Zune4-1 Flashcards
Who says - “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
Albert Einstein
Who is called “Whistle blower” ?
Whistle-blower is, the law goes beyond government officials who expose corruption they come across in the course of their work. It includes any other person or non-governmental organisation.
Which is the major source of Information for Whistle blowers ?
RTI
Why there is a need for strong Whistle-blower protection act ?
-Expose financial corruption in a way that reinforces ethical business practices.
-Protect the identity of whistle-blower
In 2003, Satyendra Dubey was killed for exposing financial irregularities in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project in Bihar.
India can learn from Example
-Case against Ranbaxy marked the triumph of Dinesh Thakur, who tapped into United States’ whistle-blower protection laws that incentivise and protect people who expose unethical business practices.
How does Strong whistle-blower act compliment RTI ?
- Access to information from public authorities which only government officials were earlier privy to making every citizen a potential whistle-blower.
- Both the acts when complemented bring the irregularities in the government system to the public domain.
Your close friend is selected as an IAS officer. His family and friends are all elated. His father is in politics. His father is forcing your friend to marry a daughter of a richest politician in the state. By making this alliance, his father believes that it would give him more political clout and status. Even the richest politicians is forcing your friend’s father in this regard, especially after the civil services exam result. However, your friend is not interested in this alliance. But he doesn’t have courage to admit this to his father. He is planning to marry a girl from a lower caste with whom he is in love. In case if his father comes to know about your friend’s affair, things would get worse for your friend. Your friend belongs to higher caste and there will be violent opposition to his choice of bride. While his father is having big plans, your friend is worried about his future. He seeks your suggestions.
What suggestions you will give to your friend? Examine merits and demerits of all of your suggestions.
The stakeholders involved are my friend, his girl friend, my friend’s father and society as a whole
Following options are available :-
1.I would ask him to listen to his father and marry the girl of his father’s choice
-friend will not be happy and there will be a guilt that he was not true to his conscience
- father might not be happy with his approach in the long run when his son is not happy
-Being a civil servant my friend needs to be objective and have integrity and do what is right irrespective of the pressure.
- I will ask my friend to marry the girl of his choice and go against his parents
- This shows he need not adhere to the whims and fancies of the political representatives. Also inter caste marriages are very necessary for the integration of the Indian society.
- Marriage might lead to social conflicts between upper and lower castes leading to violence as is seen in Tamilnadu where vanniyar- SC conflict happened over a intercaste marriage.
- My friend’s father would be very disappointed with the marriage and the people of upper caste may disrespect their family. - Will suggest my friend to convince his father and then marry the girl of his choice.
- works in the best interests of both parties included
- Father is made to understood of his sons choice and also by being true to the promise he made to the girl my friend is showing his impeccable character
- Social conflicts would not arise as things are resolved in a peaceful and amicable manner.
- Requires empathy, emotional intelligence, and moral of treating everyone equally
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Illustrate with examples
- Innovation occurs if someone improves on or makes a significant contribution to an existing product, process or service. When people talk about innovation, Steve Jobs iPod is cited as an example of innovation at its best. Its innovation was creating an easy-to-use ecosystem that unified music discovery, delivery and device. And, in the process, they revolutionized the music industry.
- Leadership and innovation are closely-knit. In fact most, if not all, successful innovators are successful leaders too. Innovation leads to market leadership for instance Facebook revolutionalised the social networking . So Great leaders come up with great ideas so that influences people to believe and follow the leaders. So leaders continue to make efforts to be experts in the area of expertise and continue to innovate and push the envelope in that area.
- Learning to lead the innovation often proves to be as important as the innovation itself. Without proper leadership, many new and innovative products have died while on the road to success. So, finding the proper leader to lead an innovation is one important key factor to realize the success that an innovation deserves. The leader must know when to simply take the tested ways, and when to introduce new and innovative ideas and products.
- The innovation process is essential to increase public sector efficiency and for delivering quality and competitive public services. Governments are increasingly making more of the innovation a key issue on the political agenda today, recognizing its potential to promote economic growth and how to address social and environmental challenges. For instance PM’s award in the category of best innovation was award to an IAS officer’s unique solar lamp project that was turning poor and lesser educated tribal women from the most backward blocks of the district into green entrepreneurs.
- The world-class innovators didn’t believe in living with the results of other people’s thinking. They had the grit and the courage it took, to listen to their innovative voices, and to follow their intuitions. They became true leaders, and they left behind a legacy of innovations in their wake, ones without which people would have been living in a world of darkness.
What do you understand by public service professionalism? What is the essence and values of public service professionalism? Examine.
Scandals involving public officials have captured world attention these days. Precipitated by shady privatization deals, the diversion of aid, widespread public sector patronage, crony capitalism, and campaign financing abuses, people are debating outright corruption and unprofessional behaviour in government.
With the advent of the modern state, government officials have been and are seen as stewards of public resources and guardians of a special trust that citizens have placed in them. In return for this confidence, they are expected to put public interest above self interest.
Public service professionalism
Public service professionalism is defined as the overall value that encompasses all other values that guide the public service. They include loyalty, neutrality, transparency, diligence, punctuality, effectiveness, impartiality, and other values
Public service professionalism embraces the notion that those people who join the public service need to be inculcated with shared values and trained in basic skills to professionally carry out their official duties.
Essence of public service professionalism
The effectiveness of the public service in the development process ultimately will depend on how public servants can lift people out from extreme poverty, the scourge of conflicts, debilitating diseases, and the growing inequality among the different social strata.
Further, public servants must improve the quality of their services and involve their clients in the process. Their role is a shift from one of authority to one of leadership and facilitating inclusiveness.
To promote professionalism in the public service, the merit principle needs to provide the foundation for all human resources management actions from recruitment and selections for promotions to fair remuneration and disciplinary procedures.
Moreover, many countries are trying to promote cultural changes among their public servants by turning from the notion of being a faceless bureaucrat, following orders, to adopting a more entrepreneurial, proactive, service-oriented attitude and involving the users of public services. So administrative machinery becomes strengthened .
Public service professionalism and performance become essential parts of a good governance equation. Public service is fundamental to good governance. It is an integral part of democracy because it serves as the neutral administrative structure which carries out the decisions of elected representatives of the people.
Values of Public service professionalism
In reflecting upon public service professionalism, there are a number of values and principles to be considered like providing public benefits, enforcing the rule of law, ensuring public responsibility and accountability, setting an example, improving professional performance, and promoting democracy.
Being professional means more than just employing professionals or paying lip service to professional values. It requires a thorough understanding of professionalism and strict adherence to public norms of model behaviour.
In promoting ethical behaviour in the public service, there is a need to address public perception of corruption and the view that though laws (including a Code of Ethics) are in place if they are not enforced.
There is a need to improve performance-based assessment of individual officers, and adopt safeguards that promote accountability while protecting bureaucrats from political meddling. These actions will hopefully contribute to promoting professionalism and ethics in the public service.
Now the primary task of civil servants has shifted from nation building to to public welfare. So we need bureaucrats with a new ethos, more attuned to performances on the ground, and not just policy designs.
Scientific Temper is one of the attributes that Pandit Nehru wanted all of us Indians to cultivate. Discuss how cultivating scientific temper can help India progress ?
- Scientific temper involves the application of logic and the avoidance of bias and preconceived notions in arriving at decisions.
- Since the Upanishads or Mahabharata times, arguments, disputations, questions and dialogues have characterized Indian thought.
- scientific method helps us make better decisions and provides a rational outlook towards problems that we are facing especially in administration when civil servants have ethical dilemmas.
- Elements of fairness, equality and democracy are built-in in scientific temper
- Indian thought over the ages has twin features
1. internal pluralism i.e. accommodating all irrespective of any prejudice such as caste, religion, creed etc.
2. external receptivity i.e. attracts outsiders i.e.grammarian Panini was apparently an Afghan - phenomenal growth of superstitious beliefs and obscurantist practices
1. influence of godmens and miracle makers is increasing alarmingly
2. fake whats app videos
You are the head of the Human Resources department of an organisation. One of the workers, while trying to molest his co-worker, is pushed away from her towards a heavy machine – which instantly kills him. The witnesses claim that it was his fault and the woman didn’t push him with an intention to harm him. She did so in self-defence. His family is demanding compensation from you and has filed complaint against you. Family doesn’t know that it’s the woman who has pushed him. They are told by other employees that it’s an accident. The chairman of the company has asked you to end the issue from your side. He has warned you not to complicate the issue.
What options you have in this situation? Discuss their merits and demerits.
Sexual harassment at work place and not respecting the dignity of women has become more frequent in Modern India and based on facts 70% of women do not even report them. So justice to victimized women is necessary .
In this particular case study the stakeholders involved are the woman, the co worker perpetuated the crime and his family, head of the Human resources department ,employees and the organization. The values in question are abiding to the rules, getting justice to the victim, truth and honesty in dealing with the issue etc.
In the first case, I would cater to the demands of the family by giving them compensation. The merits by choosing this is the problem will be put to rest soon as the family members of the worker who got killed got compensation as they wished. Also the name of the woman who got molested is not revealed.
However I would not opt this option due to the inherent nature of falseness implied it. It doesn’t solve the issue of bringing justice to the molested. Upon that I am accepting that I have made some mistake when I am paying family members money even without any fault of mine. Also a person is killed and it is not my duty to pronounce who is right and wrong , so I am going against the law.
In the second case, telling the family the truth and arrange the compensation. The merits being the family got what they were demanding and they deserve to only what actually happened. However the premise is flawed here because when the family knows the truth why should I and the organization pay them compensation. Also my empathetic intention of saving the harassed woman from further pressure and stress is not done as family might go to police now and organization might be put to doubt of some foul play as it did not report the incident.
In this option, I would report the incident to the police and see the due course of law being followed with right investigation. The demerits however are family members might be distraught as they are not given any compensation, the issue might gain more coverage which my employer did not want.
I would follow this option because as a professional employee and a law abiding citizen it is my duty to report to the police and let them decide who the actual victim is. Also the woman who killed can be acquitted of all charges in court if it is proved that she acted in self defense against an assault on her. Even in UN human rights convention the concept of justifiable homicide is valid in self defense. Also now the family does not have the reason to demand money from me and the organization as its not an accident.
The last option is best in the interests of everybody as proper justice would be delivered only via this option.
Charity (zakat) is a bedrock of Islam. Compassion is the very core of Buddhism. In the light of issues faced in providing foreign aid to poor and least developed countries, comment on the statement.
Buddhism may be touted in the West as an inherently peaceful philosophy, but a surge in violent rhetoric from small but increasingly influential groups of hardline monks in parts of Asia like Srilanka, Myanmar(Rohingyas),Thailand etc is upending the religion’s tolerant image
Similarly in Islam Zakat is a form of tithing in Islam and is considered one of the Five Pillars of the faith
Zakat is such a pious notion of donating for charity many Islamic charities and mosques have been shown to provide material support for terrorism which is visible in the violence widespread in west Asian countries. Aid from some of the countries increased the extremist tendencies in countries like Pakistan .
Foreign aid can save the lives of millions of people living in poverty around the world. It addresses issues such as health, education, infrastructure and humanitarian emergencies leading to sustainable growth and development.
Humanitarian aid in the West Asian countries like Syria, Iraq etc has been provided by various international bodies, organizations and states. The United Kingdom has allocated over £1 billion (c. $1.6 billion) in aid since 2012 to over 30 aid organisations and partners including United Nations agencies, international non-governmental organisations and the Red Cross.
Over the past half-century, aid to developing countries has grown to be big money, financed through taxation and delivered through a plethora of government and philanthropic organizations.
However most of such aid fails to reach the poorest people who need it the most. Foreign aid manages only to improve the lives of the richest people in the poorest countries of the world reinforcing social inequities and perpetuates cycles of political abuse.
Foreign aid’s biggest downside is that no clear, effective system has been put in place to hold aid recipients and their governments accountable for resources illegally taken from public sector coffers.
Aid dependence results in bad governance, stunting development and makes the recipient countries at the mercy of the developed countries as is the case in the African countries .Its volatility and unpredictability makes it difficult for countries to factor it into long term spending plans and include it in budgets
Their decisions are driven mostly by political considerations rather than noble intentions. This naturally leads to various forms of corruption.
The notion of helping others can be effective when the donors provide selfless aid rather than expecting the returns from these underdeveloped countries.
Should active euthanasia be made legal? In the light of recent Supreme Court directives in ‘Common Cause’ case, discuss the legal and ethical issues involved.
Background:-
Historically, India is no stranger to the right to die as in most Oriental cultures, opting to die is often an act of honour, of salvation like the Santhara in Jainism, Hindu saints are known to take sanyas and even opt for Samadhi etc
In the Common Cause v. Union of India Supreme court upholded the right to die with dignity and gave legal sanction to passive euthanasia and execution of a living will of persons suffering from chronic terminal diseases and likely to go into a permanent vegetative state.
Active euthanasia:-
While active euthanasia entails the use of lethal substances to end a life.
While the Supreme Court has legalised passive euthanasia, it has not passed any judgment on active euthanasia.
There is clearly a desire among a number of patients at the end of often terrible battles with debilitating, incurable diseases to end their suffering with the support of their relatives. To deny this right is to prolong the suffering for individuals and families. So active euthanasia needs to be considered.
To allow a terminally ill individual to end their life is the only humane, rational and compassionate choice. The right to life and the right to private and family life should be interpreted broadly to include decisions about quality of life, including decisions about death if the life is no longer one of quality. This will help many families. It will stop a lot of pain and also lessen expenses.
People who are proponents of active euthanasia say that our bodies are our own, and we should be allowed to do what we want with them. So it’s wrong to make anyone live longer than they want. In fact making people go on living when they don’t want to violates their personal freedom and human rights .It’s immoral, they say to force people to continue living in suffering and pain.
In the fundamental rights enlisted in the Constitution there is already mention of right to life with dignity (Article 21).The outcome of the judgment lays down a broad legal framework for protecting the dignity of a terminally ill patient or one in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) with no hope of cure or recovery. In such circumstances accelerating the process of death for reducing the period of suffering constitutes a right to live with dignity.
The core message is that all adults with the capacity to give consent have the right of self determination and autonomy and the right to refuse medical treatment is also encompassed in it. Burdening a dying patient with life-prolonging treatment and equipment merely because medical technology has advanced would be destructive of the patient’s dignity.
Neither the law nor the constitution can compel an individual who is competent and able to take decisions to disclose reasons for refusing medical treatment and such a refusal is not subject to the supervisory control of an outside entity.
However effective safeguards need to be put in place to avoid legal and ethical issues like:-
Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code prescribes punishment for attempting suicide’
Even the bill government is preparing Bill deals only with terminal illness.
Even recent supreme court judgement permits passive euthanasia but not active.
Other opponents fear that if euthanasia was made legal, the laws regulating itwould be abused, and people would be killed who didn’t really want to die.
Euthanasia raises a number of agonising moral dilemmas:
If euthanasia is permitted without the necessity to abide by government regulations and laws, people will use it as a means to get out of even simpler troubles
Is it ever right to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is undergoing severe pain and suffering?
Under what circumstances can euthanasia be justifiable, if at all?
Is there a moral difference between killing someone and letting them die?
Can state engage in actively killing someone which is the case in active euthanasia?
Even countries where active euthanasia is legal, the requisite is that the patient must have a terminally ill disease. So this issue needs to be well thought out from multiple perspectives as life of human is irreplaceable.
You are preparing for civil services exam. Your parents, who are farmers, do not understand the nature of this exam. They have given up agriculture due to frequent losses. They are forcing you to work and earn some money so that they can sustain themselves with three meals a day. You decide to conduct tuition to rich kids in your area. On applying online, you get 3-4 homes to conduct evening tuitions. These sessions would consume 4-5 hours daily, but help you earn enough to sustain yourself and parents back home. One day you notice that few children of migrant workers are helping their parents near a construction site. You come to know that these children are not going to school. You decide to teach these children too.
How will you convince parents of these children, and also children themselves to attend your classes?
In case managing classes to both rich kids and migrant kids becomes hectic and starts affecting your civil services preparation, to which kids you will continue to teach? Justify.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. However many children are denied education due to child labour. According to Census data, there are over 82 lakh child labourers (aged between 5 – 14 years) in India. Child labour and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labour of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labour to the end of time.
The stakeholders involved in this case study are myself, my parents, rich and poor children and their parents. The ethical issues involved are priority to my goals vs responsibility towards my parents, having empathy towards the poor children etc.
1 .I would first talk to the parents working at the construction site of the serious implications that child labour has on children, in long run. I will try to counsel them if there has to be a economically bright future for these families, their children must be provided with quality education and skill building.
I will persuade them to take the children out of work and enrol them in my tuitions instead as there will be no financial burden as well, thus helping the children move towards a different and better future.
I will try to make them understand that education makes a person self-dependent , their children wouldn’t have to struggle everyday to make their ends meet or be victims of influence by anti social elements or trafficking or gangs. They will have the ability to stand on their own like Abdul Kalam, Dhirubhai Ambani etc safely. Also i will make them aware that child labour is illegal .
Once the parents are convinced children will be easily sent to my tuitions and i would assure these children that if they want to be a support to their parents they have to study well for a bright future rather than working as helpers to their parents now.
2.Even though my responsibility towards the weaker sections is necessary for a civil servant the act of competency is important too for doing things efficiently. So despite time constraints I have to find a balanced solution which works best.
In this case abandoning the poor kids is not an option as it was me who convinced them to take my tuitions in the first place so neglecting them would mean abdicating the responsibility I endorsed myself on. Similarly abandoning rich kids is not an option as they are means to my family’s survival.
Instead of taking two different classes for these kids I will convince the rich parents that group study would benefit their children, children would learn importance of team effort, equality, compassion etc. Then I will conduct classes for both rich and poor kids together. So the time invested would be the same and I will have time to prepare for my civil services examination.
Therefore it is necessary that strict government measures be taken against child labour in public places especially like construction sites, restaurants etc .People need to be proactive and take responsibility of this cause and work collectively to eradicate this menace.
Without any doubt, atrocities against Dalits are a grim social reality, necessitating a stringent law to combat it. However, there are instances of misuse of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. In this light, suggest measures to strike a balance between protecting individual liberty and preserving the spirit of a law in favour of oppressed sections.
In India, SCs and STs have suffered social ostracisation and economic deprivation for centuries. To address this social deficit and achieve the “dignity of the individual” was set out as one of the objectives in the Preamble to the Constitution. Article 17 abolished untouchability and made it an offence punishable in accordance with law.
Dalits are frequently the victims of discriminatory treatment in the administration of justice. The justice system fails to vigorously and faithfully pursue complaints brought by Dalits, which is evidenced by the high rate of acquittals in such cases. Despite laws, the abhorrent practice of discrimination and violence against the SCs and STs continues.
However the use of the Atrocities Act as an instrument to blackmail or to wreak personal vengeance is uncalled for . It has also been used against public servants performing their bona fide duties. So there is a need to strike the balance with the spirit of the law and protecting liberty of an individual by introducing safeguards. Any harassment of an innocent citizen, irrespective of caste or religion, is against the guarantee of the Constitution and also against basic rights of the citizen. The recent Supreme court ruling is in line to enforce the fundamental rights of life and liberty against any executive or legislative action.
The Act should promote fraternity and integration of society as the Constitution envisages “a cohesive, unified and caste-less society.” So there is a need to curb “false implication of innocent citizens on caste lines.
Public servants can be arrested with the written permission of their appointing authority. In the case of private employees, the senior superintendent of police (SSP) concerned can allow it. Anticipatory bail should be allowed if the accused is able to prove that the complaint was malafide.
Preliminary inquiry should also be conducted before the FIR is registered to check whether the case falls within the parameters of the Atrocities Act or whether it was frivolous or motivated.
Affirmative action need to be taken in the society to improve social cohesion and harmony among different communities where everyone teach others with respect and equality irrespective of their caste,gender,religion etc.
Is torture Unethical ?justify
Intro
-Can be mental, physical, emotional
-Can be formal i.e. prisons/informal i.e. bonded labor, domestic violence
Unethical
-Reasons of pure principle
1. Treats Victim as means to end and not an end in themselves
2. treat them as things
3.Destroys autonomy i.e. some societies suppress independent thoughts
4.Violates legal right to remain silent when questioned
-Reasons based on Consequences
1.Slippery slope i.e. each act of torture encourage subsequent torture
2.Ineffective tool i.e. may produce false evidence due to compelling victims by torture
3.Damage Institutions/Create enemies i.e. reputation (Immoral) & eg. Anti-american jihadists
SC held
-DK Basu Vs State of WB,UP regarding custodial deaths/violence in lock Ups
1.Torture is so painful that you can almost touch it but no way to heal it as intangible
Conclusion
-Wide support for torture in France, UK & US but has slippery slope
-across globe must eradicate it
