Ethics: October 2022 Current Affairs | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Q.1. (a) One of the tests of integrity is complete refusal to be compromised. Explain with reference to a real life example.

Ans.

• Integrity means adopting similar standards or moral principles in similar situations across time and interested parties. In other words it means to be honest and consistent in thoughts, speech and action. A man of integrity is never influenced by temptations and pressures from outside and would only respond to his conscience.
• Integrity is a four-step process: keeping in mind the aim/ purpose of one’s action or inaction and acting consistently with that choice—even when it is inconvenient or unprofitable to do so; choosing the right course of conduct in conformity with moral principles; openly declaring one’s intentions or where one stands; and results of one’s actions.
• In 1964, Mandela was sentenced to 27 years in prison at Robben Island. He accepted it with dignity. He knew that overthrowing apartheid called for struggle and sacrifice, and was prepared for the long walk to freedom.
• Ten thousand days in prison failed to break Mandela and he refused to compromise on his beliefs or leave the struggle midway.

(b) Corporate social responsibility makes companies more profitable and sustainable. Analyse.

Ans.

• Corporate social responsibility is based on the premise that a business can only thrive if it operates within a thriving society. In that way, the business depends on the community it operates within, and as such, has an ethical and moral responsibility towards that community. A business is perceived as legitimate when its activities are congruent with the goals and values of the society in which the business operates.
• Consumers and other companies are likely to shun firms that develop unethical reputations. And arguably, companies that don’t pay attention to their social and ethical responsibilities are more likely to stumble into legal troubles, such as mass corruption or accounting fraud scandals – threatening the sustainability of the business itself.
• By promoting respect for the company in the marketplace, CSR can result in higher sales, enhance employee loyalty and attract better personnel to the firm. It is also a way to connect to the personal well-being of customers. In this way, the CSR can contribute towards higher profits for the company. 
• Therefore, by ensuring brand loyalty and consumer patronage, CSR can ensure that the business remains sustainable in the long-term and it stays profitable.

Q.2. (a) How will you apply emotional intelligence in administrative practices?

Ans.

• Emotional Intelligence can be defined as an ability to comprehend and manage one’s emotions and also of others. It is important for making sound and objective decisions thus making it crucial for success as an administrator.
• EI can be applied to administrative practices in the following manner -
• Being self-aware as an administrator helps us in having a clear picture of our strengths and weaknesses. If people are self-aware, they always know their feelings and how emotions affect the people around them.
• Administrators must self-regulate themselves effectively. A self regulated administrator would not verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions and/or stereotype people or compromise values
• Administrators should constantly motivate themselves and their team members thus consistently working towards their goals. This also helps in maintaining an extremely high standard for the quality of their work.
• Applying empathy in administrative practices is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Administrators with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else’s situation.
• By developing social skills administrators would also become great communicators thereby getting their team support and will also be good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. 
• To summarize emotional skills have gained foothold in the public administration sector and are essential for good administrative practices and customer service.

(b) Strength, peace and security are considered to be the pillars of international relations. Elucidate. 

Ans.

• Peace is one of the foremost reasons why we engage in and maintain international relations. This is because, after the two World Wars, the appetite for war and violence decreased dramatically across the world. War became unethical behaviour, unfit for civilisation, hazardous for humanity. We needed to establish peace world over and in order to establish peace we need security. A secure and peaceful world allows us to preserve, protect and create newer solutions to our problems. Peace builds communities, expands trade, aids development, helps sustain the environment, and most importantly, helps us claim our socio-political rights.
• Security is derived from having strength. Strength in international relations is the ability to successfully negotiate in one’s favour. Strength can be sourced from military power, economic strength, a ‘soft-power’ status etc. An ethical use of strength to negotiate for peace and security is ideally what is required in international relations, but such is not always the case. For example, China has been using its strength to claim territories of other countries in the South China Sea, which is nothing but an unethical use of strength, and as such may not lead to peace and security in the region.
  

Case Study -1

You are a Public Information Officer (PIO) in a government department. You are aware that the RTI Act 2005 envisages transparency and accountability in administration. The act has functioned as a check on the supposedly arbitrarily administrative behaviour and actions. However, as a PIO you have observed that there are citizens who filed RTI applications not for themselves but on behalf of such stakeholders who purportedly want to have access to information to further their own interests.
At the same time there are these RTI activists who routinely file RTI applications and attempt to extort money from the decision makers. This type of RTI activism has affected the functioning of the administration adversely and also possibly jeopardises the genuineness of the applications which are essentially aimed at getting justice.

Q. What measures would you suggest to separate genuine and non-genuine applications? Give merits and demerits of your suggestions.
Ans.
Over the year the RTI act has emerged as a milestone in assuring transparency in administration and governance. It has provided a tool in hands of citizens to bring the best out of the government but in many cases the act has also served as a way to harass government officials and extort money.
To deal with such situations following measures are available –

• Those filing RTI applications may be asked to mention about any connection/interest they have in the concerned department. Applicants might be given options to specify whether information asked serves public purpose or private interest.
• Merit: It might help to identify the persons who indulge in misuse of RTI and other wrong doing.
• Demerit: It makes the process a little cumbersome for the genuine applicants.
• All the previous applications under the RTI could be scrutinized to bring out the trends in asking questions so that genuine applications can be segregated from the non-genuine ones. Habitual offenders can be closely monitored.
• Merit: It will help in creating a robust database of almost all applicants for the future reference of the department and also identify the miscreants.
• Demerit: It will create extra burden on the employees of the department as they might have to take help of other departments and law and order agencies.
• Few changes regarding charges and fees associated with providing information can be made in the law. There should be no changes in the fee for initial filing of the applications. But if they are found to be false or serving the vested interests of someone in later investigations, then a suitable monetary fine may be imposed.
• Merit: It will act as a check on insincere and unscrupulous applicants and hit others economically for wrong doing.
• Demerit: It will create a divide and discrimination between rich and poor people. Economically well off and non genuine applicants will not hesitate to file applications while the poor will be discouraged to do so. 
• The above steps will help in segregating genuine applications from the non genuine ones and will help take the effective actions accordingly. However in the given question, there are RTI activists who are attempting to extort money from the decision makers. It indicates the systemic flaws in the government department itself. Besides it points to the fact that decision makers want to hide the information as it might expose the wrongdoings in the governance. 
• Therefore the governance itself should be reformed and transparency and accountability should never be forsaken. The genuine applicants must be provided with the requisite information. Better option would be to play a pro-active role and put most of the information that are not exempted under the act in the public domain for easy accessibility by public.

Case Study 2

You are the manager of a spare parts company A and you have to negotiate a deal with the manager of a large manufacturing company B. The deal is highly competitive and sealing the deal is critical for your company. The deal is being worked out over a dinner. After dinner the manager of manufacturing company B offered to drop you to the hotel in his car. On the way to hotel he happens to hit motorcycle injuring the motorcyclist badly. You know the manager was driving fast and thus lost control. The law enforcement officer comes to investigate the issue and you are the sole eyewitness to it. Knowing the strict laws pertaining to road accidents you are aware that your honest account of the incident would lead to the prosecution of the manager and as a consequence the deal is likely to be jeopardised, which is of immense importance to your company.
Q. What are the dilemmas you face? What will be your response to the situation?

Ans.
In the above case
The stakeholders involved are:
Manager of company A that is me and the company itself
Manager of company B
The motorcyclist
In the given situation following ethical dilemmas arise:-

Personal cost ethical dilemma: If I give an honest account of incidents to the investigating authorities, the critical deal will be lost for my company.

Moral dilemma: If I do not report the incident, fearing the loss of deal, the defaulter will not be brought to the book and motorcyclist will not be assured justice, who is critically injured. My conscience would prick me in the long term for not taking the right action in pursuance of selfish interests.
Legal dilemma: Not giving the correct account of accident would also be legally wrong since an accident has taken place critically injuring a person.
Response to the situation
The situation involves life  of a person who has been critically injured and my personal interests regarding the deal, being at stake. There is also a legal dimension to it as the Manager of other company was over speeding that led to the accident.

In this situation, I would cooperate with the investigating agency, giving the correct details of the accident and let law take its own course. This would affect the deal thereby affecting the interests of company but it would be unethical, illegal and immoral on my part to continue a deal with the person implicated for an accident for negligent driving and shield him from authorities, moreover, it would be wrong for the motorcyclist to be denied justice, who is critically injured despite being innocent. The growth of company an be ensured along with adhering to moral principles of truth, justice and moral uprightness, which need to be protected

Case Study 3

A building permitted for three floors, while being extended illegally to 6 floors by a builder, collapses. As a consequence, a number of innocent labourers including women and children died. These labourers are migrants of different places. The government immediately announced cash relief to the aggrieved families and arrested the builder.

Q. Give reasons for such incidents taking place across the country. Suggest measures to prevent their occurrence. 

Ans. 

There are numerous incidences of building collapse reported across the country on regular basis killing innocent labourers and people living in them. Poor and shoddy construction along with non-compliance of regulations has done immense damage to the life of people.

The reasons that could be attributed to such incidence on regular basis are discussed in following points –

• The ease with which rule and regulations are bypassed by the builders remains the main concern. The National Building Code that provides guidelines for regulating building construction activities, are not adhered by builders.
• Apathy towards laws make illegal construction a trend that continues to take life of innocent citizens.
• Moreover, the standards prescribed for construction are at best poorly defined that people either do not understand or are not aware of.
• Poor designs of buildings that could not withstand extra floors are also no less to be blamed. Poor quality materials used in construction makes any expansion a tough proposition.
• At the root of such incidence is unplanned urbanisation that forces one to opt for accommodation that is built illegally on face of limited choices that people get in ever expanding urban areas.
• Somewhere government has also failed in providing affordable accommodation to citizens hence they go for illegal properties.
• Above all the builders’ moral attributes are to be blamed in totality that finds it alright to compromise people’s life in return for monetary gains.

Measures to prevent such occurrences–

• First and foremost, rules and regulations need to be defined in clear terms and enforced effectively. Standards defined in National Building Code need to be effectively adhered to.
• Those who break laws should be given stringent punishment to deter others from breaking such laws.
• Citizens should be made more aware about laws and rules regarding construction activities, so that they avoid purchasing any such illegally constructed property/building.
• Crèche facilities and proper welfare mechanism should be put in place for children of women labourer working at construction sites.
• Planned urbanisation will go a long way in addressing this concern. Satellite towns need to be built to ease the pressure on main cities.

To know more information

• Ethics Case Studies Compilation (1 to 5)