Mission Mains 2021: GS 4 Ethics Discussion
This is for those of you who are planning to write Mains 2020. Primarily, the agenda of this thread would be
1. Answer Writing Practice
2. Sharing examples - anecdotes from Current affairs relevant for GS4 Answer writing
3. Any doubts wrt. Paper 4!
Feel free to pool in your suggestions!
The concept of land ownership is not moral. Do you agree? 150 words
The concept of land ownership is as old as settled human life.
It forms the basis of
1. Community life in the form of villages, towns, states, and countries
2. Means of livelihood such as agriculture, industry, services like health and education
3. At individual level, as Aristotle had argued, land ownership is a source of motivation for further progress and achievements.
Thus land ownership has been a source of fraternity, cooperation, unity, positive attitude, etc.
However historically land ownership has also been a source of
1. War
2. Exploitation eg. colonialism
3. Conflict of interest between development vs habitat rights, development vs. environment protection
4. Inter personal quarrels, etc.
Remedial measures:
1. International agreements based on respect for territorial sovereignty
2. At national level - land reforms for just redistribution, EIA policy to balance development and rights of people and nature
3. Judiciary, community guidance to prevent land disputes, etc.
Thus land ownership per se is not immoral. Mutual respect, rule of law, and ethical governance can prevent issues caused by land ownership.
The concept of land ownership is as old as settled human life.
It forms the basis of
1. Community life in the form of villages, towns, states, and countries
2. Means of livelihood such as agriculture, industry, services like health and education
3. At individual level, as Aristotle had argued, land ownership is a source of motivation for further progress and achievements.
Thus land ownership has been a source of fraternity, cooperation, unity, positive attitude, etc.
However historically land ownership has also been a source of
1. War
2. Exploitation eg. colonialism
3. Conflict of interest between development vs habitat rights, development vs. environment protection
4. Inter personal quarrels, etc.
Remedial measures:
1. International agreements based on respect for territorial sovereignty
2. At national level - land reforms for just redistribution, EIA policy to balance development and rights of people and nature
3. Judiciary, community guidance to prevent land disputes, etc.
Thus land ownership per se is not immoral. Mutual respect, rule of law, and ethical governance can prevent issues caused by land ownership.
Can Add the following:
According to John Locke, the blending of an individual's labor with God's created universe produces private property. Private property results when something has been added by individual effort to transform previously unowned property. In Locke's view, individuals form societies in order to gain the strength to secure and defend their properties.
However, private property can hamper allocative efficiency.
You should add examples:
1. Policy of affordable housing
2. Land acquisition - larger good vs interests of tribes/individuals
The concept of land ownership is not moral. Do you agree? 150 words
From the days of yore, land ownership has been a severely contested issue. There have been some major controversies around it but there have always been advocates of it either.
Traditionally in India, land has seen two brothers fighting for it who were earlier living amicably. Particularly in joint families, it has always remained a bone of contention. Out of the three factors which begets disputes namely Jar, Joru and Zameen, land has always occupied a place of primacy. And these all can be ascribed to great prestige and value which is attached to the land.
Since land is an asset, it must be owned by someone but as can be seen in India the people who are already well off keep acquiring land in a bid to further enhance their property as investment in land is always considered to be of giving very high return. Not the ownership per se but the undue ownership of land (because of ever increasing value of land) is what is immoral.
The need of the hour is to bring about land reforms in real sense which could identify the correct set of people worthy of being owners of the land like farmers, aboriginal and other tribal, etc. As Gandhi Ji rightly remarked, land should belong to those who actually cultivates it.
upsc2020,gauravbrly409The concept of land ownership is not moral. Do you agree? 150 wordsFrom the days of yore, land ownership has been a severely contested issue. There have been some major controversies around it but there have always been advocates of it either.
Traditionally in India, land has seen two brothers fighting for it who were earlier living amicably. Particularly in joint families, it has always remained a bone of contention. Out of the three factors which begets disputes namely Jar, Joru and Zameen, land has always occupied a place of primacy. And these all can be ascribed to great prestige and value which is attached to the land.
Since land is an asset, it must be owned by someone but as can be seen in India the people who are already well off keep acquiring land in a bid to further enhance their property as investment in land is always considered to be of giving very high return. Not the ownership per se but the undue ownership of land (because of ever increasing value of land) is what is immoral.
The need of the hour is to bring about land reforms in real sense which could identify the correct set of people worthy of being owners of the land like farmers, aboriginal and other tribal, etc. As Gandhi Ji rightly remarked, land should belong to those who actually cultivates it.
Interesting answer. Imo, required more of ethics. The Indian perspective is nice.
Gaurav,What was the source material used by Vishakha Yadav for GS 4 paper?
Anyone please???
I would suggest not to go after this thing. This year Vishakha is topper, next year someone else may be. How many different sources would you pursue! Better take the concepts and keywords mentioned in syllabus from any book (You may go through 2-3 sources and zero in on one which you feel is better than the rest) and rest practice extensive answer writing. While writing, try to hit the question to its very core, cover all the major aspects/issues involved and present a balanced viewpoint. That's it. Who knows someone else may ask next year "What was the source material used by Nagendra for GS 4 paper"? :) :)
With artificial intelligence permeating every sphere of life, what ethical concerns and moral framework should be kept in mind for the automated future?
1. Distribution of wealth generated from AI
2. AI will lack emotional intelligence of humans, can't forge relationships like humans
3. AI weapons can be used indiscriminately. Wars are preventable because nations have the fear of loss of human life.
4. Lack of capability to differentiate between right and wrong - Microsoft developed an AI chatbot that was released on Twitter. But this chatbot soon learned Nazi propaganda and racist insults from other Twitter users.
A framework outlining ten core values and principles for the use of AI in business was made by a committee in UK. These are intended to "minimise the risk of ethical lapses due to an improper use of AI technologies". The values are:
- Accuracy.
- Respect of privacy.
- Transparency.
- Interpretability.
- Fairness.
- Integrity.
- Control.
- Impact.
- Accountability.
- Learning.
Artificial intelligence has vast potential, its responsible implementation is up to us. Machines are not moral agents, humans have to be responsible for the outcome of the decision-making process of an artificial agent.
ethics yojana-sept-2020-eng.pdf
September issue of yojana is on ethics and integrity. It might be helpful in value addition.
upsc2020,Hitman2021https://chahalacademy.com/current-affair/yojana-sept-2020-eng.pdf
This is yojana september edition- Ethics and integrity edition. Might be useful in value addition.
This pdf has some examples(mostly recent ones) which can be quoted in Ethics paper. Also I have missed putting details in some examples(3-4). So try googling the heading and you can add relevant information. Best of luck guys.
@mightyraju this is such a thorough and painstaking effort. And will be so helpful. Thank you for being so generous :)
See if this stuff is helpful to you guys. If you find it worthy,I can share some other stuff too. Best of Luck to all those who are writing Mains this year. *This is not GS4 specific content though.
This is good. Will definitely enhance answers by adding such Examples. Could you kindly share some more. Thanks and keep up the great work.
mightyraju,Hitman2021
The concept of land ownership is not moral. Do you agree? 150 wordsFrom the days of yore, land ownership has been a severely contested issue. There have been some major controversies around it but there have always been advocates of it either.
Traditionally in India, land has seen two brothers fighting for it who were earlier living amicably. Particularly in joint families, it has always remained a bone of contention. Out of the three factors which begets disputes namely Jar, Joru and Zameen, land has always occupied a place of primacy. And these all can be ascribed to great prestige and value which is attached to the land.
Since land is an asset, it must be owned by someone but as can be seen in India the people who are already well off keep acquiring land in a bid to further enhance their property as investment in land is always considered to be of giving very high return. Not the ownership per se but the undue ownership of land (because of ever increasing value of land) is what is immoral.
The need of the hour is to bring about land reforms in real sense which could identify the correct set of people worthy of being owners of the land like farmers, aboriginal and other tribal, etc. As Gandhi Ji rightly remarked, land should belong to those who actually cultivates it.
conceptually right. I too have same thought.
Gaurav,
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