Ethics Terms

1) Conflict of Interests
Definition: a situation in which a person is in a position
to derive personal benefit from actions or decisions
made in their official capacity.

Example: An MP as a Part of Parliamentary standing

committee for IT while also being associated with
business in the Information and Broadcasting sector.

Another MP, a part of PC on Subordinate legislation

which was examining a proposal to allocate 85% of the
surface area of tobacco products to graphic pictorial
warnings making a proposition that there was no causal
relationship between tobacco and cancer.
He is also a Bidi Baron, having huge interests in Tobacco
industry.
The panel finally proposed to remove the 85% pictorial
warning on tobacco

In a third case, a union minister was a part of

retainership of Fintech corp, while also looking into the
gas pricing issue
“One cannot be a judge in one’s own case”
How to overcome?
a) Proactive disclosure of all financial and non-financial
interests
b) Recusing him/her from a case/committee in case of
any conflict of interests
c) Ex: CJI was in controversy recently on arbitrary
allocation of cases

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 The Indian disclosures fail on the following three
different counts
 Nonexistent or incomplete disclosures
 Timely disclosures
 No Conflict of Interest Law

2) Virtue Ethics
Focus on the Character of the agent rather than on the
formal rules for or the consequences of actions
a) Socrates – Virtue is knowledge; insight into the
nature of moral values is essential for becoming
virtuous. Man has to cultivate virtues through the
habit of doing obligatory and morally good actions
b) Aristotle – Virtue conduct consists in avoiding the
extremes of excess or of deficiency.
a. Self-control is a virtue
b. Doing the right thing, to the right person, to
the right extent, with the right motive and
at the right time.
i. Prudence
ii. Justice
iii. Fortitude
iv. Courage

3) Moral Courage
Moral courage is the courage to take action for moral
reasons despite the risk of adverse consequences.
Courage is required to take action when one has doubts
or fears about the consequences.
Moral courage therefore involves deliberation or careful
thought.

Example: Chauri Chaura incident

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 Standing up to a cause – India Against Corruption
movement – Anna Hazare launching an indefinite
hunger strike
Cop asking for a bribe in spite having all right docs.
Stood up there refusing to pay anything. Cop started to
threaten to book me under cases. Called 100 to
complaint on the cop on the grounds of harassment.
Civil Services: Whistleblowing, withstanding pressure
and adversities, raising voice against injustice
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because
without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue
consistently

4) Prudence

Ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use
of reason. Prudence is a cardinal virtue that can
direct how you use other virtues like justice,
fortitude, and temperance.
 Being prudent means making wise decisions based
on principal and managing your practical affairs in
a shrewd and discreet manner.
 For example, when buying a car, it is not wise to
show up at a car dealer and purchase the first
auto one sees. The prudent man assesses how
much money he can spend and what kind of car
fits his needs and his budget. He may also test
drive different cars, look at consumer reviews, or
talk to friends who own the kinds of cars he is
considering.

 While this might seem like commonsense, many

of us make poor decisions that we later regret
because we failed to take this first necessary step.
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  We rush into a decision without adequately
considering the necessary data.
 We purchase something spontaneously and later
realize we didn't really need it and should have
saved the money for something else.
 We commit our time to some activity and later
kick ourselves for it because we should have
known our plates were already quite full.

Prudence and Pubic Service

Link Public Finance Management and Prudence. Govt

taking steps in fiscal consolidation, RBI Monetary
policy rates have prudent fiscal management as their
objective.

5) Justice
 Aristotle said, Justice consists in a certain equality by
which the just and definite claim of another, neither
more nor less, is satisfied.
 This is equal insofar as each one receives what he is
entitled to, but may be unequal insofar as different
people may have different rights

John Rawls Concept

a) Liberty principle - the Liberty Principle, which

establishes equal basic liberties for all citizens. 'Basic'
liberty entails the (familiar in the liberal tradition)
freedoms of conscience, association and expression
as well as democratic rights
b) Difference principle - Rawls argues that a second
principle of equality would be agreed upon to
guarantee liberties that represent meaningful

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 options for all in society and ensure distributive
justice.

Types

a) Distributive justice
b) Proportionate justice
c) Social justice
d) Political justice
e) Environmental justice
f) Political justice

Equals should be treated equally and unequal’s to be

treated unequally. It is unjustified if equals and unequal’s
are treated equally.

6) Temperance
Temperance is the virtue that helps us control our
physical desire for pleasure.
Self-restraint
Moderation
It is generally characterized as the control over excess,
and expressed through characteristics such as chastity,
modesty, humility, self-regulation, forgiveness and
mercy; each of these involves restraining an excess of
some impulse, such as sexual desire, vanity, or anger.

Nolan Committee recommendations

7) Honesty
The holder of public office should declare the private
interests relating to public duties and he should take
steps to resolve any conflict arising in a way to protect
the public interest

8) Selflessness
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 Holder of the public office should act solely in terms of
public interest. He should not act in order to gain
financial or other benefits for himself, his family or
friends

9) Objectivity
In carrying out public business, including making public
appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending
individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public
office should make choices on merit.

10) Openness/Transparency
Definition: Holder of the public office should be as
open as possible about his decisions and actions.
He should give reasons for his decisions and
restrict only in special cases
“Transparency is the biggest disinfectant which
can curb corruption in the system
Transparency is the tool which can expose the gap
between political rhetoric and actual
development”

11) Integrity
Definition: Holders of public office should not
place themselves under any financial or other
obligation to outside individuals or organisations
that might seek to influence them in the
performance of their official duties.
An individual is said to possess the virtue of
integrity if the individual's actions are based upon
an internally consistent framework of principles.
One can describe a person as having ethical
integrity to the extent that the individual's
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 actions, beliefs, methods, measures and principles
all derive from a single core group of values
Civil servants shall not only be honest in fact, but
beyond the reach of suspicion of dishonesty

Examples:
Friend’s forcing to smoke. They said they’ll
sponsor. They started teasing me saying I’m a
child. Yet I didn’t smoke.
A – Head of the Ragging Squad. A got a complaint
on B who is A’s closest friend. B starts influencing
A.
Integrity and Civil Service: Monetary power,
threat and political pressure
Quote: Integrity without knowledge is weak and
useless, and knowledge without integrity is
dangerous and dreadful.

12) Accountability
Holder of the public office is accountable to their
decisions and actions to the public and they must
submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is
appropriate to their office
Caesar’s wife should be above all suspicion

13) Leadership
Holder of the public office should promote and
support these principles by their exemplary
actions.

2nd ARC

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 14) Honesty and its relationship with integrity
“Man of integrity is not only uncorrupt but also
uncorruptible”
Integrity is consistently following moral values in
all situations
Integrity is about having consistency in what one
think, what one speaks and what one do. It is
walking the talk.
 Moral integrity
 Intellectual integrity
Intellectual integrity is defined as
recognition of the need to be true to one's
own thinking and to hold oneself to the
same standards one expects others to
meet.
 Organizational integrity

15) Impartiality
Civil servant while taking a decision should base
the decision on merit/objective criteria and he
must not place the decision based upon parochial
criteria such as race/religion etc
Maintaining political neutrality & non-partisanship
while performing his duty of public service by
serving the political ideology of the elected govt.,
without letting his own ideology or liking for a
group affecting his duty. Insular from politicization
of services

16) Dedication to public service

Unflinching service to the public
Ex: During natural disasters

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 17) Accountability
It is the act of making the civil servants
answerable for his acts of omissions/commissions.
Answerability must be backed up by enforcement
mechanism

18) Sympathy
Sense of pity and feeling bad for others conditions

19) Empathy
Putting one in others position and trying to
understand what the other person is going
through

20) Compassion
Empathy + action
Mother Teresa
2004 Tsunami disaster relief – PM Relief Fund

21) Tolerance
Attitude of fairness towards someone who’s
viewpoints or opinions, caste, religion, race,
gender etc. is different than yours

Sir, I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll
defend to my death your right to say so - Voltaire
22) Leadership
Sathish Dawan and APJ Abdul Kalam Story
MSD

23) Selflessness
Holders of public office should act solely in terms
of the public interest. They should not do so in
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 order to gain financial or other benefits for
themselves, their family or their friends

24) Altruism
The principle or practice of unselfish concern for
or devotion to the welfare of others.
It is the opposite of egoism.
Altruism is an ethical doctrine that holds that the
moral value of an individual's actions depend
solely on the impact on other individuals,
regardless of the consequences on the individual
itself.
Ethical Altruism:
An action is morally right if the consequence of
that action is more favorable than unfavorable “to
everyone except the agent”.
MSD Stepping out of the captaincy to nurture
Kohli to train and take up the team and challenges
further.

25) Conscience
Definition: Conscience is the part of your mind
that tells you whether what you are doing is
morally right or wrong. In short, conscience is a
term which we use to denote the inner mind.
Quote: “The human voice can never reach the
distance that is covered by the still small voice of
conscience.” – Gandhi
There is a higher court than courts of justice and
that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all
other courts.
Conscience is to law as a brush is to paint

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 26) Voice of Conscience
Definition: Voice of conscience corresponds to an
inner voice that judges your behavior. Voice of
conscience is the source of ethical decision
making for many

27) Crisis of Conscience

Definition: Crisis of conscience is a situation in
which it is very difficult to decide what’s the right
thing to do. The term is also used when someone
is worrying because they think that they have
done something unfair or morally wrong.
It is a case of ethical dilemma, but often in a more
strong sense. When there is a crisis of conscience,
the individual fear that his action may be against
the voice of conscience and hence ethically
wrong.

28) Courage of Convinction

Definition: to act in accordance with one's beliefs,
especially in spite of criticism.
Example: Whistleblowing, Courage to maintain
utmost integrity against Political pressures etc

29) Spirit of Service

Definition: Serving the people and nation in a
selfless manner which will provide an inner
satisfaction of paying back to the society what one
owes.
Example: Gandhiji Serving in Dr. Booth’s hospital
which consisted in ascertaining the patient's
complaints, laying the facts before the doctor and
dispensing the prescriptions. It brought him in
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 close touch with suffering Indians, most of them
indentured Tamil, Telugu or North Indian men
Quote: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said:
"Everyone can be great because everyone can
serve. You don't have to have a college education
to serve. You don't even have to make your
subjects and verbs agree to serve. You only need a
heart full of grace."
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself
into the service of others”

30) The only price people pay by not joining the

politics is to get ruled by their inferiors
31) Citizen charter
The Charters are expected to incorporate the following
elements :-
(i) Vision and Mission Statement;
(ii) Details of business transacted by the organisation;
(iii) Details of clients;
(iv) Details of services provided to each client group;
(v) Details of grievance redress mechanism and how to access
it; and
(vi) Expectations from the clients.

The following key issues were highlighted for exemplary

implementation of the Citizens' Charter: -
(i) stakeholder involvement in the formulation of Citizens'
Charters;
(ii) deployment of the Citizens' Charters in the Banks by full
involvement of the staff, specially the employees at the
cutting-edge level;
(iii) creation of awareness about the Charter amongst the
customers of the Banks; and
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(iv) special training for employees at all levels about the
concept and implementation of Citizens' Charter.

As per the report of evaluation carried out by the Agency,

major findings were :-
(i) In majority of cases Charters were not formulated through a
consultative process;
(ii) By and large service providers are not familiar with the
philosophy, goals and main features of the Charter;
(iii) Adequate publicity to the Charters had not been given in
any of the Departments evaluated. In most Departments, the
Charters are only in the initial or middle stage of
implementation;
(iv) No funds have been specifically earmarked for awareness
generation of Citizens' Charter or for orientation of staff on
various components of the Charter;

Key recommendations, inter alia, include: -

(i) need for citizens and staff to be consulted at every stage of
formulation of the Charter,
(ii) orientation of staff about the salient features and goals/
objectives of the Charter; vision and mission statement of the
department; and skills such as team building, problem solving,
handling of grievances and communication skills,
(iii) need for creation of database on consumer grievances and
redress,
(iv) need for wider publicity of the Charter through print
media, posters, banners, leaflets, handbills, brochures, local
newspapers etc. and also through electronic media,
(v) earmarking of specific budgets for awareness generation
and orientation of staff, and
(vi) replication of best practices in this field.

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 32) 33) Professional ethics - PE covers the personal
and job related standards of behavior expected of
professionals. Professionals possess and use specialized
knowledge and skill. The manner of using such
knowledge while providing a service to the public is
considered a moral issue and termed professional ethics
Why?
 To prevent exploitation of clients
 To safeguard the integrity of the profession
 To set minimal standards
 To Retain public trust on the profession and
professional
 Self regulation of professionals
Example
IMC guidelines to doctors in India, especially on sensitive
issues such as organ donation, gene therapy etc

33)
34)

1) Profit , People and Planet – Triple Bottomline of CSR

2) Steadfastness - loyalty in the face of trouble and

difficulty
3) Magnanimity - liberal and generous

4) Forthrightness - the quality of being honest and

straightforward in attitude and speech

5) Tranquility - a state of peace and quiet

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 6) Fortitude - fortitude is the marshal of thought, Armour
of will and the fort of reason
Ex: Navy Thai seal ventured into the dangerous cave
thereby sacrificing his life. So did the cave divers who
took the formidable task in spite of knowing the risks
involved.
Soldiers in siachen
In public service: to fight against corruption and status
quo attitude in the system

7) Misfeasance - a transgression, especially the wrongful

exercise of lawful authority
The Supreme Court in an innovative exercise, examined
executive actions of two former Union Ministers. It
found that one of them allotted petrol pumps in favour
of fifteen persons which were plainly vitiated by lack of
transparency, nepotism and arbitrariness. The
allotments made mostly in favour of the relations of the
Ministers or members of his staff. In the case of the
other Minister, the Court found that illegal allotments
had been made in relation to occupation of Government
accommodation
8)

9) Power
Plato - the measure of a man is what he does with
power.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to
test a man's character, give him power

10) Humility
We come nearest to the great when we are great in
Humility

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 11) Golden mean
We must treat others as we wish others to treat us

12) The seven deadly sins

 Pride
 Greed
 Lust
 Anger
 Gluttony
 Envy
 Sloth

13) Attitude:
Attitude reflects our liking or disliking to a particular
object
Three objects : Cognitive, affective and behavioral
Congnitive:
Affective:
Behavioral: past behaviors or experiences shaping the
attitude

14) Benevolence : it is the love of others, the desire to

do good, be kind and generous

15) Utilization of public funds

Ethical issues
 Misuse of funds - wasteful expenditure on ads
 Misallocation - funds for education used
somewhere is else
 Priorities - urban centre's gets huge funds though
rural remains backward
 Corruption and embezzlement of funds
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  Kickbacks
 Non transparency in public procurement
 Time lapses in fund allocation since it has to pass
through various layers
 Lack of powers at low level for spending - this
leads to delay in payments
 Lack of fund allocation
 Lack of capacity with the officials for efficient
fund utilization - TN though more developed gets
comparatively higher funds than BH
 State govt have a weak financial capacity to
contribute additional funding
How to improve?
 Publicexpenditures tracking using newspapers
and radios. Maintenance and display of data on
funds
 Community control of program implementation
 Citizen report cards
 Benchmarking of expenditures
 Transparency in public procurement
 CSO involvement in scrutinize public
expenditures
 Social audit
 Strengthen financial audit

16) Quality of Service Delivery

How to improve?
 Capacity building of the service providers
 Performance based bonus and appraisals
 Contractual employment
 Leadership
 QMS Sevottam 15700:2005 – CC, GRM, Capability
for service delivery
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  Measuring the outcomes to inputs – What gets
measured gets managed
 Electronic delivery of services

Public Side

 Empowerment of local communities in making the

service provider accountable
 Citizen charter
 Ensuring citizens right to kno
 GRM
 PPP

Examples

 PDS in TN
 Passport Seva Kendra
 Speed Post – Online tracking
 101 Ambulance 24x7 support

35) Work Culture

It is a set of collective beliefs, values, rules and
behavior which an organization as a whole
conforms to.

West vs Indian Work Culture

a. In west, the culture is more casual – Flat table
offices and absence of strict hierarchy. In India, a
strict and more rigid hierarchy is followed
b. In west, even the boss is called with his/her first
name. In India, Sir/madam are invariably used
which shows the distance between the senior and

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 junior. This leads to lack of bonding and an
efficient work culture
c. Quality vs. Quantity
d. Seniority vs. Merit
e. Definition of a workplace – Gym, Swimming pool
etc. In India, work means work.
f. Company paid holidays and more focus on
spiritual well-being to ensure positive work life
balance
Bureaucratic vs Private Culture
Positive of Bureaucracy
 Dedication – Police, NDRF, teachers etc
 Loyalty
 Public values as the guide
 Compassion to the work – Teacher transfer
in TN and students protest
 Going an extra mile to do some works
Negatives
 Rigid weberian model
 Corruption, nepotism, favoritism, conflict of
interests
 Abuse of authority
 No focus for individuality
 Lack of incentives for being honest
 Treating juniors badly – Sahayak system
 Complacency
 Lack of responsibility
 Lack of innovations
 Monopoly in service delivery

Private – Positives

 Strict targets and deadlines

 Performance based appraisal
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  Merit > Seniority
 Individuality and innovation are encouraged
 Team spirit
 Lack of rigidity. Seniors are more
approachable
 Hire and fire mode – efficiency is very high
 Competitive atmosphere

Ways to improve
 Training and capacity building
 Target fixation – rewards
 Citizen engagement


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