Mains Practice Questions

1.Technology empowers, but institutions humanise governance.

Quotes to Enrich your Essay

• Max Weber: “The fate of our times is characterised by rationalisation and intellectualisation.”
• Amartya Sen: “Development is about expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy.”
• Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
• Hannah Arendt: “Bureaucracy is the rule of nobody.”

Introduction: Interpreting the Statement

• The digital age has transformed governance by enhancing speed, scale, and precision through technology.
  • Yet governance is not merely about efficient service delivery; it is about fairness, trust, accountability, and dignity.
• The statement underscores a crucial balance: while technology empowers governance mechanically, institutions humanise it ethically.
  • As Max Weber cautioned, efficiency without values risks reducing governance to administration rather than public service.

Technology as an Empowering Force in Governance

• Efficiency, Scale, and Reach
  • Digital platforms have expanded state capacity to reach millions simultaneously.
  • India’s JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan–Aadhaar–Mobile) has enabled Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), significantly reducing leakages.
    • The World Bank estimates DBT savings in India at ₹3.48 lakh crore since 2014 through reduced duplication and ghost beneficiaries.
• Transparency and Data-Driven Decision-Making
  • E-governance portals, real-time dashboards, and GIS mapping improve monitoring and targeting.
  • Platforms like CoWIN facilitated over 2.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, showcasing technological empowerment at scale.
• Citizen Convenience
  • Online services reduce transaction costs, time delays, and bureaucratic discretion.
  • Digital land records, tax filing portals, and grievance platforms enhance ease of interaction with the state.
  • For instance, over 95% of rural land records (covering 6.26 lakh villages) are computerised under DILRMP & SVAMITVA.

Limits of Technology-Driven Governance

• Exclusion and Digital Divide
  • According to NFHS-5, only 33.3% of women have ever used the internet, compared to 57.1% of men.
  • Over-reliance on digital systems risks excluding the elderly, informal workers, and digitally illiterate populations.
• Algorithmic Rigidity
  • Automated welfare systems may deny benefits due to minor data mismatches.
  • Technology lacks empathy and contextual understanding in exceptional cases.
• Accountability Gaps
  • Algorithms diffuse responsibility—errors often lack a clear authority for redress.
  • Governance requires moral accountability, not just technical accuracy.

Institutions as the Human Face of Governance

• Rule-Based yet Discretionary
  • Institutions such as the civil services, judiciary, and local governments interpret rules with sensitivity.
  • Human discretion allows flexibility in disaster relief, social welfare, and grievance redressal.
• Trust and Legitimacy
  • Institutions build trust through continuity, fairness, and responsiveness.
  • For instance, Gram Sabhas under the Panchayati Raj system enable participatory decision-making rooted in local realities.
• Accountability and Ethical Oversight
  • Independent institutions like the Election Commission and Comptroller and Auditor General ensure integrity beyond technological tools.
  • RTI Act empowers citizens through institutional transparency rather than technological control alone.

Complementarity: Technology Serving Institutional Values

• Technology as an Enabler, Not a Substitute
  • Institutions provide the ethical framework within which technology operates.
  • Digital courts, for example, increase access but judicial wisdom remains irreplaceable.
• Hybrid Governance Models
  • Initiatives like Mission Mode Projects integrate technology with institutional oversight.
  • Grievance redressal portals succeed when backed by accountable officials and time-bound responses.
• Crisis Management
  • During COVID-19, technology enabled tracking and delivery, but institutional compassion—food distribution, relaxed documentation norms—ensured humane governance.

Global and Comparative Perspective

• Estonia’s Digital State
  • Estonia’s e-governance model demonstrates high efficiency, yet strong institutional trust underpins its success.
  • Without institutional integrity, digital systems risk becoming tools of surveillance rather than service.
• Developing World Context
  • In low-capacity states, technology without institutions often deepens inequality and exclusion.
  • The UNDP emphasises that institutional strength determines whether digital governance empowers or alienates citizens.

Ethical Synthesis

• Technology answers the question of “how fast” and “how much.”
• Institutions answer the question of “how fair” and “how humane.”
• Governance succeeds when efficiency is guided by empathy and accountability.

Conclusion

Technology has expanded the reach and capability of modern governance, but it is institutions that preserve its human soul. Data, algorithms, and platforms can empower the state, yet only credible institutions can ensure justice, dignity, and trust. Sustainable governance lies not in choosing between technology and institutions, but in harmonising technological empowerment with institutional humanism.

2. Progress without purpose is movement without meaning.

Quotes to Enrich your Essay

• Viktor Frankl: “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
• Mahatma Gandhi: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
• Aristotle: “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

Introduction: Interpreting the Statement

• Modern societies often equate progress with speed, growth, and technological advancement.
• However, progress that lacks ethical direction, social goals, or human purpose risks becoming hollow motion.
• The statement highlights that advancement must be guided by values, vision, and outcomes that enhance human well-being.

Philosophical and Ethical Foundations

• Purpose as the Moral Compass of Progress
  • Aristotle linked human flourishing (eudaimonia) to purposeful action rather than mere activity.
  • Progress without values becomes instrumental, reducing humans to means rather than ends.
• Indian Philosophical Insight
  • The concept of Purushartha (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha) balances material progress with ethical and spiritual purpose.
  • The Bhagavad Gita emphasises karma guided by dharma, not blind pursuit of outcomes.
• Modern Thought
  • Amartya Sen views development as expanding human freedoms, not merely increasing income or output.
  • Purpose transforms growth into development.

Economic Growth: Quantity vs Quality

• High Growth, Limited Well-being
  • Several economies have achieved rapid GDP growth without proportional improvements in health, education, or equality.
  • Despite being among the fastest-growing economies, India ranks 134th in the Human Development Index (HDI) 2023, highlighting gaps between growth and human outcomes.
• Jobless and Unequal Growth
  • Automation and capital-intensive growth have increased productivity but limited employment elasticity.
  • The World Inequality Report shows the top 10% globally capturing over 52% of global income, raising concerns about purposeless growth.
• Purpose-Driven Economics
  • Inclusive growth policies—education, skilling, social security—align economic progress with social purpose.

Technology and Innovation

• Speed without Direction
  • Rapid technological change has increased efficiency but also surveillance, misinformation, and job displacement.
  • AI systems optimize outcomes but cannot define ethical goals.
• Human-Centric Innovation
  • Purpose-driven technology focuses on solving real problems—healthcare access, climate resilience, education.
  • Digital Public Infrastructure in India (Aadhaar, UPI) demonstrates how technology aligned with inclusion can expand access and dignity.
• Environmental Costs
  • Unchecked industrial progress has contributed to climate change; 2023 was among the warmest years on record globally.
  • Progress without ecological purpose threatens long-term survival.

Social and Cultural Dimensions

• Urbanisation and Lifestyle Change
  • Rapid urban growth without planning leads to congestion, pollution, and social alienation.
  • Cities that prioritise livability, public spaces, and community foster meaningful progress.
• Education and Skill Formation
  • Education focused solely on credentials produces employability without wisdom.
  • Purposeful education cultivates critical thinking, ethics, and citizenship.
• Cultural Continuity
  • Societies that preserve values alongside change maintain coherence and resilience.
  • Cultural roots provide direction to progress.

Governance and Public Policy

• Policy Outcomes vs Policy Intent
  • Schemes designed around targets may miss human realities if purpose is lost.
  • For example, Direct Benefit Transfers reduced leakages, but grievance redressal institutions ensure humane delivery.
• Global Goals as Purpose Anchors
  • The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a purpose-driven framework linking growth to equity, sustainability, and dignity.
  • Progress measured against SDGs integrates economic, social, and environmental aims.

Ethical Synthesis

• Movement indicates change; purpose gives direction.
• Progress must answer “why” before optimising “how.”
• Without ethical grounding, advancement risks deepening inequality, alienation, and ecological harm.

Conclusion

Progress acquires meaning only when guided by purpose that enhances human dignity, equity, and sustainability. Growth without direction may accelerate change, but it cannot ensure well-being. Societies that align innovation, economy, and governance with ethical vision convert motion into meaningful advancement.