Mains Practice Questions - 13 Mar, 2026

Case Study

Mr. Aditya Sharma is serving as the District Magistrate of a rapidly growing district where the state government has recently introduced an AI-based system to identify beneficiaries for welfare schemes such as housing subsidies, scholarships, and pension benefits. The system uses multiple datasets—income records, property ownership, electricity consumption, and bank transactions—to automatically generate a list of eligible beneficiaries.

The government promotes the system as a major reform to improve efficiency, reduce corruption, and ensure objective targeting of welfare benefits. Initially, the new system significantly reduces manual processing and speeds up the delivery of benefits.

However, during public grievance hearings, Mr. Sharma begins receiving numerous complaints from genuinely poor families who have been excluded from the beneficiary list. Upon investigation, he discovers that the algorithm relies heavily on digital and financial data. As a result, many informal-sector workers, migrant families, and people without regular digital footprints are being wrongly classified as “ineligible.”

At the same time, some relatively well-off households with incomplete or outdated records have been included in the beneficiary list. Civil society organisations accuse the administration of creating “digital exclusion”, arguing that excessive reliance on automated decision-making ignores ground realities.

When Mr. Sharma raises these concerns with higher authorities, he is advised to continue using the system because it is a flagship governance reform that demonstrates the government's commitment to transparency and technology-driven administration. Officials argue that questioning the system may undermine public confidence in digital governance.

Meanwhile, media reports and social activists are increasingly highlighting cases of exclusion, portraying the administration as insensitive to the needs of vulnerable populations.

Mr. Sharma must decide how to address these concerns while balancing technological efficiency, fairness, and accountability in welfare delivery.

Questions

1. Identify the ethical issues involved in the above case.

2. What options are available to Mr. Sharma? Evaluate the merits and demerits of each option.

3. What course of action should Mr. Sharma adopt to ensure both administrative efficiency and ethical governance? Justify your answer.

Essay Topics

1. “The quality of a society is reflected not in its achievements, but in its choices.”

2. “Civilisations endure when wisdom keeps pace with innovation.”