Mains Practice Questions

Q. Discuss the role of rational thinking in resolving ethical dilemmas in the field of education. (150 words)

Case Study

As a civil servant, you have been appointed as the District Collector of your district. One day, you receive a complaint from a local NGO stating that a government-run school in a remote village in your district is not providing students with proper facilities and infrastructure. The NGO has also provided you with photos and videos as evidence of the poor conditions at the school.

Upon investigation, you find that the allegations made by the NGO are true and the schools in your district are indeed in a poor state. You also find out that they lack basic facilities such as clean drinking water, proper classrooms, and proper sanitation facilities etc.

You are faced with a dilemma - on one hand, you want to take immediate action and improve the conditions of schools in your district to provide the students with a better learning environment. On the other hand, you are aware that the process of improving the school's facilities will take time and money, and you are not sure if the funds allocated for the district will be sufficient to cover the costs.

As a district collector what would you do in this situation?

Q. How do organizations and institutions address ethical challenges, such as corruption and discrimination? (150 words)

Q. What are the ethical considerations in public policy making and how do they impact the well-being of citizens? (150 words)

Case Study

In a horrific incident which sparked outrage in your district, a 17-year-old girl, on her way to school with her younger sister, was attacked with an acid-like substance by two men on a motorcycle near her home. She sustained severe injuries on her face, neck and eyes, currently she is being treated at the Hospital. She comes from a very humble family and her family looked up to her for alleviating them from poverty.

Further, the incident has once again brought back to focus the heinous crime of acid attacks and the easy availability of corrosive substances, therefore, people are anguished and have started protesting and demanding the death penalty for the culprits.

As a district magistrate, what would you do to resolve the situation? What steps would you take to stop easy availability of hazardous substances?

Q. Discuss some parallels between Buddhism and modern ideas on emotional intelligence. (150 words)

Q. An ethical workplace culture ensures the success of the firm and improves employee job satisfaction. Elucidate. How can ethical culture be introduced into a company? (150 words)

Case Study

Your friend Ritwik hails from a village whose surrounding areas were submerged due to floods during the monsoon last year. Government assisted the affected people by giving them cash doles to purchase household goods, seeds to replant crop and cash to compensate for loss of standing crop. Ritwik had his house site on high ground and suffered no loss of personal effects. Luckily, his agricultural land being relatively far away from the flooded river escaped the ravages of the flood. Normally, government machinery is unable to thoroughly assess the damage suffered by each individual family. As a result, people take advantage by making extravagant and often fictitious claims. Ritwik has made false claims like others in the village.

As a close friend of Ritwik, what do you think about his action? Is it a right thing to do? what would be your appropriate response to Ritwik’s conduct?

Q. What is Cultural relativism? What are the problems which cultural relativism presents to morality? (150 Words)

Q. “A person's moral principles are the consequence of several factors”. In the light of this statement discuss the role of mass media and social media on the formation of moral ideals. (150 Words)

Case Study

Recently, a 19-year-old Dalit man who was part of catering service was attacked after he accidentally touched the food on the plate of an upper caste person at a wedding function. The matter was resolved after other people present there intervened and the victim returned home. However, the accused and his aides later went to the victim’s residence and beat him up. When other members of the family tried to intervene, they were also beaten up. Further, the accused also damaged a motorcycle parked on the premises of the house. Despite this, police did not make any arrest and took the matter lightly. Due to inaction of police in making any arrest, the situation is further deteriorating and clashes broke out between two opposite groups of upper and lower caste.

(a) As an IPS officer, how would you resolve this issue and what would be your course of action?

(b) How could you prevent re-occurrence of such incidents in your district?

Q. Discuss the role of ‘moral conscience’ in promoting ethical behavior. (150 words) 

Q. Recently, many private businesses are facing ethical dilemma to lay off their employees. What do you think about this? Discuss. (150 words) 

Case Study

With the latest trend of layoffs by big-tech companies across the globe due to various reasons like continuation of Russia-Ukraine war, fall in consumer demand and slowing economic growth. Considering this global situation, there is an Indian Ed-tech company which is also suffering from slowing of demand, capital crunch etc. Therefore, the company needs to take a slew of measures to navigate through this rough phase of recession.

Manish is working as Human Resource (HR) head in this company and there is pressure from investors to fire a major chunk of the workforce.

Further, he was informed by management that dismissing employees is essential for the company's existence and instructed him to inform the employees of this decision as soon as possible.

Q. With the ethical dilemmas in mind, what should Manish do in this scenario?

Q. What are the ingredients of corporate governance? What is their rationale. (150 words)

Q. Outline briefly the views of any two modern public administration thinkers on the ethical ideas for civil servants. (150 words)

Case Study

A woman and her male partner were living together in a live-in relationship. She faced physical and mental harassment by her partner for some years under the pretense of marriage by her spouse. This relationship continued for some time until one day police recovered a bag with a dead body nearby a river. After conducting a preliminary inquiry, the police discovered that her live-in partner had murdered her. Earlier, the woman's family had protested against her live-in relationship status and after this incident, there have been huge protests in the state against live-in relationships and people who are living with their live in partners are being threatened by various peer groups, religious groups etc. have come together and demanded from the state government to bring a law to ban live-in relationships in the whole state, claiming that the live-in relationships are against Indian culture.

As senior police officer in your area how would you handle the situation and what steps would you take to resolve the issue?

Q. “Corruption is a moral degradation of character of public servant as well as of the defects of government systems and procedures “. Examine (150 words)

Q. What are the moral lessons one can learn from Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose? Elucidate (150 words)

Case Study

Dr. Ankur Sharma is a surgeon. He comes from a well-educated family. Rahul, his little son, is 7 years old and is showing some troubling behaviour patterns. Rahul has been taking pleasure in hurting and torturing creatures for the last two years. It all started when he would pick up some insects such as cockroaches and worms and take delight in cutting them to pieces with a blade. The family keeps some pets including rabbits and some days ago Mr. Sharma detected the boy vivisecting a rabbit in a lonely corner of their garden. By the time Mr. Sharma intervened it was all over, and young Rahul was almost relishing the sight of his bloody hand. Mr. Sharma, of course, scolded the kid but they are worried about the gruesome incidents likely to happen from this kind of perverse behaviour.

What actions should the parents take? Select from the following options:

1. They should ignore the incidents as childish pranks.

2. They should explain to Rahul the need to behave kindly towards animals and to avoid violence in all forms.

3. They should take Rahul to a psychiatrist for counselling and treatment.

4. They should not let Rahul out of sight when he is alone.

Q. What duties do government employees have in terms of ethics that are generally accepted? (150 Words)

Q. Discuss aspects of Hindu ethics which are relevant to modern administration. Give examples to justify your answer. (150 words)

Case Study

Ashwani Sood is a farmer who resides in a village of moderate size in the Sitamarhi district of Bihar. He was once chosen to lead the local Panchayat. He has a 25-year-old young son Divyansh. Being the only son of the family, Divyansh was pampered and became spoilt. He was arrogant, always wanted to have his way and would pick up a fight at the slightest opportunity.

A primary school teacher of the area was shot in the head by Divyansh in full view of a large number of persons. He was arrested and remained in jail, despite several attempts to come out.

The MLA of the district is happened to be a part of state cabinet and is also a longtime friend of Ashwani and is currently very influential in the government. The present District Magistrate (Sanjit) has good relations with the minister as he had worked under this Minister in the secretariat before he came to this district and was also recommended by him.

Later, the cabinet minister from the district called Sanjit for recommending parole to Divyansh.

The Minister did not claim that Divyansh is innocent; his pleading was restricted to the circumstances the family was passing through as his mother had died recently. The Minister’s request has created a somewhat difficult situation for Sanjit. This Minister rarely intervenes in any administrative day-to-day functions.

What would be the course of action should Sanjit follow and why?

Q. How can information and communication technology help in reducing corruption? illustrate your answer with two examples (250 words)

Q. “The unexamined life is not worth living”, how would you interpret this statement of Socrates? (250 words)

Case Study

Q. Industrial chemicals are produced on a big scale by a conglomerate. It suggested establishing a second unit. Due to its negative impact on the environment, many states rejected this proposal. But one state government acceded to the request and permitted the unit close to a city, brushing aside all opposition. Further, the unit was set up 10 years ago and was in full swing till recently. The pollution caused by the industrial effluents was affecting the land, water, and crops in the area. It was also causing serious health problems to human beings and animals. This gave rise to a series of agitations demanding the closure of the plant. In a recent agitation, thousands of people took part, creating a law-and-order problem necessitating stern police action. Following the public outcry, the State government ordered the closure of the factory. The closure of the factory resulted in the unemployment of not only those workers who were engaged in the factory but also those who were working in the ancillary units. It also very badly affected those industries which depended on the chemicals manufactured by it.

As a senior officer entrusted with the responsibility of handling these issues, how are you going to address it?

Q. What do you understand by probity in governance? Based on your understanding of the term, suggest measures for ensuring probity in government. (250 words)

Q. Discuss how a good character is necessary for holding higher positions in civil services. (250 words)

Case Study

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 enquiries 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 violation of rules. But denying her the support would be cruel and inhuman

1. Can you think of a rational way to resolve this dilemma?

2. Give your reasons for it.

Q. What are the four moral ends of Hinduism? Outline them in brief. (150 words)