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Practice UPSC New previous year questions on Anantam IAS: 0 Prelims MCQs and 596 Mains Q&A with answer keys, explanations and topic-wise links.
Prelims MCQs 0
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Mains Q&A 596
You are a Joint Director in CBI. A team led by an ASP shows you internal evidence — interception logs, financial trails — that a sitting Member of Parliament’s Personal Secretary has been receiving regular payments from an arms-broker. The MP himself is not directly implicated yet. The case is sensitive; the MP belongs to the ruling alliance. Your Director hints that ‘we should wait for the joint inquiry committee’. The ASP is willing to file a Preliminary Enquiry, but only on your written nod. The case file may leak. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are District Collector in a tribal district. A 1,200-acre bauxite mining lease is up for public hearing under the EIA Notification 2006. The PVTG hamlets in the impact zone have not received the hearing notice in their dialect; only Hindi notices have been pasted. The hearing date is in 9 days. The State Industries Minister calls personally to say a Rs.6,400 crore investment will be lost if the hearing is rescheduled. The State Pollution Control Board’s regional officer says she will go ahead. The local Forest Rights Committee has formally objected. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the District Health Officer (Civil Surgeon) during the second wave of a viral pandemic. Oxygen supply to your 22 hospitals has dropped to 60 per cent of need. A local industrialist, who owns a metal-fabrication unit, offers to divert his industrial oxygen — 8 tonnes a day for 14 days — provided his factory is exempted from a state-wide industrial-oxygen-export ban that you would have to recommend. The State Disaster Authority has not yet decided on exemption protocols. ICU patients are dying. The State Health Minister is sympathetic but silent. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are a probationary IAS officer posted as Assistant Collector. Your Collector, a senior officer, instructs you to draft a transfer order for the local Sub-Registrar (a state-cadre officer) within 24 hours, citing ‘administrative reasons’. You discover the Sub-Registrar had refused a Sarpanch’s request to backdate a sale-deed three days earlier. The Sarpanch is the brother of the District Collector’s college-batchmate. The transfer would send the Sub-Registrar to a remote tehsil 380 km away, separating him from a child receiving cancer treatment in the district hospital. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the Director of a State Drug Procurement Corporation. A shortage of paediatric anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs has reduced supply to 60 per cent of demand for the next three months. A foreign-pharma representative offers a ‘compassionate’ free supply for one quarter — on condition that you place a confidential MoU signalling future preferred-supplier status. The State Public Health Director, two paediatric oncologists and a parent-advocacy group are split. The drug-controller has cleared the imported batch. The Cabinet meets in 10 days to discuss budget reallocation. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the SP of a district. The senior-most political party in the state alliance has its convention here next week. The state IGP has informally instructed you to ‘visibly slow down’ an ongoing investigation into a financial fraud allegedly involving the party’s local treasurer, until the convention concludes. The investigation is at the charge-sheet stage and a Special Court has fixed a hearing in 9 days. A junior IO involved is willing to ‘hold the file’. The complainant is a small-investor collective whose savings of ₹17 crore are at stake. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the District Election Officer (the DM) in a constituency holding a Lok Sabha by-election. The Election Commission has issued the Model Code of Conduct. The local ruling-party MP, who is contesting again, requests urgent release of ₹47 crore from the District Mineral Foundation for ‘pre-monsoon repair’ of school roofs. Technically, MCC permits ongoing-scheme expenditure. The CEO of DMFT says the file is procedurally clean. The Returning Officer is uneasy because pamphlets advertising the repair list have appeared bearing the MP’s photograph. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the Director of a Central PSU’s R&D centre. A foreign trade delegation, accompanied by your administrative Ministry’s Joint Secretary, is visiting a sensitive prototype lab. During the demonstration, the visiting senior diplomat photographs a circuit-board you know contains a non-public design feature funded by DRDO. The visiting team’s protocol officer asks you to permit the photograph as a ‘goodwill gesture’ to advance an MoU. The DRDO liaison is not present. The JS gives an oral nod. The MoU could secure a ₹2,800 crore export order. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are an Under-Secretary in a Ministry. A senior journalist files an RTI seeking the file noting on a controversial policy decision two years old. The file contains a Minister’s hand-written ‘I disagree’ note that was later over-written by the Secretary. The CPIO consults you; she is inclined to deny under Section 8(1)(i) — Cabinet papers and deliberations. You note that the decision is past, no Cabinet status applies, and a similar disclosure was made in another Ministry last year. Your Section Officer says ‘precedent is risky’. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the PIO of a Public University. A student-led RTI seeks the personal-leave record of a Vice Chancellor whose attendance has been allegedly irregular. The data is in the establishment file; releasing it requires touching personal-information clauses under Section 8(1)(j). The VC asks you informally not to share. The CIC’s recent rulings favour disclosure where larger public interest is shown. Media is following the story. The Chancellor’s office has asked for a status update. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the Vice Chancellor of a Central University in a remote north-eastern state. A junior faculty member shows you peer-reviewed evidence that the Dean of Research has been quietly approving in-house grants without external review, including ₹2.1 crore to her own husband’s start-up incubated on campus. The Dean is also the President of the local university teachers’ association and politically well-connected. The faculty’s complaint is verbal; she fears reprisal. The next Executive Council meets in 21 days; UGC’s annual audit is in 60 days. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
What does Stoic philosophy — particularly the dichotomy of control and the discipline of assent — offer to a civil servant facing repeated punitive transfers?
‘Work culture is the most decisive of all determinants of public-service ethics, because it operates daily and invisibly.’ Discuss with reference to the 2nd ARC’s recommendations on civil-service reform.
Examine the role of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal in combating systemic corruption. Why has the Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014 remained operationally inert?
‘Quality of public-service delivery is the most visible ethics test of the State.’ Examine with reference to citizen-centric reforms — Sevottam, RTPS Acts and CPGRAMS.
Explain John Rawls’s ‘veil of ignorance’ and ‘difference principle’. Apply them to evaluate the constitutionality and ethics of reservation in promotions.
Examine the contribution of Swami Vivekananda’s ‘Practical Vedanta’ to the ethical conduct of a civil servant. What does ‘work is worship’ demand of a public office today?
Discuss Rabindranath Tagore’s notions of ‘jana-gana-mana’ universalism and the critique of narrow nationalism. How are these relevant to a civil servant designing inclusive urban citizenship for migrant workers?
Examine Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s idea of ‘constitutional morality’ and ‘fraternity’ as ethical foundations for the civil services. How should an officer apply them while implementing the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act?