GS Paper - IV Model Answers (2020)- 1 | UPSC Mains Answer Writing: Practice PDF Download

Q1: (a) Discuss the role of ethics and values in enhancing the following three major components of Comprehensive National Power (CNP) viz. human capital, soft power (culture and policies) and social harmony.
(b) “Education is not an injunction; it is an effective and pervasive tool for all round development of an individual and social transformation”. Examine the New Education Policy, 2020 (NEP, 2020) in light of the above statement.
Ans: (a) Ethics is a system of principles that helps us to distinguish right from wrong, good from the bad. Ethical values (like honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility) can help to make rational decisions, whether at the individual, societal or national level.
Role of Ethics & Values in Enhancing Human Capital:

• Ethics is all about the choices that an individual makes. People always face many dilemmas and choices that affect the quality of their lives.
• Ethics & values make an individual aware that their choices have consequences, both for themselves and others.
• Thus, ethics & values build credibility, improves decision making, and provides long term gains.

Role of Ethics & Values in Enhancing Social Harmony:

• Ethics & values are about character; the sum of qualities that defines a person. The same principle applies to society.
• Ethics & values develop norms of behaviour that everyone should follow in society. If every person acts with a selfish motive, society might fall into chaos & anarchy.
• There is nothing wrong with pursuing one’s interests. However, an ethical person must be willing – at least sometimes – to place others’ interests ahead of self-interest because of our responsibility to society.
• Moreover, often ethics succeeds law in safeguarding society. The law machinery is often found acting as a mute spectator, unable to save the society and the environment.

Role of Ethics & Values in Enhancing Soft Power:

• International relations are largely driven by the ideology of realism, which propagates national interest precedes every action of a nation.
• However, pursuance of national interest must not always be fulfilled with Hard’ power (Military power, economic power). The soft power (a country’s image due to its culture & values) also secures national interest without compromising others’ interest.
• In this regard, ethics & the country's ancient values (for example, Idea of Vasudeva kutumbakam in India) revive national pride and project a country’s peaceful image.

As stated by India’s current president, ‘Nations are not built by governments alone, each citizen is a nation-builder’, there is an immense role of ethics and values in enhancing the comprehensive national power of a country.
(b) The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has been recently announced by the Government of India. NEP 2020 is novel in many ways that can help develop an individual and social transformation.
It recognizes the importance of formative years; it envisages making education more inclusive and aimed at transforming the Indian education system to meet the needs of the 21st Century.
NEP’s Vision of Individual & Social Transformation

• Recognizing the Importance of Formative years: In adopting a 5+3+3+4 model for school education starting at age 3, the policy acknowledges the formative years’ primacy from ages 3 to 8 in shaping the child’s future.
• Encouraging Vulnerable Sections of Society: Another laudable aspect of the scheme is vocational courses with an internship. This may encourage the vulnerable sections of society to send their children to school.
• Making Education More Inclusive: The NEP proposes extending the Right to Education (RTE) to all children up to the age of 18.
• It emphasizes making the mother tongue, the local language, or the regional language the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, which is considered the best medium of teaching. This will integrate culture, language, and traditions with the learning so that children  can assimilate it in an integrative manner.
• Departure from Silos Mentality: Another key aspect of school education in the new policy is the breaking of the strict division of arts, commerce, and science streams in high school. This can lay the foundation for a multi-disciplinary approach in high education.
• Education & Social Justice: NEP recognizes education as the most effective way for social justice. Thus, the NEP calls for an investment of about six percent of GDP jointly by the Center and the States.

The new National Education Policy 2020 is novel. It aims to make the education system holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, aligned to the needs of the 21st century and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Q2: (a) “Hatred is destructive of a person’s wisdom and conscience that can poison a nation’s spirit.’ Do you agree with this view? Justify your answer.
(b) What are the main components of emotional intelligence (EI)? Can they be learned? Discuss.
Ans: (a) Religious violence, communal polarization, hatres and intolerance have increased in contemporary world and it is a continuous obstacle in the progress and growth of a country, as observed many times even in India, which is reputed for its diverse ethnicity, community, religion, language and culture, which few nations can boast of.
Hatred among persons hampers the growth and progress of the nation in the following ways:

• Destruction of Social harmony: Due to the communal intimidation and hatred being spread, the very fabric of a society is being diminished in the larger sense, rendering a weak and divided social strength. For ex– Assimilation with accommodation, stable patterns of pluralism, inequality and integration etc. constitute the basic fabric of Indian society, which when tainted with communal intolerance get divided and internally threatened.
• Economy: Disturbances caused due to communal intolerance largely impact the local economy due to the disruptive activities like strikes, riots, destruction of public property etc against each other, and also disturb the macro-economic outlook of countries on the global sphere as a result of the apprehensions of investors or economic giants of a good work environment. For ex– Many global indices consider all round social parameters and societal tolerance to rank countries which in turn are considered for economic reports, positive indicators etc.
• Political instability: At times massive communal clashes result in political blame game, interference and unnecessary measures, projecting an unstable political atmosphere. Welfare of the nation is mainly side-lined and the representatives are caught in inconsequential issues. For ex– as seen in Sri Lanka, communal clashes and violence often divide the nation and the common masses bringing in a total instability.
• Deprivation of amenities: Victims of intolerance are found to be deprived of facilities and opportunities, thus excluding them from contributing to the overall development of the society and subsequently lose out on self-development too. For ex– Minorities of a certain place not being allowed to work, settle down, and reside in places where they are a minority or not accepted well.
• Curbing of individual freedom: Any form of illogical intolerance often leads to taking away of individual freedom and rights. Constructive criticism and debates over various aspects are absent and dominance of one ideology takes over. Any society plagued by this halts the overall growth and progress of the collective.

Secularism with tolerance acts as a special and critical pillar in our democracy, which has been loudly supported by people like Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and even preamble of our constitution. People of this great nation should be reminded of the value and guiding principles in life that have nurtured compassion, forbearance and tolerant accommodativeness in the people of the subcontinent from time immemorial.
(b) Emotional intelligence or EI is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.
Components of EI

• Goleman has identified four major characteristics of Emotional intelligence. It is popular as Goleman’s model of Emotional intelligence.
  
• These four components of EI indicate that a person should have these characteristics which are associated with Ethical conduct. These characteristics can be linked to many other activities such as:

Effective administrative leadership, Good work culture, Professionalism, Self-motivation.
Ways to Learn EI

• The most important way is socialization, i.e at the early stage of life whereby family, the school have a critical role in the process of socialization. Since, this early stage is not formal, the role of government and organization becomes important in later phases of life of an individual.
• Incorporating the role of EI in human resource management.

• Aptitude test, Formal training, Democratic work culture, Adequate opportunity for realizing human potential, Effective leadership.

• Government should also try to influence socialization at an early stage through social influence, persuasion, and influencing educational institutions and teaching culture, Brainstorming, Role modeling etc.
  emotional intelligence will enhance the social and personal cohesion with management of emotions of an individual for the good of everyone.

Q3: (a)What teachings of Buddha are most relevant today and why? Discuss.
(b) “The will to power exists, but it can be tamed and be guided by rationality and principles of moral duty.’ Examine this statement in the context of international relations.
Ans: (a) The main goal of Buddhism philosophy is to eliminate suffering and unhappiness. As the world increasingly grows interdependent and is beset by conflicts, Buddha's philosophies will only grow more relevant.
Conceptual Framework of Buddhist Thought & Its Relevance
The essence of Buddha’s teaching is contained in the Four Noble Truths. These Four Noble truths set out the path for an individual’s enlightenment. These four noble truths are as follows:

• The truth of dukkha: According to Buddha all sources of happiness are transient, any feeling of happiness is accompanied by dissatisfaction.
  • Thus, there is a need to look for happiness in external things rather than in our internal feelings and attitudes.

  • This doctrine of Buddhism is relevant in the light of increasing materialism and consumerism in society.

• The truth of the origin of the dukkha: The origin of dukkha is traced to craving conditioned by ignorance.

  • Ignorance implies a misunderstanding of the self and reality.

  • This can find relevance in developed countries ignoring climate change and its impact, which will affect whole humankind in the medium to long term.

• The truth of the cessation of dukkha: Cessation of dukkha is the objective of Buddhist spiritual

  practices.

  • Buddhism lays down special emphasis on meditation, which is an activity of training the mind and helping to develop more beneficial attitudes toward life.

  • Meditation can help people to deal with increasing mental disorders in the age of smartphones and lead to moral and mental self-improvement.

• The truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha: The fourth noble path is the way to end dukkha. It is called the eightfold path.

  • It consists of: Right Understanding; Right Thought: Right Speech; Right Action; Right Livelihood; Right Effort; Right mindfulness; and right concentration.

  • Right Speech envisages abstaining from telling lies and speaking deceitfully. This can be applied to tackle increasing hate speech and growing intolerance in society.

  • Right livelihood implies that one should follow righteous means of earning wealth. This finds relevance in growing inequalities and corruption in the economic sphere.

  • Right effort can lead to self-discipline, honesty, altruism, and compassion, which cantackle ongoing social decay.

The relevance to Buddhism can be traced from the words of Dalai Lama who stated that the 20^th century was a century of war and violence, it was the work of humanity to ensure the 21^st century goes on the way of peace and dialogue,
(b) International ethics are moral values and guidelines that help in formulating relationship between two countries. International ethics has gained significance for its ability to influence global politics.
International relations ethics deal with social justice, human rights, caring for the environment across national borders, social responsibility and accountability, and interdependence gained through encompassing a worldview.
Rationality based moral principles– It cannot be whimsical or arbitrary in use rather power needs to be exercised based on sound cognition and empirical evidence. For example, in international relations, there are conventions, treaties, and customary rules which guide the actions of a nation and these principles are based on rationality. Thus a nation does not just explode a nuclear bomb based on irrationality or subjective disposition but rather is guided by the overall rationality of the action.
Similar lines, collaboration with all nations in dealing with global pandemics and economic recession will be rational choice for all the stakeholders and global powers too.
Moral duty – The exercise of power needs to attain the basic ethical principles of equality, integrity, empathy, and compassion. For example, there are conventions like the Geneva Convention for avoiding bombing of cities during war or, a nation cannot exit a treaty whenever it wants. Like when the USA exited the Paris climate treaty it came into force a year later to make it accountable and answerable to people.
Eg. Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR) principle in Paris CLimate Deal towards fighting climate change is the result of ethics in international affairs.
International Aids during natural disasters (eg: India’s support during Nepal Earthquake) and Development Aid via IMF and World Bank is also guided by ethical principles.
Globalisation, the world has become more interconnected, and unethical behaviour by one country affects the whole world, so ethical behaviour in international diplomacy is needed to address the common problems like terrorism, climate change and removal of poverty and inequality and estabish peace among world countries.

Q4: (a) Distinguish between laws and rules. Discuss the role of ethics in formulating them.
(b) A positive attitude is considered to be an essential characteristic of a civil servant who is often required to function under extreme stress. What contributes to a positive attitude in a person?
Ans: (a) Laws and rules may seem like overlapping terms, but there are some differences on which distinction can be made between the two.
Rules are codes of conduct that are designed for specific situations, similar to customs but have immense importance because there is usually a punishment related with them. Laws are similar to the legal form of rules. Law is defined as a rule (for want of a better word) that has been legally made to apply to everyone.
Difference between Law & Rules
Law

• Laws seek to increase public good and serve the public interests.
• Laws have a political connotation. They can be enacted only by those who exercise sovereignty or the lawfully constituted government.
• The laws of a nation operate within its territorial boundaries.
• Citizens when abroad are not governed for most purposes by their national laws.
• Laws are inflexible and carry stiff penalties including imprisonment, and in some cases, death.

Rules

• Rules generally focus on or relate to individual good.
• Rules can have both administrative and social connotations.
• They can be set by individuals, or by organizations, or by the head of a family.
• Rules prescribed, for example, in official codes apply to government servants even when they are abroad.
• Similarly, rules which people accept as part of their religious order, apply to them even outside the country.
• Rules are more flexible and have lighter consequences when broken.

Role of Ethics in Formulating Laws & Rules

• Ethics serves as a general rule of right living; especially such a rule or group of rules conceived as universal and unchanging. In this context, ethics form the basis of both laws and rules.
• Rules and laws must be followed by code of ethics and law of conscience.
• The scope of the law and rules is limited, but ethical action may go beyond that scope. This is because laws and rules can't incorporate intangible human aspects and values that are very subjective.

In modern societies, the systems of law and rules are closely related to ethics in that they determine and enforce definite rights and duties. However, Laws and rules can be neutral or they can be used to endorse ethics.
(b) Attitude is a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation. Attitude influences an individual’s choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards.
Positive attitude is a mental attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific Endeavour or outcomes in general, will be positive, favorable, and desirable.
The benefit of Positive attitude 

• Brings positive opportunities: Positive people are easily approachable and more likeable than someone who is constantly looking at the negative side of things.
• More open mindedness: Look at the positive side of things; search and find the positive spin on things, look for the good in people instead of just focusing on the negative.
• Perspective changes: People with a positive outlook, view life, challenges, and the situations they go through, with confidence and are sure they can deal with them.
• Subconscious mind: Subconscious mind responds to your new attitude by helping you improve your life. It will guide you to positive situations and people that will help you create the life you want.
• Eliminate negative thoughts: Focus on the positive -attract more positive situations. Feed your subconscious mind positive messages; create empowering beliefs that will launch you to success and happiness.
• Self satisfaction: irrespective of the results and consequences we try to give our inputs in the process of work.
• More focus on goal: Positive attitude channelizes all thoughts, energy and process towards the goal.

Examples

• Nelson Mandela: He spent 27 years in prison. This show how the freedom fighter who would become South Africa’s first black president with positive attitude and hoping the best to happen.
• Gandhi: Gandhi fought for independence with lot of struggle for decades with optimistic values.
• Abraham Lincoln: He was extremely poor in childhood and bankrupt once in later life, he repeatedly failed to secure the political posts he wanted, most of his children died, as did a fiancée, and he had depression troubles. Still, he was the man we know he was.
• Dhirubhai Ambani: A gas station attendant who didn’t let his circumstances dictate his destiny. Today, his name is amongst India’s most famous sons and one of world’s greatest entrepreneurs.
• At personal level positive belief gives us strength to learn from the defeat, stand up and fight again. Walt Disney was criticized for not being creative, he continued his work diligently, and later he became genius in cartoon designing.
• At professional level rewards and appreciation towards his employees enhances the positive attitude to work more.

It is rightly said,Watch your thoughts, they become action.
Finding success through a positive mental attitude is all about acceptance of failures and growth. Through optimism, you can find the strength to walk forward, find yourself, and accomplish great things.

Q5: (a) What are the main factors responsible for gender inequality in India? Discuss the contribution of Savitribai Phule in this regard.
(b) “The current internet expansion has instilled a different set of cultural values which are often in conflict with traditional values.” Discuss.
Ans: Gender inequality is the social process by which men and women are not treated as equals. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms. Some of these distinctions are empirically-grounded while others appear to be socially constructed.
Factors responsible for gender inequality in India are

• Poverty – This is the root cause of gender discrimination in the patriarchal Indian society as the economic dependence on the male counterpart is itself a cause of gender disparity. A total of 30 percent people live below the poverty line and out of this 70 percent are women.
• Illiteracy – Gender discrimination In India had led to educational backwardness for girls. It’s a sad reality that despite educational reforms in the country girls in India are still denied a chance at learning. The mindset needs to be changed and people need to understand the benefits of educating girls. An educated, well-read woman ensures that other members especially the children of the house get quality education.
• Patriarchal setup in our Indian society – Men dominate societal and family life in India, this has been the case in the past ages and still continues to be practiced in majority of the households. Though this mindset is changing with urbanization and education, still there is long way to go for a permanent change in the scenario.

NGOs like Save the Children are doing what it takes to uplift the status of the girl child in the society through a number of programmes across India. If you care to bring hope in the lives of thousands of girls in India by ensuring the right environment and opportunities for them, then support an NGO like Save the Children.
Savitribai played an important role in improving women’s rights in India during British rule. She worked for the upliftment of women in terms of education.
Contribution of Savitribai Phule to bridge the gender gap-

• SavitribaiPhulerecognized that education was one of the central planks through which women and the depressed classes could become empowered.
• Savitribai was a crusader for women empowerment as she broke all stereotypes and spent her life promoting the noble cause of women’s education.
• The first indigenously-run school for girls in Pune.
•  She also started the Mahila Seva Mandal with the objective of creating awareness among women regarding their rights, dignity and other social issues. Jyotirao and Savitribai also started a care center called ‘Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha,’.

Gender inequality will lead to violation of rights, sexual violence. This problem can be addressed by empowering women, educating them, government taking specific policies in favor of balancing the genders.
(b) The Internet is the decisive technology of the Information Age, and with the explosion of wireless communication in the early twenty-first century, we can say that humankind is now almost entirely connected, albeit with great levels of inequality in bandwidth, efficiency, and price.
The Impact of the Internet on traditional Values:

• Digital platforms have promoted the abusive videos through movies.
• Social media has had a tremendous impact on personal and professional relationships, allowing for larger social networks amongst individuals and deeper engagement between individuals in the network, both of which encourage virtual interpersonal and not the actual form of communication.
• The hatred and exhaustion from the social media and digital platforms have reduce the physical interaction and social cohesion. 
•  Inappropriate content on Internet has caused the decay in moral values of societies. Ex-Blue whale challenge.
•  Commodification of women and traditions have led to decrease the moral values.

Hence forth, there is a need of cyber ethics for the rational use of Internet with the cultural ethos in mind by proper regulation and liberty of expression for full human development.

Q6: (а) “Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If not, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.” – Swami Vivekanand.
(b) “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” –Mahatma Gandhi.
(с) “A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.” – Socrates
Ans: (a) This quote explains no person, no one or nothing should be criticized strongly for moral or other reasons. Who we are to express complete disapproval of something! We can’t force someone to accept something which a person doesn’t want to. We can’t advocate punishing someone. It is undesirable to put the blame for something on someone. What best we can do is to give an offer of help. A helping hand with the potential to better the course and the conclusion of an event is the most valuable move.

• Criticism doesn’t help anyone. Rather, it makes a person less eager to work. It spreads negativity. Eg if someone is donating or giving money to bagger, other person should not tell that this won’t help them in any way. Condemning covid warriors for spreading pandemic. 
• On the other hand, helping someone or for something gives support, confidence, and hope to a person to work harder. Egphilanthropy by people for a NGO. 

Thus, thinking can form a chain of help, whereas criticism results in loss of hope. If we are not in a position to offer help, a respectful greeting and asking for God’s help and protection for someone or something is the best we can do. Either God would look favourably on them if they deserve it, or they would take care of themselves after learning from their mistakes.
(b) This quote explains the need of Empathy, which is, awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people. It is a key element of Emotional Intelligence, the link between self and others, because it is how we as individuals understand what others are experiencing as if we were feeling it ourselves.
Empathy involves essentially putting yourself in someone else’s position and feeling what they must be feeling. When you see another person suffering, you might be able to instantly envision yourself in the other person’s place and feel sympathy for what they are going through.
Empathetic people care about others and show interest in and concern for them. It is the ability to non-judgmentally put into words your understanding of the other person’s perspective on the world, even if you do not agree with it, or even if you find that perspective ridiculous.
Empathy facilitates prosocial or helping behaviours that come from within, rather than being forced, so that people behave in a more compassionate manner.
Empathy stands in contrast to sympathy which is the ability to cognitively understand a person’s point of view or experience, without the emotional overlay. It should also be distinguished from compassion, even though the terms are often used interchangeably. Compassion is an empathic understanding of a person’s feelings plus a desire to act on that person’s behalf.
There are a number of benefits of being able to experience empathy.
Empathy allows people to build social connections with others. By understanding what people are thinking and feeling, people are able to respond appropriately in social situations.
Empathizing with others helps you learn to regulate your own emotions. Emotional regulation is important in that it allows you to manage what you are feeling, even in times of great stress, without becoming overwhelmed.
Empathy promotes helping behaviours. Not only are you more likely to engage in helpful behaviours when you feel empathy for other people; other people are also more likely to help you when they experience empathy.
Empathy has many fold role in Civil services such as impartiality, compassion, and objectivity. Empathy also deals with emotional intelligence which is essential for quality of decision making.
While empathy might fail sometimes, most people are able to empathize with others in a variety of situations. This ability to see things from another person’s perspective and sympathize with another’s emotions plays an important role in our social lives.
Empathy allows us to understand others and, quite often, compels us to take action to relieve another person’s suffering.
(c) Emotions are common to all individuals however, they vary in extent. They are dependent upon thoughts and feelings, physiological changes, expressive behaviours, and inclinations to act.
Irrational/ Impartial actions/decisions are based on the well knowledge of their consequences. In this irrational and impartial decision making emotions play a pivotal role. Derailed emotions can lead to irrational and sometimes pathological consequences.
However, emotions as such are not necessarily irrational. Aristotle, for example, saw anger as a reasonable response to an insult.
Importance of emotions in making decisions cannot be emphasized more. Human has developed Artificial intelligence by using its mind. The AI can sure replicate the logical process of the brain but logic alone cannot take the correct decisions involving humans, which clearly indicates the wisdom of emotions.
The basic emotions of anger, fear, and sadness made successful leaders from Nelson Mandela to Martin Luther King and many others.
It was Mahatma Gandhi’s mastery over emotions of the masses, which gave a climax to the Indian National Movement ultimately lead to independence.
Emotions with the evolutionary wisdom have played a prominent role in the great struggles of human kind. For instance, French revolution, which gave the world values of justice equality and fraternity.
However, the emotions of more human minds together has put some generations of masses in to the jeopardy. For instance, emotion of anger in to the mob over religious issues has put some of the marginalised communities in to jeopardy in India.
Hence, it can be said that, emotions which comes from the masses has made more harm than good. However, the evolutionary wisdom have made the world more beautiful than it was earlier.