Mains Practice Questions

Case Study

You are a Civil Services aspirant who has cleared the first two stages of the exam and has recently received the interview call letter. On this momentous occasion, you decided to visit a holy shrine near your residence, in order to offer your gratitude to the divine. At the entrance of the shrine, you encounter a disturbing spectacle of exorcism. Two women are being continuously slapped, cursed and shouted upon by a domineering religious man, and their families are standing nearby as silent spectators. You are convinced that these women are suffering from psychological issues but its symptoms are being construed as the presence of evil spirit by the family members. You are deeply moved by the women’s plight and you empathize with them.

(a) What choices do you have and how will you respond in this situation?

(b) What are the ethical issues involved in the practice of exorcism? (250 Words)

Q. What does the following quotation mean to you?
“Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.” – Benjamin Franklin. (150 Words)

Case Study

You are posted as a District Magistrate. You come to know about a situation in the village under your jurisdiction where the population is suffering from Anaemia. An initiative was taken to provide fortified rice to villagers in order to provide nutrition to them but villagers refuse to eat them as they have the misconception of the rice being the plastic rice. On the other hand, the village is also influenced by the Leftist movement and you get to know that Naxalites are using this public perception for their own benefit, making it more difficult for the government to reach the people. An alternate initiative was taken by providing iron tablets to people but it created another misconception among villagers that these tablets lead to more weight of babies in pregnant mothers leading to delivery complications. Thus, it also ended in failure.

(a) What are the various issues involved in the above case study?

(b) How will you change the perception of the people in the backdrop of the spread of misinformation by the Naxalites?

Q. What are values? Highlight the importance of values in governance. (150 Words)

Q. “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Discuss the factors which contribute to the formation of Attitude in an individual’s life. (150 Words)

Q. What does the following quotation mean to you?
“Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.” –Isaac Asimov (150 Words)

Case Study

You are a Civil Services aspirant who has cleared the first two stages of the exam and has recently received the interview call letter. On this momentous occasion, you decided to visit a holy shrine near your residence, in order to offer your gratitude to the divine. At the entrance of the shrine, you encounter a disturbing spectacle of exorcism. Two women are being continuously slapped, cursed and shouted upon by a domineering religious man, and their families are standing nearby as silent spectators. You are convinced that these women are suffering from psychological issues but its symptoms are being construed as the presence of evil spirit by the family members. You are deeply moved by the women’s plight and you empathize with them.
(a) What choices do you have and how will you respond in this situation?
(b) What are the ethical issues involved in the practice of exorcism? (250 Words)

Q. Family is not just a social institution for serving our daily wants but it is also the first school of citizenship. Explain. (150 Words)

Q. Examine the role of social influence and persuasion in the successful management of any pandemic. (150 Words)

Q. How is the capability approach different from utilitarianism? Discuss. (150 Words)

Q. Examine the types of value conflicts that may be present in public service. (150 words)

Q. What is Corporate Governance? What are the ethical issues with Corporate Governance in India? Suggest measures to improve Corporate Governance in India. (250 words)

Q. Examine the role of emotional intelligence for an administrator in today’s complex world. Also enumerate, with examples, the key attributes that an emotionally intelligent administrator should imbibe. (250 words)

Q. As an international organisation committed to global peace, has the UN been able to ensure international ethics? Illustrate. (250 words)

Q. Differentiate between Personal ethics and Professional ethics. Give examples.

Q. International laws and treaties act as the sources of ethical guidance in contemporary international relations. Critically examine. (250 words)

Case Study

You are the Sarpanch of a Panchayat. There is a primary school run by the government in your area. Midday meals are provided to the children attending the school. The Headmaster has now appointed a new cook in the school to prepare the meals. However, when it is found that the cook is from Dalit community, almost half of the children belonging to higher castes are not allowed to take meals by their parents. Consequently the attendance in the school falls sharply. This could result in the possibility of discontinuation of midday meal scheme, thereafter of teaching staff and subsequent closing down the school.

(a) Mention ethical issues of the case and also discuss some feasible strategies to overcome the conflict and to create the right ambience.
(b) What should be the responsibilities of different social segments and agencies to create positive social ambience for accepting such changes?

Q. Examine the following, along with relevant examples:
(A) An action can be legally wrong but ethically correct and vice versa.
(B) Under what situations, a person cannot be held as unethical despite his actions looking seemingly unethical or illegal. (250 words)

Q. All human beings aspire for happiness. Do you agree? What does happiness mean to you? Explain with examples. (150 Words)

Q. Ethics of society at large is reflected in any organization’s work culture. Discuss. (150 Words)

Q. What do you understand by natural law ethics? Discuss with examples the criticism of this branch of ethics. (150 Words)

Case Study

Abhishek Singh hails from an influential family of landlords. Being educated in Delhi in a top notch college he developed a preference for the civil services and got selected in the IRS and joined as an Income Tax Officer. Even after joining civil service he could not control the nightlife culture of visiting discotheque and night clubs with friends and getting inebriated.

Nowadays he is invariably out every weekend and can never come punctually to the office. Monday mornings are important in his office because the Commissioner takes a review of results achieved in the last week and plans for the ensuing week. Being late in the office every time, he tries to fabricate a story and explain the delay. His overall performance being good he has not attracted adverse notice of the bosses yet, but his immediate subordinates know why he is late.

What are the ethical issues involved in the present case? What are the alternatives available to Abhishek and choose the most appropriate alternative.

Q. What do you understand by ethical responsibility? What are the commonly recognised ethical responsibilities of government servants? (150 Words)

Q. Define the following terms: (150 words)

(a) Altruism

(b) Humility

(c) Power and Morality

Q. Free media (including social media) has an important role in the fight against corruption. Comment. (150 Words)

Case Study

Suman was a young,idealistic development officer in a district panchayat. After joining the District, she studied about its social and economic situation. She consulted various plan documents and looked at the social and economic parameters of the district. She found that the district is relatively better off than other districts in terms of irrigation, crop diversification and industry. But its social indicators were poor with high infant mortality rate, high maternal mortality rate and low literacy percentage among women. Based on his analysis, Suman thought that large investments in the social sector will be necessary inorder to tackle these problems.
The panchayat was an elected body. It has decided to spend 40% of its budget on minor irrigation. Suman felt that the large allocation to minor irrigation will benefit land owning farmers and starve other social programmes.

What are the ethical issues involved in the case. What are the options available to her and which would be the most appropriate step that can be taken.

Q. A public servant must need to control his emotions. Discuss the undesirable negative emotions he should refrain from. (150 Words)

Q. What do you understand by bioethics? Discuss issues related to bioethics in India. (250 words)

Q. ‘People must not be turned back to countries where they would face persecution or severe human rights violations.’ Discuss the statement in terms of ethics of refugees. (150 Words)

Case Study

Farmers and their families have been protesting on the interstate border of Delhi for months, camped out on roads demonstrating over the government's new farm laws which they think will ruin their livelihoods.

Farmer unions and their representatives have demanded that the laws be repealed and have stated that they will not accept a compromise. Farmer leaders have welcomed the Supreme Court of India stay order on the implementation of the farm laws but rejected the committee appointed by the Supreme Court.

Farmer leaders have also rejected a government proposal of suspending the laws for 18 months. Eleven rounds of talks have taken place between the central government and farmers represented by the farm unions; all were inconclusive.

The protesting farmers sometimes turn violent and damage public property in the guise of peaceful protest. A number of telecom towers of a particular company and other infrastructure were also damaged. The roads approaching to Delhi have been turned into protesting sites and are blocked by protesters causing nuisance to passengers and local population.

However supporters of the laws say improvements are badly needed, as thousands of farmers are struggling. 

What are the ethical issues in the case? Discuss the different options available and how will you respond in this case?