TEST BOOKLET

MAINS MOCK TEST-4 2019

ETHICS Section A
Time Allowed: Three Hours Maximum Marks: 250

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Immediately After The Commencement Of The Examination, You Should

Check That This Booklet Does Not Have Any Unprinted Or Turn Or
Missing Pages Or Items, Etc. If so, Get It Replaced By A Complete Test
Booklet.

2. You have to enter your name, date, batch in the Box provided alongside. Do
NOT write anything else on the Test Booklet.

3. You have to mark all your responses ONLY on the separate Answer Sheet
provided.

4. There are TWENTY questions printed in this booklet.

5. All questions are compulsory.

6. Keep the word limit indicated in the questions in mind.

7. Any page or portion of the page left blank in the Question-cum-Answer

Booklet must be clearly struck off.

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1. (a) “Never waste a good crisis”, remarked Winston Churchill. Do you think that a moral
crisis is an essential precondition for the conscience to come alive? Elaborate with
examples of leaders and reformers. (10 marks, 150 words)

1. (b) Is an ethical act determined by its ‘intent’ or the ‘consequences’ it produces? What
is more desirable for an ethics of public administration? (10 marks, 150 words)

2. (a) Which values/principles act as the sources of ethical guidance for a civil servant?
Illustrate each with suitable examples.(10 Marks, 150 Words)

2. (b) What, do you think, motivates a person to act ethically? Suggest some measures to
motivate a civil servant to act ethically? (10 Marks, 150 Words)
3. (a) Describe the essential values imparted to a subject during the primary, secondary
and higher education stages, respectively? (10 marks, 150 words)
3 (b) Keeping a high moral ideal in life fashions a positive attitude. Discuss. (10 marks,
150 words)

4a) Discuss Aristotle’s concept of ‘Golden Mean’ in Ethics. (10 marks, 150 words)
4. (b)“‘Rule of law’ does not imply a ‘law of rules’.”
Discuss the above statement with the help of relevant examples in the context of public
administration. (10 marks, 150 words)
5. Transparency in government is desired, but absolute transparency harms the
efficiency of the administration. In this context bring out the ethical aspects involved in
use or misuse of RTI.(10 Marks, 150 Words)
6. Define any 5 ethical values, you think, are necessary for a civil servant to fulfill his
duty. Explain with examples which one among those is most crucial according to you?
(10 Marks, 150 Words)
7. (a)Holistic Competence for a civil servant consists of Ethos, Ethics, Equity and
Efficiency. How far do you agree that Ethos and Ethics are not only as important as
Equity and Efficiency but also complement each other. (10 Marks, 150 Words)
7. (b) What do you understand by International ethics? Does Nationalism sometimes
stand against international ethics? Give examples. (10 Marks, 150 Words)
8. (a)“The political leader is also the primary moral leader of a society”. Explain the
reason for the above phenomenon. (10 marks, 150 words)
8. (b) Discuss the merits and demerits of combining politics with morality. (10 marks,
150 words)

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Section-B
9. You are appointed as a head master of a secondary school, it has been brought to your
attention that some boys from the senior classes are caught smoking inside the school
premises. You are furious that the school’s discipline has been breached so you immediately
summon the boys to your office. Upon some inquiry you discover that the boys come from
an impoverished part of the district where smoking is a norm among the elders of the house,
from where they seem to have adopted the habit. (20 marks, 250 words)

Answer the following the questions.

a) Discuss the values you need to adopt while dealing with this case?
b) You are determined to make the boys quit smoking. How do you plan on executing your
will?
c) When cultural normativity gets fashioned as behavior, discuss the responsibility of
agents like schools in transforming behavior within society?

Note: The roles of the headmaster are twofold 1) a teacher and mentor to the student 2) the
official in-charge of the Institution. The issues and values that arise in this case need to be seen as
tension and cooperation between the two roles, and we must establish an ideal balance between
both, without turning to extremes of any.
10. You are a Superior Police Official in a district which is notorious for its drug
consumption. You have made heavy arrangements within your service to check all cases of
drugs being smuggled into the district; for this reason you have also involved private
individuals working menial jobs to tip off your department in case a consignment is
smuggled through ferry services. One day one of your secret informants who works for a
ferry service company owned by Mr ‘K’, calls you and tells you about a consignment that
will be shipped via a ferry late at night, you alert your department and conduct a raid on
the ferry, but you discover that it was carrying only domestic goods and no drugs were
found on board. You call your informant and he tells you that Mr ‘K’ had some information
about the raid beforehand and he cancelled the shipping of drugs at the last moment.
Suspecting an informant within his team Mr ‘K’ cries foul to the MLA and CM of the state
grieving that his reputation had suffered a blow as the event caught substantial media
coverage, he starts pressurizing the CM to conduct an inquiry into the false raid so he can
get hold of the secret informant. You are summoned by the CM and are asked to disclose
the identity of the informant for investigation purposes. (20 marks, 250 words)

a) What are the main ethical issues in the case? Elaborate.

b) How does integrity and probity manifest in this case?
c) What are your options? Discuss their merits and demerits.

Note: An efficient and healthy society is dependent upon the checks that are kept on the harmful
substances which can corrupt generations and retard social progress by victimizing its main
engine – the youth. The agencies responsible for such security have a hard and it deserves the
proper institutional support to enable such security. In the absence task ahead of them, of formal
institutional support the officers should in the least be allowed freedom, autonomy and discretion
to employ their preferred means to deal with such tasks and also maintain the security of such
means.

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11. You have been considered for the post of joint secretary in the government of India
through lateral entry. You know that there is considerable difference in the work cultures of
the two institutions- Private and Government. (20 Marks, 250 words)

a. What, do you think, will be issues in front of you while working in the government set-
up?

b. How would you tackle these issues?

12. Nation Y is an Island Nation. The dominant religion of the nation is Christianity, there
is a practice within Christianity where the priest of Catholic Church holds a session with the
disciple/adherent in which the disciple/adherent makes a ‘confession’ of some wrong doing
that he/she is involved in, this is done as a means of redemption from the sin incurred by the
wrongdoing and also has a cathartic impact upon the disciple, the content of the confession
is kept secret by the priest. Under this practice priests of all orders also confess to other
priests within the Catholic Church. Recently there has been a controversy within the church
whereby some priests have been found guilty of child abuse amounting to molestation,
Nation Y has many such cases and it is suspected that the rot is rampant and widespread.

In an attempt to deal with such a situation the Government of Nation Y has recommended
the Church authorities to report all the confessions and confessors including the priests who
have confessed on being involved in the act of Child Abuse, to law enforcement agencies, so
they can be prosecuted. (20 marks, 250 words)
a) What are the main dilemmas in the present case? Elaborate

b) If you were the head of the church, what are your options of response to such a
recommendation by the Government?

c) List the merits and demerits of each option.

Note: All religious orders have the welfare of all humanity as an objective; even of the sinners,
whom it considers not imperfect beings but, beings under the sway of influence. Therefore all
such orders have internal practices of dealing with wrongdoings – and all these practices have
Faith in God and Trust among members as its core value. The state organizations on the other
hand have the security, progress and development of its citizens as the prime objective and are
empowered by law, to punish the guilty as criminals – Justice is the core value of the State. Where
State seeks to do justice with the sinner religion tries to cure the sinner and leaves justice upon
God. Both Religion and State are important elements of a well-functioning society, being
differently oriented they clash with each other’s values causing dilemmas to each.
13. You are posted in the Indian embassy in ‘Nation X’, you are supposed to organize a
dinner hosting the President of Nation X and a delegation from India which consists of
junior ministers, businessmen, journalists and bureaucrats – the dinner is organized to
celebrate a business deal signed on the previous day between India and Nation X. There is
considerable media coverage of the high profile event. During the dinner your staff reports
to you that a few Indian journalists are detected stealing silverware cutlery from the buffet,
on a CCTV camera. You are aware that this can be detected by the media present at the
dinner. (20 marks, 250 words)

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a) What is the most important issue in the present situation from your perspective?
Elaborate

b) What are your options in priority? Justify with reasons.

c) What are the strategies you must employ in executing your actions?

Note: The Sovereignty of a Nation is its most sacred asset in terms of relationship among the
comity of Nations. It is established not merely formally but substantially when a nation is
respected and considered worthy of such sovereignty. The Indian delegates and foreign servants
are supposed to display the richness of moral ethos of the country to earn such genuine respect.
14. You are the Director in charge of a Metro Train Project in a city in India, it is your duty
to identify the best route for the metro including the location of the metro stations. One day
you are approached by a Senior Minister of the State Cabinet requesting you to share with
him the ‘Master – plan’ of the metro, which has not yet been made public since the metro is
due for construction in 3 to 4 years from the date. The portfolio of the minister does not
make you accountable to his ministry, but he is very close to the Chief Minister and can lay
a fatal blow to the directorship of the project if he is denied his request. Answer the
following (20 marks, 250 words)

a) What could be his possible vested interest in procuring the Masterplan of the metro?
Explain
b) What are the major dilemmas in the case?
c) What are your options in the present case? Give reasons for your answer.

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