D K Balaji Rank – 36 General Studies – 4: Ethics and

Integrity Strategy
insightsonindia.com/2015/08/03/d-k-balaji-rank-36-general-studies-4-ethics-and-integrity-strategy

August 3,
2015

My General Studies – 4 (Ethics & Integrity) Strategy

D K Balaji, Rank 36, CSE-2014

Dear Friends,

I intend to share my strategy for “Ethics, Integrity and Civil Services Aptitude”. Before I
start, I intend to make it clear that my strategy may not be foolproof. Thus, I cannot
guarantee that following my strategy would assure everyone very high score.

It is just the strategy that I followed and it has offered me a decent score of 121/250.

The opening remarks about the syllabus for ETHICS paper in CSE notification read as
follows:

“This paper will include questions to test the candidates’ attitude and approach to issues
relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem solving approach to various issues
and conflicts faced by him in dealing with society”

These words caught my attention very much and I decided that ETHICS paper is designed
to evaluate the ‘ethical competence‘, but not the ‘knowledge about ethics‘. So, I
decided not to run behind any book or any material of any institute. Now, when I see
bulky material for ETHICS by various top-notch institutes, it just surprises and amazes
me. That aside, I decided to understand the meanings of every term in the syllabus
first. Mind you, I wanted to understand the meanings, not know their definitions. So, I
decided to learn meanings from internet. Here, the links offered by
www.insightsonindia.com helped me a lot. It just reduced my effort to visit all sites
suggested by Google search engine.

After reading about every term, I started thinking deeply about it. I used to pick some 4-5
terms randomly every day and read about them and kept on thinking whenever I found
time (while eating, bathing, before going to sleep etc etc). My thought process revolved
around two intentions. First, I tried to express and explain the meanings of each term in
my own way with my own words, in simple English. Second, I tried to link those concepts
to my life or lives of people whom I know. I couldn’t connect every term to my life or lives
of people whom I knew. In such cases, I did something different. I would explain that a
little later.

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To illustrate, after reading about VALUES, I kept on thinking about that. Later, my
understanding got crystallized as below:

“Values imply ‘Preferences’. Whatever is preferred or valued by an individual becomes his/her

value. Whatever is preferred or valued by society, as a whole becomes societal value. Thus,
Indian society prefers COLLECTIVISM. So, it is Indian society’s value. Similarly, INDIVIDUALISM
is valued in America and hence it is American society’s value. Values change with time.
Because People and society prefer different things at different points of time. In India, before –
1947, PATRIOTISM was the most predominant value. Similarly, post-1991, thanks to the
consumerist culture being set in in India, MONEY also now become a value…”

I want to emphasize that the above text is not an excerpt from any textbook. It is just my
understanding of VALUES being shaped by my thought process and examples are all my
own observations.

I used to do like this for almost every term in the syllabus.

I took extra care in ensuring that I expressed the meaning of every term in as few words
as possible. To illustrate, Values mean preferences; ethics means guide about right or
wrong; Transparency means provision of access of government information to public;
Accountability means holding a person answerable to his/her acts; Attitude means a
person’s own evaluation of another person, idea, situation etc. Examples abound. (I have
read somewhere that depth of understanding is inversely proportional to the quantity of
words used to express the same).

This helped me remember things easily and express my understanding in a very effective
way.

So,

LESSON 1 – learn meanings, develop your own understanding by thinking and then be
able to express the same in as few words as possible.

Then, I connected every term to my life or lives of persons I knew.

After thinking about VALUES, I thought of my values and the incidents where I have
demonstrated those values in my life. I realized that HONESTY is my value. I recounted
the following incidents where I had demonstrated HONESTY.

Incident 1 – In my 10the Standard Board exams, in English Paper, we were asked

to write the opposite of POPULAR. I had written IMPOPULAR. Then, exam
invigilator who was walking accidentally saw my answer script and told me, the
correct answer is UNPOPULAR. However, I did not change my answer.
Incident 2 – One Saturday, I ate IDLI at Parimala Hotel in Tumakuru Bus stand. I
forgot to pay the money and came out of the hotel. Even hotel people did not ask
me. I realized that in the evening when I found excess money in my pocket. Then I
promptly went to the hotel, said sorry and paid the money on Monday morning.
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(I intentionally recollected even minute details such as Hotel name, what I ate eve, to
prove that it is not a cooked up story)

I did this exercise for almost all terms. This is just a sample.

You people can also recollect such incidents from your life.

So,

LESSON 2 – Connect your life with terms in syllabus, recollect specific incidents and use
them in your answers

(The real life incidents may be as simple as offering a seat to elderly in bus, helping a
visually challenged cross road and so on . Yet, bring them into your answers).

Sometimes we may not have such real life incidents from our lives. Then, what to do? If
possible, quote the examples from the lives of great souls, which you may have read or
heard of. Please don’t run behind autobiographies and biographies now. Whatever you
know by now, just try to recollect them. One tip I can give you here – our language
subjects up to 10th standard had many such anecdotes. Just recollect them. Here I give a
few such anecdotes for your benefit.

Sir M. Visvesvrayya, then Dewan of Mysore state, used Government vehicle while
he went to tender his resignation. After tendering his resignation, he drove back by
his private vehicle.
He always maintained two sets of candles – one set bought out of government
money and the other set bought from his money. He used the former set of
candles for looking into official documents and used the latter set to read books.
(The above two anecdotes are the best examples for not misusing public resources
for private gain)
Kuvempu, Jnanapith awardee, a poet and Karnataka’s pride, was once Vice-
Chancellor of Mysore University. His son Poornachandra Tejaswi was studying BA
in the same university. Once, an English Professor approached KUVEMPU and told
him that his son had scored marks below minimum pass-mark in English Paper
and asked KUVEMPU as to what to do. KUVEMPU went through the answer script
and instructed the professor to award to even lesser marks. (This anecdote is the
best examples for avoiding conflict of interest)
A Rajput Prince was conspired to be killed. Panna who worked in the court learnt
the conspiracy. In order to save the Prince, she replaced the Prince with her own
kid. Her own kid got killed. (This anecdote is the best example for LOYALTY)
A workaholic engineer was working in a major scientific project. Abdul Kalam sir
was the project head. Children of that engineer once asked their father to take
them to an exhibition in the evening. Engineer sought permission from Kalam sir to
leave early and mentioned the reason as well. Kalaam sir agreed. However, he got
so much involved in the work that he completely forgot that he had to leave early.
Kalaam sir observed the engineer being engrossed in the work. So, he only took
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 children to exhibition. (This anecdote is the best examples for EMPATHY TOWARDS
SUBORDINATES)
Satish Dhawan was the chairman of ISRO during the first launch of SLV, the mission
failed. He took the responsibility for failure. In the next attempt, when the launch
was successful, he gave full credit to the team that had worked for it (This anecdote
is the best examples for LEADERSHIP and TEAMBUILDING)
Sagayam, an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu has disclosed his and his family’s assets
on the website. (Best Example for PROBITY, TRANSPARENCY)
K. Jairaj, Karnataka-cadre HAS officer was to approve the dismissal of a lady typist
on the grounds of unruly behavior by her against her colleagues. Jairaj sir delved a
little deeper into the issue and found out that she had been widow and one co-
worker misused her, promising her a new life. And this had pushed her into
depression. Adding salt to the wound, her co-workers started abusing her in filthy
language. This had made her lose her temper. Later, considering her precarious
financial condition and need to educate her son, two increments were cut and she
was reinstated to service. Later, her son got a very good job in Infosys. (Example for
COMPASSION TOWARDS WOMEN; EMPATHY TOWARDS SUBORDINATES; WORK
CULTURE)

Such anecdotes are many. You can use them in your answers. I repeat, please don’t run
behind autobiographies and biographies now (You can read them, may be, after Mains). I
never did so. The above anecdotes were heard or read by me in newspapers and on
Internet. I just used them in answers.

Hence,

LESSON 3 – Try to use anecdotes (only If you know any) about great souls in your
answers

In some cases, you may not have your real life incidents or anecdotes from lives of great
souls. In such scenarios, try to create hypothetical scenarios and quote the same as
example. Always start such examples with SUPPOSE….. ASSUME…. and so on.

To illustrate, for a question on ‘conflict of interest’, you can write an example as suppose
an IAS officer is a part of an interview panel. While taking interviews, he/she discovers that a
candidate is a son of his friend. Then that IAS officer should disclose that fact. He should
abstain from taking interview of that candidate.

This kind of scenarios have to be created in exam hall depending upon the nature of the
question. So, that kind of thinking has to be developed beforehand.

One more important tip – every case study you solve is a hypothetical scenario. So, you
can use the case studies you may have practiced as hypothetical scenarios for your
answers in the exam.

LESSON 4 – Create hypothetical scenarios on your own and use them in your answers.

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CASE STUDIES

Remember the following things while answering case studies.

1. Try to provide practical solutions. Ideal solutions, if unworkable, would not fetch
you marks.
2. Give out-of-the-box yet practical solutions.
3. Try to provide specific solutions. Avoid generalized solutions. To illustrate, don’t
say, “I would take steps to promote TRANSPARENCY. Please mention how do you
promote TRANSPARENCY.
4. When you are asked to give all the options available to you. Please give even the
most undesirable course of action as one of the options. However, don’t choose
that option. To illustrate, in a case that mentions about offer of bribe to you,
mention ‘acceptance of bribe’ as one of the options. But prefer the options
‘rejection of bribe’.
5. Do not touch upon only core issues. Also touch upon peripheral issues in a case
study. To illustrate, suppose a case study in which “you are the head of committee
investigating the irregularities of colleges. You are in dilemma whether to recommend
for the derecognition of college and spoil the career prospects of students or to
recommend their regularization in the light of future of thousands of students. You have
been offered a bribe of Rs. 5 crores.” In this case study, a core issue is ‘whether to
regularize colleges’. Most candidates would just address this issue in their answer.
However, there is another issue, which I would call ‘peripheral issue’, that is, offer
of bribe. Try to address that issue as well. While addressing bribe issue, please
don’t just say I won’t accept the bribe. Also say I would lodge complain against the
person who has offered bribe.
6. Let your solutions try to balance conflicting options, as much as possible. (Caution –
such balancing may not happen always). Let’s us consider the examples mentioned
in the previous point. In that most candidates would say, either “i shall recommend
derecognition of colleges because errant colleges have to be punished” or “I shall
recommend for regularization of colleges because of the future of students”. I
would say, try to think of a solution that punishes colleges and at the same time
rescues the career prospects of thousands of students. Such solution can be –
allowing already enrolled students to finish their course and recognizing their
degrees while prohibiting any fresh admissions. Or accommodation of students of
such colleges in other proper colleges.

One more illustration – suppose an elderly couple living in a village in a dilapidated

house. They need a good house. They get some pension. Unfortunately, their son who
lives in city would snatch that pension away from them. You are the head of a housing
corporation. They apply seeking sanction of house under some housing scheme. Upon
scrutiny, you realize that their income (because of pension) is more than the minimum
income limit for a beneficiary. However, you can bend the rule and sanction a house.
What will you do? In this case study, most candidates would take either of the two

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extreme stands – bending the rule and sanctioning the house in the light of humanity
and compassion towards weaker sections or rejecting the house since that is against
law. I would say, try to balance both. Such solutions can be

1. Consider this as a special case and request your higher ups to Grant you
power to sanction the house
2. Reject the house under this scheme and try to accommodate their
application in another housing scheme, if possible
3. Reject the house under this scheme and try to keep these couple in touch
with some NGO or philanthropist who may help them build the house.

(Also ask the nearest police inspector to warn their son and ensure that he’d not snatch
their pension in forthcoming months – this is a peripheral issue which most candidates
miss)

Miscellaneous

1. Be prepared to write about your ‘role model’ and what have you learnt from
him/her. Let your role model preferably be someone whom you have seen for long
time, like your parents, teacher etc., rather than some great soul whom you have
not met even once. This is my personal opinion, which may not be correct.
2. Whenever you answer some abstract question such as ‘happiness’ according to
you, try to include the dimensions of ‘public life’ and ‘private life’. To elaborate,
write what is happiness , according to you in public life and what is happiness
according to you in private life.
3. Let all your answers reflect your EMPATHY towards public and colleagues or co-
workers.
4. Bear in mind that you are not just a public servant, but you have some
responsibility towards your subordinates as well. Thus, if media and public protest
against your subordinate whom you know hasn’t breached his duty, don’t disown
him/her. You stand by him/her.
5. Always be gender neutral – use s/he rather than using just ‘he’. Use him/her instead
of ‘him’.
6. Know about your weaknesses as well. There may be a question that may ask you
mention your weaknesses. Be smart in answering such questions.
7. Be ready with even at least one incident in which you have acted unethically. But
while writing such incidents, don’t forget to mention that now you are repentant of
such act and has never committed that act again.
8. Questions in ethics may be very much unpredictable. So, even if you get a
completely new type of question, don’t get shocked. Remember that it is a new
type of question to every other aspirant writing with you. Just stay calm and think.
9. It is very tough to write very short answers in ethics (personal experience in exam –
I found it very difficult to shorten the answers). So, please be ready to write fast.
10. Ethics is a simple paper. Don’t complicate it. Don’t try to master the philosophies of
all great thinkers on the earth. It is neither practicable nor desirable. I know

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 coaching institutes bringing out a separate book on the philosophies of thinkers. I
doubt their utility. Don’t waste time mastering them. Again, this is purely my
personal opinion, that may be altogether incorrect.

GIST OF MY ETHICS ANSWER

Question – PATRIOTISM in civilian life according to you:

Answer –

“Putting bits of paper only in dustbin; Not jumping a traffic signal; Flushing the toilet after
use…”. These three I remember exactly. But I now feel, more points can be added –
“switching off lights when not in use, keying off the bike when it is at halt (mostly at traffic
signals), and son on.

I have detailed my strategy above. Hope it helps to all of you. However, no strategy is
cool-proof. You may draw inputs from my strategy. But, please draft your own strategy.

I wish all of you a heartfelt ALL THE BEST.

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