Revision: ethics theory

Mahavir, the twenty fourth Tirthankara of Jainism, taught that a person is freed by disciplined conduct rather than by ritual or divine favour.

Major teachings

Five vows: Ahimsa (non violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (restraint) and aparigraha (non possession) shape everyday conduct.

Anekantavada: Truth has many sides, so no single viewpoint holds all of it.

Triratna: Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together lead to liberation through one's own effort.

Relevance today

Ahimsa: It shaped Gandhi's satyagraha and still guides peaceful protest, animal welfare and the search for alternatives to war.

Aparigraha: Limiting wants answers consumerism and climate change, an idea echoed in India's Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), 2022.

Anekantavada: Accepting that others may also be right counters polarisation and online echo chambers, and supports dialogue in a plural society.

Because Mahavir asks each person to change first, his ethics remain a practical guide for a divided and overconsuming world.

Decode

Two parts: the teachings, and their relevance today. Both need equal space.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants teachings linked to current problems, not a list of Jain doctrines.

Architecture

An introduction on self discipline, three teachings, three matching relevance points, then a verdict.

Articulation

Ahimsa, aparigraha and anekantavada each reappear under relevance. Money line: his ethics remain a practical guide for a divided and overconsuming world.

Facts and links

Mahavir is traditionally dated to the sixth century BCE and taught in Ardhamagadhi Prakrit.

The 2550th Nirvana Mahotsav of Mahavir was observed by the Union government.

Gandhi's ethics were shaped by the Jain thinker Shrimad Rajchandra.

Syadvada, the doctrine of conditional statements, follows from anekantavada.

The Satyam fraud of 2009 showed that a company admired for efficiency can collapse when integrity is missing. Good corporate governance needs both qualities together.

Meaning

Moral integrity means consistency between values and conduct, so that directors stay honest with shareholders, employees and regulators even when nobody is checking. Professional efficiency means delivering results with competence, using resources well and meeting standards on time.

Examples

Integrity: Ratan Tata said he refused a bribe demand for an airline licence in the 1990s, choosing delay over compromise.

Efficiency: The Delhi Metro under E. Sreedharan finished phases ahead of schedule and within budget.

When they part: IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services) showed growth on paper in 2018 while hiding debt, and its collapse shook the credit market.

The Companies Act, 2013 supports both through independent directors and audit committees.

Integrity sets the direction of a company and efficiency sets its speed, so governance fails without either.

Decode

Two concepts to define and illustrate in the setting of corporate governance in India.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants Indian examples and a sense of how the two qualities relate.

Architecture

A Satyam hook, definitions, three examples, a line on law, then a verdict.

Articulation

The third example shows what happens when the two part. Money line: integrity sets the direction and efficiency sets the speed.

Law and committees

Companies Act, 2013: independent directors, audit committees and corporate social responsibility.

Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance, 2017, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India listing regulations.

Narayana Murthy Committee, 2003, on corporate governance.

Concepts to use

Stakeholder theory, which widens duty beyond shareholders.

Tone at the top: the conduct of leaders sets the culture of a company.

Social audits under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 have recovered misused funds in states like Andhra Pradesh. Meghalaya went further in 2017, extending social audit by law to all public services.

Performance: When citizens examine records in a public meeting, ghost workers and incomplete works surface quickly.

Accountability: Officials must answer the people they serve, not only their superiors, which narrows the gap between rules and delivery.

Ethical conduct: Public scrutiny deters petty corruption and builds transparency.

The judiciary also needs such scrutiny, given crores of pending cases and frequent adjournments. An audit there must cover delays, access and court services, never the reasoning of judgments, so that judicial independence is protected.

Independence and power matter because audits run by the same department, or without legal backing, turn into rituals. Auditors need protection, access to records and power to enforce findings.

Accountability that flows only upward serves the system, while social audit makes it serve the citizen.

Decode

An elaborate question on a statement that includes the judiciary, so the judiciary needs its own treatment.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants the words independent and empowered explained, and the limits of audit in the judiciary.

Architecture

A hook on social audit law, three points mirroring the statement, a paragraph on the judiciary, one on independence, then a verdict.

Articulation

Separating court services from judicial reasoning keeps the answer balanced. Money line: social audit makes accountability serve the citizen.

Law and practice

Section 17 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, on social audit by gram sabhas.

The Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017.

The National Judicial Data Grid, which publishes pendency data for courts.

Concepts to use

Horizontal accountability between institutions and vertical accountability to citizens.

Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan's public hearings in Rajasthan, which seeded the Right to Information movement.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise and manage one's own emotions and those of others. Daniel Goleman identified five components.

Self awareness: Knowing one's moods and biases, such as an officer noticing that anger is clouding a decision.

Self regulation: Controlling impulses, as when a magistrate stays calm before a hostile crowd.

Motivation: Working for inner purpose rather than reward, which sustains effort in difficult postings.

Empathy: Understanding others' feelings, like a doctor sensing a patient's fear.

Social skills: Building relationships and resolving conflict, which makes teams and negotiations work.

Can they be learned?

Largely yes. Temperament is partly inborn, but the brain keeps changing with practice, so habits of reflection, feedback and mindfulness strengthen these skills. Mission Karmayogi, 2020 now trains civil servants in behavioural competencies, and role play in police training builds empathy for victims. Learning is slow, however, and needs real situations, not lectures.

Emotional intelligence is less a gift than a discipline, and like any discipline it grows with practice.

Decode

Two parts: the components, and whether they can be learned.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants a clear position on learning with a reason and examples from public service.

Architecture

A definition, five components with an example each, a heading on learning, then a verdict.

Articulation

Each component carries an administrative example. Money line: emotional intelligence is less a gift than a discipline.

Thinkers and models

Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, 1995.

Salovey and Mayer, who first defined emotional intelligence in 1990.

Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change with experience.

Uses in administration

Crisis management, grievance hearings and negotiation with protesters.

Mission Karmayogi's competency framework for civil servants.

Both coercion and undue influence destroy free consent, which is why the Indian Contract Act, 1872 lets the victim set aside an agreement obtained through either. At work they differ in method and visibility.

Nature: Coercion uses an open threat of harm, while undue influence works through pressure that seems like advice.

Relationship: Coercion needs only power, whereas undue influence arises from trust or dominance, as between a mentor and a junior.

Consent: Under coercion the victim knows he is forced, but under undue influence he may think the choice is his.

Examples

A manager who threatens a transfer unless an employee signs a false report is coercing. A senior officer who keeps telling a trusted junior that a relative's firm is the best bidder exerts undue influence, though no threat is made.

Remedies include internal committees under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, and written instructions.

Coercion breaks the will openly, undue influence bends it quietly, and both corrupt the workplace.

Decode

A differentiation question set in the workplace.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants clear points of difference and examples from work, not only definitions.

Architecture

An introduction on free consent, three points of difference, paired examples, remedies, then a verdict.

Articulation

The two examples mirror each other so the difference is visible. Money line: coercion breaks the will openly, undue influence bends it quietly.

Law

Indian Contract Act, 1872: Section 15 defines coercion and Section 16 defines undue influence.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, which covers quid pro quo harassment.

Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014.

Concepts to use

Free consent as the basis of a fair workplace.

Power distance, which makes juniors hesitate to refuse seniors.

Gandhi wrote that the means may be likened to a seed and the end to a tree. The debate sets duty ethics, as in Kant, against consequentialism, as in Bentham and Machiavelli.

Those who say ends justify means argue that outcomes affect real lives, so a lie that saves a life seems justified by its result.

Yet I find the primacy of means more appropriate, for three reasons. Ends are uncertain, while means are within our control and their harm is immediate. Wrong means also corrupt institutions, as fake encounters do when police replace courts in the name of quick justice. And a good end reached by bad means is rarely secure, since force breeds resentment.

Consequences still matter, so an administrator should weigh outcomes, but only among choices that are lawful and fair.

The end shows where we want to go, but the means decide who we become on the way.

Decode

A choice between two views, so the answer must take a side and justify it.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants the opposing view stated fairly before the position is taken.

Architecture

Connected prose: a Gandhi hook, the case for ends, three reasons for means, a qualification, then a verdict.

Articulation

Fake encounters give the argument a concrete edge. Money line: the means decide who we become on the way.

Thinkers

Kant's categorical imperative: treat humanity always as an end, never merely as a means.

Bentham and Mill on the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Machiavelli, The Prince, often read as defending effective but harsh means.

Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, 1909, on the inseparability of means and ends.

Examples to use

The Justice Sirpurkar Commission's findings on the 2019 Hyderabad encounter.

Debates on torture in interrogation and on emergency powers.

Integrity means consistency between one's values and actions. Refusal to be compromised tests it most, because integrity is rarely lost in one large betrayal and usually in a series of small concessions.

A partial compromise, such as approving one doubtful file to keep a superior happy, creates a debt that is later called in. Complete refusal closes that door.

Real life examples

Satyendra Dubey: This engineer with the National Highways Authority of India exposed corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project and was murdered in 2003. His stand led to a whistleblower resolution in 2004.

Ashok Khemka: This Indian Administrative Service officer was transferred dozens of times, yet in 2012 he cancelled a controversial land mutation in Haryana and refused to step back.

Such refusal is firmness on principle, not rigidity on method.

Integrity that bends once has already agreed to bend again, which is why refusal must be complete.

Decode

Explain a test of integrity with a real life example.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants to know why refusal must be complete, not only that it is good.

Architecture

A definition, the logic of small compromises, two real examples, a clarification on rigidity, then a verdict.

Articulation

The idea of a debt that is later called in explains completeness. Money line: integrity that bends once has already agreed to bend again.

Examples to use

Satyendra Dubey, murdered in 2003, after which the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers Resolution, 2004 was issued.

Ashok Khemka's long record of transfers in Haryana.

T. N. Seshan's enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct as Chief Election Commissioner.

Concepts to use

The slippery slope, where small compromises normalise larger ones.

Integrity as wholeness, from the Latin integer.

The World Meteorological Organization confirmed 2024 as the first calendar year above 1.5°C of warming. Gandhi's warning that the earth has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed now reads as fact.

Individual restraint: Mission LiFE asks citizens to save energy, cut waste and choose public transport, turning aparigraha into habit.

Markets that price harm: India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 and extended producer responsibility for plastics make polluters pay, so greed meets a cost.

State action: India's targets of 500 gigawatts of non fossil capacity by 2030 and net zero by 2070 show development can change direction.

Global justice: Common but differentiated responsibility and the loss and damage fund ask rich nations, who polluted first, to carry more of the burden.

Ethically, this calls for intergenerational justice and an ecocentric view that values life beyond its use to humans.

Development that consumes its own future is not progress, so restraint is the first step towards balance.

Decode

A question on ending greed driven climate change, asking how, so it needs steps.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants action at every level and an ethical frame, not only climate facts.

Architecture

A hook on 2024 warming, four levels of action, an ethical line, then a verdict.

Articulation

Gandhi's line links greed to the steps. Money line: development that consumes its own future is not progress.

Policy

Paris Agreement, 2015, and India's updated nationally determined contributions.

Green Credit Programme, 2023, and Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023.

Mission LiFE, launched in 2022.

Concepts to use

Deep ecology, which values nature for itself.

Intergenerational equity and the tragedy of the commons.

Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

A hospital that keeps perfect registers but turns patients away illustrates the problem well. Wisdom in administration means separating what serves the citizen from what only serves the file.

I largely agree. Officers absorbed in protocol, VIP visits and statistical targets often neglect outcomes. The Annual Status of Education Report repeatedly finds that many Class 5 children cannot read a Class 2 text, even as enrolment looks healthy. The poor, who depend most on delivery, suffer first.

Yet the criticism needs balance. Procedure protects fairness, and an audit trail prevents arbitrariness, so periphery is not always trivial. Officers also cling to process because audits punish procedural lapses more than poor outcomes, so the failure is systemic too.

The remedy is to judge officers by outcomes, delegate routine work and protect honest decisions, as Mission Karmayogi intends.

An administrator must follow procedure without forgetting why it exists, because the citizen, not the file, is the core.

Decode

Agree or disagree, then critically evaluate, so both the problem and its limits are needed.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants the systemic reasons behind preoccupation with the periphery, not only blame.

Architecture

A hospital hook, agreement with an example, a balancing paragraph, remedies, then a verdict.

Articulation

The point about audits punishing process lapses makes the evaluation critical. Money line: the citizen, not the file, is the core.

Examples and reforms

Annual Status of Education Report findings on learning outcomes.

Mission Karmayogi's shift from rules based to role based training.

Outcome budgeting and dashboards that track results rather than spending.

Concepts to use

Goal displacement, where following rules becomes the goal itself, described by Robert Merton.

Policy paralysis caused by fear of vigilance and audit.

Corruption is commonly defined as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain. A teacher who draws a salary but rarely attends school gains privately, through pay without work, and the child pays the price.

I agree with the view, for three reasons. The public servant receives a public benefit without delivering the duty attached to it, which is a form of theft. Delay and inaction also create the space where bribes are demanded, since a file that does not move invites a price. Finally, the cost falls on citizens, like patients turned away from a primary health centre without a doctor.

Yet a distinction is fair. Failure caused by lack of staff or resources is systemic, not individual, and corruption requires intent.

Right to services laws, such as the Madhya Pradesh Public Services Guarantee Act, 2010, make duty enforceable by fixing time limits and penalties.

Every duty left undone is public trust spent for private comfort, which is corruption in all but name.

Decode

Agree or disagree with a view and justify it.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants the link between inaction and private gain made clear, with a fair limit.

Architecture

A definition and example, three reasons, a distinction, remedies, then a verdict.

Articulation

The teacher example turns the definition into something visible. Money line: corruption in all but name.

Law and data

Madhya Pradesh Public Services Guarantee Act, 2010, the first right to services law.

Studies by the World Bank and Indian economists have found high rates of teacher and health worker absence.

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission report on ethics in governance.

Concepts to use

Corruption by omission as well as commission.

Citizens' charters and grievance redress as tools of accountability.