NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
The question is about evaluation the basis of reservation.
Key Demand of the question:
Discuss the challenges in implementation of the recent policy of providing reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS). And explain what should be the criteria for reservations.
Directive:
Explain – Clarify the topic by giving a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the particular context. You must be defining key terms where ever appropriate, and substantiate with relevant associated facts.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start with setting the context of the question. Like the 103rd constitutional amendment has added provision for reservation to EWS category recently. According to the amendment, people who fall in the following category can avail the benefits (Now write the criteria for reservation briefly in points)
Body:
Talk about the aspects involved in EWS reservations and discuss the challenges in implementation of the move. Discuss in detail the SC directions in Indira Sawhney case that are relevant to the answer.
2ndpara: you have to take the stand. And discuss the pros and cons of reservation on the basis of economic criteria.
Conclusion:
Conclude with how reservation is not a panacea for the vulnerability of the socially and economically weaker section and suggest some alternatives like focus on elementary education, vocational training, and building entrepreneurship skills in youth etc.
Introduction:
The President of India has given his assent to the bill providing 10% reservation in jobs and educational institutions to the economically weaker sections in the general category. The legislation will be known as the Constitution (103 Amendment) Act, 2019 and it shall come into force on such date as the Centre notifies.
Body:
The act was passed in a hurry. State governments were not consulted about this move that required the Constitution to be amended. The Union government wants to ensure that no group is left out by new quota. The government is keen on a roll-out in the forthcoming academic session and is framing rules for implementation of the quota in private institutions as well. The constitutional amendment passed by Parliament states the reservation will be applicable in aided as well as unaided institutions.
There are significant strains on the educational institutes as
Universities:
- In order to ensure that the reservations don’t impact seats for other categories, additional 25% seats to be created in educational institutions.
- This additional enrolment would require universities and colleges to add to infrastructure very quickly – classrooms, teachers, hostels in a short span of time.
- In centrally funded higher education institutions (HEIs) from the 2019-20 academic session, the Centre has decided to foot the additional financial requirements.
- The paucity of time and the amount of money allotted for infrastructure would be debatable if it is possible to implement the quota in such a short span.
- A point in case was Punjab University’s statement that it would need about Rs 500 crore to implement the new quota.
Private Institutions:
- The anxiety is even more acute in private institutions, which will now have to implement the quota system that it had ignored all these years.
- Most colleges have loans to repay and any restrictions on their ability to charge fees they consider appropriate would result in great financial stress.
- Implementing the new quota is also expected to delay the process of hiring teachers this year.
State Governments:
- The quota would place an additional burden on state governments if they are expected to implement it in the 2019-2020 academic year.
- Most Indians who access higher education attend state-level institutions, which receive grants from the state coffers.
- This does not bode well for state budgets, especially in states like Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu where public higher education institutions are strong.
Students:
- Lack of clarity on payment of fees in private colleges despite gaining an entry through EWS quota will be a futile attempt for the students.
Reservation is a fundamentally political promise made in acknowledgement of the fact that caste literally excludes sizeable communities from Indian society. The primary reason why reservation was written into India’s Constitution was to ensure representation of all social groups in positions of power.
Yes, reservation should be based only on caste and not economic status:
- Reservation is intended not to be an anti-poverty programme. The government has many programmes which are, in principle, accessible to all poor people.
- Reservation exists because, in addition to being more likely to be poor than general castes, Dalits, backward Muslims, and Adivasis face social discrimination and exclusion that poor people from general caste backgrounds do not face.
- The fact that the right to education, the right to own land, the right to conduct business, or to pursue a well-remunerated occupation has been reserved for men from high caste backgrounds for generations means that government must take steps to correct the unequal distribution of rights.
- Historical injustice: Caste based reservation is a necessity in India because of historical negligence and injustice caused to those backward communities.
- Level Playing field: Reservation provides a level playing field as it is difficult for the backward sections who were historically deprived of education, skills and economic mobility to suddenly start competing with those who had access to those means for centuries.
- Meritocracy is important, however, it will have no meaning without equality. The caste based reservation also minimized the gap between upper and lower castes to a great extent.
- Administration quality: A study revealed that reservations have not affected the efficiency of administration, but enhanced quality. The best example is the Indian Railways in which the SC/ST employees comprise more in number, and the results have been better.
- As for economically weak SCs and STs, they need both financial support as well as reservation to ensure fair access to employment and education.
- Malaysia, South Africa and many countries in the European Union have supplemented anti-poverty policies with equal opportunity policies for excluded groups based on group identity.
No, reservation shouldn’t be based only on caste and but also economic status:
- Majority of lower castes have stepped up the social ladder and are now on an equal status compared to the general population. Hence, there is no need for reservation anymore.
- Reservation only provides a limited and short-term solution to the historical injustice issues.
- Reservation is obviously a tool to address social and educational backwardness, however, it does not have solutions for all social and economic ailments. There are much better and innovative ways to solve those issues. However, reservation prevents the leadership to come up with viable solutions.
- As the reservation grows larger, it becomes a mechanism of exclusion rather than of inclusion. Because, nowadays, the previously advantaged communities have becoming disadvantaged to a large extent due to the reservation conundrum. Many upper castes are still plagued by poverty and illiteracy.
- Reservation brings down the economic growth rate of the country as it reduces the efficiency of its labour.
- New reservation on the basis of economic background is based on moral duties which are implicitly part of the constitution.
- Every person has right ‘not face any inequality on the base of any ground’ and, the directive principle of state policy (DPSP) is a moral obligation on the state to secure a social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people.
- High economic class and lower economic class and higher economic class in SCs and STs defend a reservation for maintaining the status quo.
- The same scenario is in socially and economically backward class also like Maratha, Jats, gurjars etc. is demanding reservation despite high living standard.
- Reservation on the basis of economic background may pave the way for a casteless society which was initially purpose of Dr Ambedkar’s reservation system.
Way forward:
- Reservation is a policy tool that is used not only in India. In many countries, reservation or other types of affirmative action are used to try to overcome human prejudice based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, caste or any other group identity, and to encourage representation of and participation by groups traditionally excluded and discriminated against.
- One way to make these measures more acceptable and help people better understand the historic, social and cultural background behind reservation would be to educate children in schools about caste, ethnic, gender and regional diversities and the need for public policy interventions to make society more equal and fair.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
The question is based on the premise of job reservations for the locals and the questions arising thereof.
Key Demand of the question:
One must discuss in what way the Haryana’s legislation opens up debates on the growing job crunch, threats of sub-nationalism and a diminishing role of states in the job creation matrix.
Directive:
Critically analyze – When asked to analyse, you have to examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them as a whole in a summary. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a fair judgment.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start with brief narration of the context of the question.
Body:
The Haryana government has recently passed legislation that mandates companies in Haryana to provide jobs to local Haryanvis first, before hiring people from outside the State.
Explain first the root causes for Haryana legislation – Political factors, Economic factors, Social Progress, Provision of infrastructure etc.
Explain the factors that control the Jobs. And then discuss the concerns associated in detail.
Conclusion:
There is a need for instituting a level playing field much greater fiscal freedom provided to the States; otherwise, the potent combination of widening inter-State inequality, a ‘rich States get richer’ economic development model, may fuel nativist sub nationalism in other states too.
Introduction:
It implies that jobs that will be created in a state will be first offered to only people who belong to that state. This policy is populist in nature. Unemployment or employment creation has been a major issue in recent times. This policy is also the result of the fear of some locals who believe that their jobs are being taken away from them and provided to the people not belonging to the state.
Recently Haryana government notified its Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Bill, 2020. This bill provides job reservation in the private sector for locals. Prior to Haryana, States such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh also tried to provide reservation in private jobs.
Body:
Issues with reservation for locals
- Delaying Economic Recovery: The pandemic scenario has made it imperative for states to focus on fast and effective economic recovery. However, compulsion on companies to employ locals might compromise quality and delay the recovery phase.
- Discourages Investment: Compulsions to employ decreases the competitiveness of companies. Apart from that, such measures directly discourage investment potential in a state.
- Impracticability: The shortage of qualified workers in a state may impact its implementation. And also, the private sector cannot employ outsiders without the permission of concerned authorities. It might lead to the inspector raj prior to 1991 economic reforms.
- A threat to unity: This step would create friction among locals and non-locals in the implementing states. This will shake the fundamental of Indian democracy (Unity in Diversity) in long run.
- Against constitutional provisions: These laws are against the spirit of constitutional provisions:
- Article 14 allows for equality before the law. But the reservations to locals are against that equality.
- Reservation to locals also violates Article 19(1)(g) is violated by Haryana’s law as outsiders won’t be able to effectively do any job of their choice in the state.
- Article 16(3) allows reservation based on the residence by a parliamentary law in matters of public employment and not in private employment.
- Against the reservation ceiling: Giving 75% reservation goes against the Supreme court’s ceiling of 50% for maintaining meritocracy.
Need of the hour:
- Enhanced Expenditure on Education: Government must increase expenditure to 6% of GDP and ensure better learning outcomes.
- Skills Training: Skill India program launched in 2015 has an objective of enabling a large number of Indian youths to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood.
- India needs to learn from technical and vocational training/education models in China, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Singapore, who had similar challenges in the past, along with learning from its own experiences to adopt a comprehensive model that can bridge the skill gaps and ensure employability of youths.
- There are number of labour-intensive manufacturing sectors in India such as food processing, leather and footwear, wood manufacturers and furniture, textiles and apparel and garments. Special packages, individually designed for each industry are needed to create jobs.
- Public investment in sectors like health, education, police and judiciary can create many government jobs.
- Decentralisation of Industrial activities is necessary so that people of every region get employment.
- Development of the rural areas will help mitigate the migration of the rural people to the urban areas thus decreasing the pressure on the urban area jobs.
- Concrete measures aimed at removing the social barriers for women’s entry and their continuous participation in the job market is needed.
- Government needs to keep a strict watch on the education system and should try to implement new ways to generate skilled labour force.
Conclusion:
Political milieu alone cannot be consideration of reservation policy. It leads to extreme inefficiencies and will have a deleterious effect on all round development of the nation. Instead, target must be to focus on development of human capital.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Land reforms in India.
Reference: Indian economy by Uma Kapila
Why the question:
The question is from the static portions of GS paper I, part Modern Indian history.
Key Demand of the question:
This question focuses on the challenges which are associated with implementation of land reforms in intra and inter communities.
Directive:
Comment– here we have to express our knowledge and understanding of the issue and form an overall opinion thereupon.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by bringing out broad changes and challenges that place in bringing or implementing of land reforms.
Body:
First part of the body should comment on the changes that take place inter and Intra communities which serves as a challenge to land reforms.
Relevant examples must be given by referring to relative failure of land reforms in post independent India.
The next part should address how land reforms can change the relationship between the communities and the state. The challenges it poses. Again, relevant examples must be cited to boost your answers.
Conclusion:
Conclusion should give a way forward and end the answer on positive note, on how despite the challenges with required political will the land reforms can be achieved and the challenges associated with it can be addressed.
Introduction:
Land reforms are a major policy focus of the Government of India, following recent reassessment of India’s post-Independence land reform experience. State-initiated land reforms are conventionally believed to have been unsuccessful in getting land to the poor in India (albeit with notable exceptions such as West Bengal), although it is widely acknowledged that they have been successful in creating the conditions for agricultural growth by consolidating the position of small and medium farmers
Body:
Land reforms in India:
- The Government of India and State governments have taken up several land reforms measures since independence to secure land to the landless and land-poor in the country.
- Several progressive and pro-poor land laws were enacted in the last six and half decades. In fact, the largest land reform legislation ever to have been passed in so short a period in any countries was in the post-independence India.
- These laws include: (1) land ceiling laws that put restrictions on family land holdings and redistributed surplus land; (2) abolition of intermediaries and conferring ownership on actual cultivators; (3) protection of the rights of tenants; (4) assignment of government waste land and Bhoodan land to the poor; and (5) prohibition on alienating land allotted to the poor and the land belonging to tribals.
- Recently, a historic piece of legislation, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Dwellers (Recognition of Forest rights) Act (2006), was enacted by the Government of India to recognize land and other forest rights of the tribal and other traditional forest dwellers.
Changing relationships in society due to land reform policies
- Of all the land reform laws that were passed, abolition of zamindari system was the most effective, for in most areas it succeeded in taking away the superior rights of the zamindars over the land and weakening their economic and political power.
- Tenancy reforms were not successful in India except two states. In West Bengal and Kerala, there was a radical restructuring of the agrarian structure that gave land rights to the tenants.
- The third major category of land reform laws were the Land Ceiling Acts. While some very large estates were broken up, in most cases landowners managed to divide the land among relatives and others, including servants, in so-called ‘Benami transfers’ – which allowed them to keep control over the land (in fact if not in name).
- The Forest rights empowered tribal communities to an extent, but individual rights are yet to be given in majority of the cases. Procedural difficulties have proved to be an obstacle.
State and land reform policy issues:
- Since Independence, about 43 million acres of government waste land, ceiling surplus land and Bhoodan land has been distributed to the landless poor in India. However, there are several problems with these assigned lands.
- First, in many cases, the state allots land to the poor and fails to provide them with proper record of rights.
- Second, in spite of restrictions, the poor have often alienated much of the land distributed to them.
- Third, much of the assigned land is degraded and remain unutilized due to lack of any assistance to improve it.
- Further, some of the poor who have been on government land, either cultivating it or with a house on it, continue without legal rights, even though law provides a process for legalizing their possession.
- In recent times, especially since the beginning of the regime of economic liberalisation, the issue of access of land to the poor has been relegated to the background.
Conclusion:
The structural, institutional and policy dimensions involved in the land and livelihood relations in rural transformation require much more attention, deeper study, analysis and debate to evolve an appropriate strategy that would help mitigate the hardship particularly to those who are asset poor.
General Studies – 3
Topic: basics of cyber security
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
The article explains how the threat posed to key Indian entities by antagonistic forces such as China is beginning to merit critical attention in all the right quarters.
Key Demand of the question:
Discuss the extent of cyber threat in India and the world faces and account for the need for affirmative counter-measures.
Directive:
Account – Weigh up to what extent something is true. Persuade the reader of your argument by citing relevant research but also remember to point out any flaws and counter- arguments as well. Conclude by stating clearly how far you are in agreement with the original proposition.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start with some statistics/data related to cyber readiness of the country.
Body:
The answer body must have the following aspects covered:
First, briefly present the Institutional system for cyber security in India.
Then move onto discuss the extent of cybersecurity threat such as – State-sponsored cyber offensive, Critical infrastructure targeting, Cyber espionage etc.
Then present the case of China and threats posed by it.
Conclusion:
Suggest solutions to address the issue and conclude with way forward.
Introduction:
A cyber or cybersecurity threat is a malicious act that seeks to damage data, steal data, or disrupt digital life in general. Cyber threats include computer viruses, data breaches, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and other attack vectors. Cyber threats also refer to the possibility of a successful cyber-attack that aims to gain unauthorized access, damage, disrupt, or steal an information technology asset, computer network, intellectual property or any other form of sensitive data. Cyber threats can come from within an organization by trusted users or from remote locations by unknown parties.
Body:
Extent of cyber threats across globe:
- According to a despatch by The New York Times, in the lead-up to the India-China border clashes, Recorded Future had found an increase in malware attacks targeting the Indian government, defence organisations and the public sector.
- the October 2020 blackout in Mumbai was directly linked to this cyber-attack. State authorities in Maharashtra attributed the blackout to the attack by the Chinese cyber group
- At least 10 Indian distinct power sector organisations are said to have been targeted, in addition to two Indian ports.
- What adds verisimilitude to these revelations is the identification of the network infrastructure viz., AXIOMATICASYMPTOTE, whose servers are known to be used by RedEcho, a China-linked activity group, that targets India’s power sector, and facilitates the employment of a malware known as ShadowPad.
- Very recently in 2021, several thousands of U.S. organisations were hacked in an unusually aggressive Chinese espionage campaign. The Chinese group, Hafnium, which has been identified as being responsible for this breach, exploited a series of flaws in the Microsoft software, enabling attackers to gain total remote control over affected systems.
- Headlined SolarWinds, the late 2020 breach is a prime example of the damage that can be caused by a cyber-attack.
India’s preparedness and challenges faced:
- The attacks can be more tangible causing damage to physical or digital infrastructure.
- This includes a country’s water system or electric grid.
- Cyber tentacles can spread to political parties, universities and private businesses and Citizens.
- Potentially worrisome cyber incidents include interference in political affairs, leaks and espionage and the compromising of critical national infrastructure.
- A 2017 study conducted by Symantec found that India ranked fourth in online security breaches, accounting for over 5 per cent of global threat detections. In the beginning of 2017, the newly launched Bharat Interface for Money application (BHIM app) reportedly faced spam threats.
- The real danger to India lies in targeted cyber-attacks coming from adversarial nation states.
- Countries like China can bring immense assets to bear in carrying out sophisticated cyber-attacks. The success of Stuxnet, which damaged the Iranian centrifuge facility at Natanz is an example.
- Cyber warfare is characterized by an absence of clarity.
- India can never be certain about the capability of the other side and also the chances of success if we launch a cyber-counterstrike.
- There is a push towards greater digital dependence with demonetization a cashless system is being propagated. Aadhaar and the wider platforms such Digital India and Smart Cities will push things further along. India is the world’s second largest digital nation with more than 350 million Indians are online and millions more will be getting connected in the years to come.
- India is not even a signatory to some of the basic international frameworks on Cybersecurity like the Convention of Cybercrime of the Council of Europe which not only European nations but Japan, US, South Africa have become signatories to, except India.
- Indian laws are not in tandem with the ever-changing global cyberspace.
- The laws are old and hence need to be more dynamic in nature to deal with issues like cyber-espionage, data theft and so on.
- The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) is the sole law that deals with cyberspace in India and was passed way back in 2000.
- Also, the Cyber Law of India has been subject to amendments on various occasions but hasn’t served the changing dynamics and the growing threats and manifestations of cyberwar.
Measures needed:
- A Defence Cyber Agency could be the first step the government plans to for critical infrastructure and military networks that are increasingly becoming dependent on the Internet, thus increasing vulnerabilities.
- The Defence Cyber Agency will work in coordination with the National Cyber Security Advisor. It will have more than 1,000 experts who will be distributed into a number of formations of the Army, Navy and IAF. According to reports, the new Defence Cyber Agency will have both offensive and defensive capacity.
- Equally important is cyber propaganda. During the Doklam conflict, China tried its best to unleash cyber propaganda on India and indulged in complex psy-ops
- Critical cyber infrastructure needs to be defended and the establishment of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre(NCIIPC) is a good step in this direction
- Individual ministries and private companies must also put procedures in place to honestly report breaches. It is only then that the NCIIPC can provide the requisite tools to secure these networks. This partnership must be transparent and not mired in the usual secrecy of intelligence organizations.
- The upgrading of the Defence Cyber Agency to a Cyber Command must be implemented at the soonest.
- A robust ecosystem must be built to secure India from acts of state and non-state actors, including protocol for grievance redressal in international forums.
- Better capabilities must be built to detect and deflect attacks.
- The computer emergency response team (CERT) must be strengthened and aligned with military and foreign affairs operations.
- Building a joint task force between the government and key technology players will be crucial.
- The government should push for the creation of a global charter of digital human rights.
- A national gold standard should be created, which ensures that Indian hardware and software companies adhere to the highest safety protocols
- Impart cybercrime investigation training and technological know-how to the various law enforcement agencies.
- Cyber awareness must be spread and there should be multi-stakeholder approach- technological inputs, legal inputs, strengthening law enforcements, systems and then dealing with transborder crime involves lot of international cooperation.
Conclusion:
Most of the Indian banking industry and financial institutions have embraced IT to its full optimization. Reports suggest that cyber-attacks are understandably directed toward economic and financial institutions. With innovative, technology led programmes such as AADHAAR, MyGov, GeM, Digital Locker the new India is the land of technological prowess and transformation. Government and the private sector jointly have to give cyber security some priority in their security and risk management plan.
Topic: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
The article highlights the Confluence technology and a whole-of-government approach that is needed to drive new strategies and tactics.
Key Demand of the question:
Account for the need of Military to acquire and adapt to the rapidly changing technological landscape.
Directive:
Elaborate – Give a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the particular context. You must be defining key terms where ever appropriate, and substantiate with relevant associated facts.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Explain the need to understand changing nature of wars first. Discuss how technology has been transforming the character of war.
Body:
Discuss the various factors that contribute to the changed nature of war in the current times such as – Blurred definitions, Based on political domination, use of cutting-edge technology, Decline of Westphalia terms etc.
Explain what the contribution of technology is and what needs to be done.
Breaking of civilian-military silos: Most important political trend affecting armed conflict in the 21st century will be in the relationship between civilians and those who fight on their behalf. Expediting speed of decision-making besides shedding legacy system (organized campaigns, orchestrated by domain led central staff1): To prepare for accelerated future wars, democracies need to master the ‘hybridised effect’ of warfare.
Conclusion:
Conclude with way forward.
Introduction:
The Prime Minister, addressing the top military leadership, asked the top commanders to develop the military into a future force while taking note of the rapidly changing technological landscape. He also called for an approach that focuses on breaking down civil-military silos and on expediting the speed of decision-making besides shedding the legacy system.
Body:
Changing nature of war:
- Earlier, the character of war was demonstrated depending upon the norms and ideology of society, technology, and anonymity.
- Now, new terms denote changes in the definition of modern war. These include ‘hyper’, ‘hybrid’, ‘compound’, ‘non-linear’, ‘fourth-generation’, ‘next-generation’ and ‘contactless.’
- Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz recognised the changing character of war incredibly early when he stated that war was practically limitless in variety.
- Today space warfare, cyber warfare has become common parlance. Due to this, nations Including India have a dedicated unit focussed on the same.
Need for future force in the military in the changing technology landscape:
- For peace to prevail or be enforced, development of future force capability based on a Third Offset Strategy was announced by the U.S. in 2014.
- It consists of cutting-edge technology, exploration of new operational concepts for utilising such technology, and retaining the best and brightest in human resource to achieve the objective of peace.
- Although still in its inchoate stages, it focuses on promising technology areas such as robotics and system autonomy, miniaturisation, Big Data, and advanced manufacturing. It provides for autonomous learning systems, collaborative decision-making between humans and machines, assisted human operations, advanced manned-unmanned systems operations, network-enabled autonomous weapons, and high-speed projectiles.
- Technologies like these can be expected to cause unprecedented effects and disruption by impacting cognitive and perceptional domains through weapons, soldiers, robots, and cyborgs.
- Tactical actions undertaken through these can be expected to cause strategic effects.
- Perhaps the most important political trend affecting armed conflict in the 21st century will be in the relationship between civilians and those who fight on their behalf. This needs to overhaul, which would mean breaking of civilian-military silos.
- India must prepare for battle on cyber front, space front and ramp up capacity on advanced technology that is home-grown.
Way Forward:
- India needs to work on its preparedness in the event of three kinds of war: Nuclear Exchange, Force-On-Force Conventional War, and sub-conventional, low intensity conflict.
- At the conventional level, the shifting strategic-tactical differential and compression of time and expansion of space in the arena of conflict have circumscribed the range of options available, in particular, with reference to nuclear weapons powers.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Case study – Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration: Status and problems; ethical concerns and dilemmas in government and private institutions; laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance; ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance.
Reference: Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude
Why the question:
The question is a case study based on the theme of ethics across borders.
Key Demand of the question:
Analyse the case at hand, discuss the nuances in detail and address the demands of the question that follows.
Directive:
Evaluate – When you are asked to evaluate, you have to pass a sound judgement about the truth of the given statement in the question or the topic based on evidences. You have to appraise the worth of the statement in question. There is scope for forming a personal opinion here.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start with identification of the stakeholders involved and the ethical concerns/issues underlying.
Body:
State the options available to you as a head of the company.
Evaluate the merits and demerits of the available options.
State your course of action, with reasons.
Conclusion:
It is important to take a stand as art transcends national boundaries and hiring actors who belong to other countries is not a yardstick for measuring patriotism and nationalism. Moreover such actions at home may also adversely affect Indian artists working in the neighboring country.
Introduction:
Art transcends national boundaries and friction of bilateral relations. One must approach the issue as a rationalist and a democrat, especially in nation like India where Freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right. In this case, the film production company faces a dilemma of boycott due to soured relation between nations whose actors are in the movie.
Body:
Stakeholders:
- Myself as head of film production company
- The actors in the movie
- Actors from neighbouring country
- Film fraternity
- Political party demanding a ban on actors and the film
Ethical issues involved
- Rationalism versus irrationalism
- Hindrance to fundamental rights
- Dilemma to overlook patriotic fervour
- Artistic freedom
Options available and Course of action
- Option #1: I will replace the actors from the neighbouring country and reshoot the scenes.
Merits: This will allow the movie to run without any backlash and also help me with finances if the movie becomes a hit.
Demerits: Cost overrun and with my precarious financial situation, reshooting and replacing actors may not be a feasible option. This also gives out wrong message, caving into pressure of petty politics.
- Option #2: I will go ahead with the release of the movie. If there is intense backlash, I would go to courts to seek help, in order to overturn the call for a ban on the movie.
Merits: This would mean that, without additional cost, movie would be released under the protection of the court order. In case of movie performing well, due to the publicity it received and assuming that audience are logical for not boycotting, I would gain from this move.
Demerits: The local political party may still threaten theatre groups by vandalising property etc. There can be possibility of audience collectively boycotting the movie, in which case, my production company will suffer huge loss.
Course of action
Both options are tricky to navigate especially when it is the case of nationalist issue. However, considering the case of Pulwama and its aftermath, many in the film fraternity said that banning artists is not a solution to militancy and terrorism. The artists that make their way to India, “messengers of peace,” and by performing dance and music, which the militants oppose, the artists are “defying the militants,” and should be encouraged.
This thought must seep in to the audience. Indian actors must be roped in to ensure widespread promotions are made to ensure the release of the movie peacefully. I would ask for a meeting with the local political party and convince them of the right intentions. I would ask the actors from neighbouring nations to condemn the war like situation and ask for peace between the nations. As a last resort, I would go with Option 2, wherein I would approach the court for release of movie. E.g.: Padmavathi movie was released despite heavy backlash from certain groups after the court intervened and ordered state governments to ensure smooth release.
The frayed bilateral relationship has often cast a shadow on cultural exchanges between the countries, but there are some exceptions, like Pakistani singer Adnan Sami. The Lahore-native, who has spent over a decade in Mumbai, was granted Indian citizenship in January 2016.
Conclusion:
There should be an end to the mixing of art and politics. It is time that the common people of both countries should rise above the narrow nationalism. It is the fact that art is beyond borders. We also need to think more deeply about the potential of art in influencing mindsets. We must realise the power of these cross-border collaborations to counter stereotypes, misconceptions and bridge the gap of miscommunication.
