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!
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.
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"? :) :)
DEDICATION TO PUBLIC SERVICE
Not at all the example for dedication.
1. Maternity leave is not a privilege, it is a necessity and a statutory right, an integral part of service.
2. The act is irresponsible , firstly because you will not have undivided attention towards your work. Secondly, you are exposing an infant to a not so clean environment. And for Christ's sake, where is the mask?
3. Even National Creche Scheme is for kids starting from 6 months.
4. Unnecessary Bravado
Don't know why I am writing this. Probably for people 1st time giving mains and I am not writing mains this year. So have lot of time to give inputa to others.
So I got 122 marks in 2019 (GS4), probably average or bit above avg marks.
Some suggestions:
Limit your examples and quotes. More they are more hard to remember and even hard to use them.
You can't remember 100 examples and quotes, remember 20-30 and try some basic and some unique. Then see where can you use all these. So 20-30 can be utilised at 100 of places. See toppers copies and pick up from there.
More emphasis on Indian and regional leaders/ examples: some can be KabirDas, Premchand, Bassavana, Periyar, from NE (currently don't remember), Sufis, Sikh Gurus, Dohas, Shlokas etc.
Case studies are more rewarding. But sometimes they can be unexpected like 1/2 in last year's. So instead of overthinking in them, you can turn back to 1st segment and complete them.
Speed is most important thing, I messed 2-3 questions due to lack of time, where I could have written better.
Last thing GS1 and GS3 being in Morning of this winter will affect efficiency,
GS2 and GS4 being in afternoon can compensate for them
8. What does this quotation mean to you ?
Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (150 words)
pls give your valuable feedback.
Good effort. Can add a diagram, to show your understanding of the statement in the question'. Just a suggestion. Not saying diagrams are essential. In this one, there was a scope.
I am no knight. Do not call me Sir
1. “Arriving at a conclusion” is a process, whereby you analyse both sides of the issues and then come to a conclusion based on the analyses. It gives an impression of being rational in making judgments/decisions.
2. Marks is provided based on content and that is what’s important. The only way to showcase that is analysing the issue/question from all aspect. In the end, your actual opinion to the direct question matters very less in the marks given
3. The only exception is an essay. Where you can give a hint about your opinions and let the examiner know where your essay will be headed in the initial part only.
You mentioned “both sides of the issue”.
I am considering that you meant “pros and cons/positives and negatives” there.
Now read this question:-
Hitting a woman is wrong. Do you agree?
Now in this question , will you critically evaluate too like will you give benefits and harms of hitting a woman?
I’m assuming a “No”.
Here one would definitely mention why we shouldn’t hit a woman(negatives of hitting woman) and can also suggest some way forwards that can be adopted to boost woman pride.
so here, the answer to this question can be directly started by saying yes one agree to this statement followed by why one think this way in the body part, is what i believe.
Sorry, I have been away because of some Covid issues.
The point that you are making, is it based on your logic or previous Mains experience, and experience of Mains marking?
Obviously, in an answer Hitting a woman is wrong. Do you agree?
You dont have to write positives of hitting a woman.
But what you have to write is why some people think hitting a woman is okay. Here "some" and "think" is important.
You have write this in 2-3 lines. Anyone who does this does get more marks than one who says "Hitting woman is bad because".
Plus going by your argument, do you think they really want YOUR Personal OPINION?
The point(hitting a woman is wrong) that you are talking about was for someone else.
I do not have any prior mains experience. I raised the concern of answering directly as a Yes or a No in such questions which seem to be opinion based based upon my common sense.
Like most of us aspirants who have imbibed in our brains the mantra of sticking to and addressing the demand of the question, I personally feel that it is okay to comment yes or no if and when asked in a question. If one is not doing so, as the mantra says, IMO, that person is not doing justice to the question while answering it. ( I may be wrong here)
Also I feel that there is no harm for me in conveying my personal opinion backed by my personal knowledge, if presented in a balanced manner. I am confident so far that the content and answer writing skill that I possess, it will be good enough to get average marks if not high(please don’t consider this as over-confidence). Again, all this is based on my experience so far with daily answer writing practice and mocks. I will be in a better position to clarify my stance post writing the official mains examination. :p
P.S.- the point that you suggested in the latter post is duly noted. Thank you!
Hello,
I re-read what I wrote earlier and I think trying to be in a hurry, I have sounded pretty rude. Please accept my apologies for this. I cannot understand at all why I wrote what I wrote.
Coming to the point,
What happens is generally in our first Mains in GS and even in essay we end up writing this. Yes, I agree that .
It has not fetched marks. You get it immediately after first Mains after you see other people”s answers when you don’t get interview call.
So I was curious if you have written with this approach in Mains and scored well, because then maybe I would like to speak to you. This changes a lot of things about the exam.
The exam is very dynamic and I would like to keep updated with any changes that happen.
Till 2016-17, one short cut to get an interview call was to just finish the paper. Now by finishing the paper, we cannot assure interview call also. The bar of what is normal is rising every year.
So things change and the more we discuss, the more clarity we have.
Even in an essay if the essay topic is Is globalisation dead , and if you write yes it is dead and here is why, it has not fetched marks.
You will realise that you are expected to write why some people argue it is dead, and also why may be said that it is not dead. By logic it always looks as to why should I not write yes it is dead. But generally people end up getting 80-90 marks for this. That has been my experience. And basically everybody does it in first go, unless someone is there to tell them.
By no means I meant to offend you.
I am no knight. Do not call me Sir
Dutch PM appointed Opposition leader as Minister for Health.
The new health minister was appointed based on his years of experience in healthcare, setting aside any party political interests.
Can be used as an example for - Non Partisanship, Courage, National interest etc.
@AlexanderSupertramp Here is the format for answeringQuote Based questions.
Follow if you like to.
Answer Format:
Introduction
- Write who said it(if you know) and then explain the quotes in simple words.
Body
- Break the quotes into parts and explain their relevance(i.e. How?)
-Connect with various dimensions and then explain like social, political, environmental, economical, international, administrative etc.
- provide recent example
- provide positive and negative aspects (if any)
Conclusion
- write its application + any similar quote
Resilience
Karoly Takacs was a Hungarian Shooter who had put years of hard work to participate in the Olympics. But he could not do so due to cancelation of Olympics due to second world war. To make things worse, he lost his right hand (his shooting hand) in the world war. But, such situations could not stop him. He worked harder and trained his left hand to participate in the Olympics. With this single hand he won two successive Gold Medals in Olympics of 1948 and 1952, setting a world record by winning two successive Gold Medals in Olympics.
Compassion
Anand Kumar's Super 30- Anand Kumar from Bihar provides free coaching to financially backward students, who aspire to get admission in India's prestigious college such as the IITs. It's due to his selfless Service, dedication and attitude of Service that many such financially backward students have made their dream of studying in IITs a reality.
Case study
Ganeshchand, a typical IAS aspirant, although in good faith and with his noble intention of helping a fellow aspirant in need, is trying to reach out to maximum aspirants by disseminating his willingness of donating his books to every possible thread on ForumIAS. Even the threads earmarked for aspirants going to write this year's mains are not spared. Do you think ganeshchand is morally right in his action? Substantiate. (200 words)
Although the intention of Ganeshchand is worth admiring, his actions put a question mark on his morality. Spamming a large number of public threads of a IAS forum just for the sake of achieving one's personal objective, howsoever noble it might be, shows one's irresponsible behaviour and careless & callous attitude. Moreover, it might be annoying and psychologically disturbing to a large number of aspirants who must be preparing hard for coming mains and who might be using the threads specifically meant for them for extracting vital information and inputs- Ganeshchand's action might pose distraction to them.
Instead, Ganesh should have made a separate thread for making his fellow aspirants aware of his benevolent intention. Yet an another alternative was to put the matter in the cognizance of Neyawn who might write it somewhere for bringing it to everyone's knowledge given he commands a wide appeal and is followed by a large number of IAS aspirants.
Resorting to inappropriate means to meet one's end even if the end is meant to help someone is morally not a right course of action, and therefore, is condemnable.
2. Ethics, not capitalism, will yield profits in the long run. Analyse this statement in light of COVID pandemic.
The pandemic of Covid as exposed the perils of following capitalistic model of development. Prime example being USA, which is facing high number of deaths and cases. In this light, essential to view the capitalistic model popularised post 1991.
Why capitalism led model being questioned
1. Capitalism fuelled by globalisation ushered mobility of people across the globe. This became the cause of spread of Covid
2. Capitalism has led to an unequal model of prosperity having negative impact during Covid. Eg The spread of Covid in slums, and difficulties faced by migrants
Benefits of ethics centric model
1. One health model- inclusive and sustainable. Remedy the ills of capitalistic model by focussing simultaneously on ->Animal health, environmental cleanliness, human immunity
2. Humanity- human centric model where priority given not to material pleasure but ease of living and happiness. Will result in
a. Focus on primary health centre
b. Boosting education for disadvantaged sections
c. Planned urbanisation for remedying slums and migrant issues
For yielding long term benefit, the need is to marry the above models and implement Humanistic capitalism. It will rightfully yield benefits of capitalism->generate wealth and bring about decline in poverty, create investment avenues. And also yield benefits of ethical model->sustainability via clean energy, inclusivity via upgrading capability of disadvantaged in form of education and health.
EthicsDefinitionTable3371598939295.pdf
A forum user shared this on other thread.
Its a compilation of ethics definitions from Red Book.
I Found it very useful and so thought its my duty to share it here again For benefit of all.
Thankyou to sir/Ma'am who compiled it and this wonderful forum community.
thanks for the review!
this is the first essay that i wrote, would surely try maintain the flow by segregating the examples next time.
I tried to include the customary values of satya, ahimsa, compassion and tolerance as the ones to be continued. Now that I think about it, I should've included traditions such as -respecting the elders, yoga. Couldn't think of anything strong hence skipped it. Any suitable examples in this regard?
So I had read an article wrt. this, quoting from the same:
+ Mahatma Gandhi: “It is good to swim in the waters of tradition but to sink in them is suicide."
+ Take our tradition of taking care of our parents in their old age or the food habits of our grandparents that were so much healthier. Today, if parents are abandoned by children in old age homes, consider it a great civilisational tragedy because our tradition is to revere our parents.
+ In America, Thanksgiving is a cultural holiday that symbolises peace, thankfulness. Most Americans consider the holiday a day to gather and express their thanks through food, family. Such customary traditions reinforce family values etc.
+ Institution of marriage
+ Modern man provides new form to ancient traditions, social systems and cultural relations. He struggles with his time and creates suitable and refined norms. In this way, progressive spirit is essential to be modern. Traditional people find themselves unable to walk with time. They are rooted in traditional faith. They are not capable to break the pre-established social norms and are unable to seek the alternative. To claim that only the man of today is modern and the man of yesterday was utterly traditional can never be justified. Every age produces modern men. Every age has been modern during its span. The modern man has to clash with previous values of his age and time.
Courage and compassion
Dr Denis Mukwege- Gynaecologist. As a surgeon, Denis Mukwege has helped thousands of victims of sexual violence in armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both on a national and an international level he has repeatedly condemned impunity for mass rape. Several attempts for his assassination have been made but he is working fearlessly.
Received Nobel prize for his efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.
Famous quote- “You can’t operate against violence, you can only abolish it.”
Media today has lost its moral compass. Do you agree? Elucidate.
Media is often touted as the fourth pillar of Indian democracy. Although innumerable media houses continue to operate in India, over the years there can be seen a general deterioration in the ways they function and in the manner they perform their responsibilities.
1) Contrary to doing responsible journalism and bringing to fore the real and core problems that the country is facing, many electronic media houses are running a host of programmes which are just supposed to appeal the viewers and keep them glued to their channels; improving their TRPs and raising their profitability have become their prime concern.
2) Off late many paid media channels have emerged. Some of them are controlled by the big business houses and corporate world. Serving their interest has replaced independent journalism as their main motive.
3) Almost all the media houses remain politically inclined towards one or other political parties, groups and beliefs. This lack of neutrality cost the country heavily and their biases and prejudices gets clearly visible in their uncalled-for appreciation/criticism of the government moves.
4) Some loopholes in the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 regarding the definition of 'Editor' have led to the foreigners owning many media houses in India (completely or partially). Such media persons seem to serve their vested interests and fail to take moral high grounds, be responsible and patriotic, and cover issues which really affect India's interests.
5) Print media in general and regional & local newspapers in particular have become heavily dependent on the advertisement, majority of which comes through government route. They don't dare do genuine and constructive criticisms of the government moves for that will negatively impact their earning and profitability.
6) Lately many digital news channels have mushroomed which just publish false, fake and fabricated news without vouching for their authenticity. Some of them tend to incite public violence too by their reporting on sensitive issues like love jihad, communal clashes, dalit atrocities, etc
All in all, media can be widely seen nowadays loosing it's moral compass. Despite enjoying 'Freedom of Press' emanating from the Constitution, they have failed to leverage it to effectively perform their duties. It's high time attempts should be made to suitably regulate media and eliminate the malpracrices and irregularities therein to make it responsible, unbiased, independent, and moral.
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