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Total Questions : 567
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Q. The moral compass of the society that is essential to enhance common good and well being of all has been losing relevance. Critically examine. (250 words)
12 Mar, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. It was first discovered in the Wuhan province of China and by February 2020, it has affected more than 70,000 people and caused more than 1700 deaths around the world. The World Health Organization has declared it a “global health emergency”.It has come to the notice that, while the first case of Coronavirus was reported on 8 December 2019, the Wuhan Health Authorities took more than 3 weeks to issue a notice. Even when Doctor Li Wenliang, who warned of the Virus was forced to sign a police statement for 'illegal behaviour'. The secret and authoritarian regime of China, lead to the proliferation of a deadly virus which constitutes now a global emergency.
a. Identify the ethical issues involved in the case.
06 Mar, 2020 GS Paper 4 Case Studies
b. What should be the role of the World Health Organization and the United Nations to prevent the spread of such deadly diseases.
c. How can conflict between the sovereignty of a nation and global governance be resolved? -
Q. What are the distinctive features of environmental ethics? Why has environmental ethics become one of the major concerns in the contemporary world? (250 words)
05 Mar, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Only by freedom and conflict of ideas can truth in the long run, be found. Examine the statement with suitable examples in the context of contemporary media ethics. (250 words)
05 Mar, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a secure line of communication that blocks third-party users from accessing transferred data. When the data is being transferred online, only the sender and recipient can decrypt it with a key. In that way, E2EE can help mitigate risk and protect sensitive information by blocking third parties from accessing user data when data is transferred from one source to another. This can be seen as a concern in many cases where privacy is very important, such as persons living under repressive governments, whistle-blowing, mass surveillance, businesses whose reputation depends on its ability to protect third party data.
Facebook and WhatsApp along with other social networking sites are announcing the end to end encryption to protect the privacy of people. But the National Society for the Prevention to Cruelty to Children, the UK along with other organizations have expressed significant concerns over this. According to these organizations, E2EE will reduce child safety online as it will prevent the monitoring of content that is not safe for children and might lead to child grooming and the proliferation of pornographic materials.
- Identify the ethical issues involved in the case.
- Suggest measures to resolve them. (250 words)
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Q. What is Ethics? Explain its significance in society. (250 words)
27 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Like religion and art, morality also is an institution of life for anyone to adopt in his life. Explain. (250 words)
27 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. You are Abhishek and you went to Jodhpur to attend the wedding of your friend Neeraj. The wedding went very well and all the rituals were properly followed. At the end of the wedding, the father of the bride offered Rs 10 Lakh to Neeraj to buy a car as a dowry. Since Neeraj and his family are very progressive, they are against the practice of dowry, they denied it. They also reminded the father that under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, it is illegal to offer a dowry. But the father insisted that being a father, he has the right to give his money to his daughter and her husband.
- Identify the ethical dilemmas involved in the case.
- What suggestions will you give to your friend Neeraj in this scenario?
- Are legislative solutions effective to solve social issues?
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Q. Examine the types of value conflicts that may be present in public service. (250 words)
20 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Examine the role of emotional intelligence for an administrator. Also enumerate, with examples, the key attributes that an emotionally intelligent administrator should imbibe. (250 words)
20 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Suppose you are an officer-in-charge of implementing a social service scheme to provide support to old and destitute women. An old and illiterate woman comes to you to avail the benefits of the scheme. However, she has no documents to show that she fulfils the eligibility criteria. But after meeting her and listening to her you feel that she certainly needs support. Your enquirers also show that she is really destitute and living in a pitiable condition. You are in a dilemma as to what to do. Putting her under the scheme without necessary documents would clearly be a violation of rules. But denying her the support would be cruel and inhuman.
- Can you think of a rational way to resolve this dilemma?
- Give your reasons for it. (250 words)
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Q. What is international ethics? Explain its significance with the help of examples. (250 words)
13 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. A technology should be evaluated both on the basis of its utility and the intention of its creator. Critically examine. (250 words)
13 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of Computer Science that enables the computer system to analyze data and situation and make a decision as a human do. It learns from experience, uses learning to reason, recognizes images, solves complex problems, understands languages and creates perspective, etc. It is seen as a foundation of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Many companies have already started to use AI to do some of the work.
But such applications raise troubling ethical issues because AI systems can reinforce what they have learned from real-world data, even amplifying familiar risks, such as racial or gender bias. Examples abound. In 2014, Amazon developed a recruiting tool for identifying software engineers it might want to hire; the system swiftly began discriminating against women, and the company abandoned it in 2017. In 2016, ProPublica analyzed a commercially developed system that predicts the likelihood that criminals will re-offend, created to help judges make better sentencing decisions, and found that it was biased against blacks.
- Identify the ethical issues involved in the use of AI.
- By what means, we can inculcate ethical and moral values in an AI-based system?
- Is it too soon for the world to adopt the AI?
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Q. What do you understand by the following quotation?
"If there is a sin in the world, it is weakness; avoid all weakness, weakness is sin, weakness is death."
06 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Putting the citizen first is the guiding principle of good governance. Discuss. (250 words)
06 Feb, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Indian Parliament recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, which amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant citizenship to undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan belonging to six religious communities, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. There have been nationwide protests against the Act and many scholars are terming it violative of the Constitution.
Suppose that you are an IAS officer stationed at Indore. You yourself believe that the Act is discriminatory and may lead to communal polarization of the country. You have got the information that two opposite religious groups are planning for 'Pro CAA' and 'Anti CAA' protests respectively. The venue and timing of both protests are the same. There are high chances of the matter getting out of hand and turning into communal riots that might spread in the whole district.
- Identify the ethical issues involved in the case.
- What is the best possible course of action to solve the matter in a peaceful manner?
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Q. How emotional intelligence can be a way to happiness? (150 words)
30 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. What do you understand by the term ‘distributive justice’? How can it be a better philosophy to bring social justice? (150 words)
30 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
More than a hundred children, who were being treated at a government hospital, have lost their lives in the course of a month. The agitated family members have accused the hospital of having extremely unhygienic conditions and negligence. Relatives of one of the families have staged a protest, carrying the body of a three-day-old girl who was born via c section. The relatives have alleged that the doctors did not treat her properly and that the paramedical staff was mostly busy on their mobile phones. The representatives of the hospital have denied the allegations claiming that the children are mostly referred from other hospitals and many of them come when they are at the terminal stage of their illness. They have also claimed that infants develop serious problems during transit. Quoting data from a national-level survey conducted by the government, the hospital management has also stated that they do not receive the required amount of funds to upgrade the infrastructure.
You are the DM of the district. What are the possible courses of actions available to you? Which one do you think will be the most appropriate step that can be taken and why?
24 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Case Studies -
Q. Deteriorating ecological ethics is one of the principal reasons for deforestation and land degradation. Discuss. (250 words)
23 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Sustainable development does not end sustainability of environment and resource system; it also requires sustainability of economic and social systems. Explain. (250 words)
23 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
You’re a manager at an NGO. Your subordinate has been working in the NGO for five years. Four years ago, his performance was poor because he was undergoing chemotherapy. Since then, it’s improved to average but, in the past few months has declined severely again. He explains that his cancer has recurred and has spread to his lymph nodes, so he’s in the middle of a six-month round of chemotherapy and his prognosis is not good. He says he prefers to keep working but if you terminate him, he won’t file a legal claim. He is his family's sole source of income and his salary is modest and so he has little in savings. What are the options available to you? Point out the pros and cons of each of them.
17 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Case Studies -
Q. Examine the following quotation: “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”.- Winston Churchill (250 words)
16 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Does learning from cultural and civilisational values makes one moral and ethical or rather turns him/her towards orthodox and regressive thinking? Give reasons in support of your answer. (250 words)
16 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. You are a Superintendent of Police in a district where caste-based discrimination is rampant. In a recent case, members from the Dalit community were prevented from cremating the body of an old woman from their community at the public crematorium. People belonging to the dominant upper caste community have destroyed the funeral pyre and have allegedly threatened the family of the deceased.
After the police intervention, the Dalits staged a protest and the body was cremated on the ground in front of the residence of MLA of the region, who also belongs to the dominant community. In the process of investigation, you come to know that not only family members of the MLA but some of your relatives too have been involved in the destruction of the funeral pyre.- What will be the possible ethical dilemmas that you might face?
- What will be your course of action? Justify. (250 words)
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Q. "It is important to address not only the physical violence but even the verbal and structural violence, expressed in gender, caste and regional discrimination in order to become a peaceful society." Comment. (250 words)
09 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. Do you agree that effective leadership requires power-sharing and participatory decision making? Substantiate your answer with suitable examples. (250 words)
09 Jan, 2020 GS Paper 4 Theoretical Questions -
Q. You are an auditor with a government department. Your son is starting a business and for that, he needs a large amount of loan from a bank you are auditing. But he couldn’t secure a loan from the bank because of his bad CIBIL score. Moreover, you cannot take the loan as the amount far exceeds your salary range. When you scrutinize the accounts of the bank, you find that its balance sheet has hidden stressed assets. However, one Assistant General Manager of the bank offers you help in return of favour that you do not reveal the balance sheet of the bank.
- What are the values in conflict in the above situation?
- What are the various options before you? Also, provide justification for each of the option. (250 Words)
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Q. Law and Ethics are considered to be the two tools for controlling human conduct so as to make it conducive to civilized social existence.
- Discuss how they achieve this objective.
- Giving examples, show how the two differ in their approaches. (250 words)