news channel to a debate on the issue. The news channel assures that it will be a non political intellectual debate. The other invitees will be from other prominent field of education.
What should Mr. Biswas do? Whether he should express himself on a public platform or not being a civil servant? Suggest Mr. Biswas a suitable action in this regard

Syllabus mapping

Paper 4 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | Accountability and ethical governance

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Note4Students

This initiative is a part of Target Mains programme for Mains 2017.

You can post your answers in the comment section. But mentor review of answers will not be available. Just like various other CD community initiatives, this will also be a peer-to-peer review exercise.

Model answers are available below in PDF format and can be used for personal evaluation.

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Question 1:

Limitless economic growth counters sustainability. Striking a balance between unbounded economic growth and sustainability is very crucial in present times.

Can development and sustainability of environment go hand in hand?

Considering the scenarios of the future that include water scarcity, high levels of pollution, extreme weather phenomena and the regular occurrence of natural disasters such as floods and droughts, how can a developing country like India balance both economic development and sustainability? Give your suggestions

Syllabus mapping

Paper 4 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | Emotional intelligence- concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance

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Note4Students

This initiative is a part of Target Mains programme for Mains 2017.

You can post your answers in the comment section. But mentor review of answers will not be available. Just like various other CD community initiatives, this will also be a peer-to-peer review exercise.

Model answers are available below in PDF format and can be used for personal evaluation.

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Question 1:

You are heading a disaster relief volunteer team in a district which has witnessed flood on a large level. The floods have caused huge losses. It has been five days since your team is working day and night. Your team, at this point of time is highly exhausted.

Why do such operations loose energy and enthusiasm after some period?

Which qualities of the person heading the operation are tested?

How will you motivate the team to work in such a situation? Discuss the various options.

 

Question 2:

You are posted as a police officer. You get a call reporting a road accident where two persons are severely injured. When you reach the accident place, the persons are lying unconscious. You instantly arrange an ambulance for them. However, when lodging the FIR when you ask people present at the site of the accident to be a witness, nobody comes forward.

Do you think the state has failed to provide protection to such witnesses?

What actions do you suggest to protect the interests of good Samaritans in case of road accidents?

 

Question 3:

You are posted in a district as DM. The agriculture sector has been hit severely this year in your district due to bad rains. There has been an increase in farmers’ deaths due to suicide. Due to this crisis faced by farmers, there is a protest on the main highway passing through the district.

During the protest, two innocent farmers got killed by a bullet fired by police. They were the sole bread earning members in their families. This made the situation more intense. People have blocked the highway and are sitting
with the dead bodies.

How will you pacify the crowd? What are the various options before you? Discuss them with their merits and demerits suggesting which course of action will you take and why?