IASbaba's Think Learn and Perform 2017, UPSC Mains Answer Writing
SYNOPSIS: IASbaba’s TLP – 2017 : UPSC Mains General Studies Questions [1st Sep, 2017]- Day 40
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1. “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.” Comment on this famous quote by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
SYNOPSIS:
These famous lines taken from “Wings of Fire” by Dr.Kalam bear great significance in the life of every individual , many great personalities like Gandhi, Shivaji, Ambedkar has often spoke about roles of their parents and teachers in their personality development, character build up and their eventual success in life.
ROLE OF FAMILY IN INCULCATING VALUES (MOTHER AND FATHER) :
- Family is the cornerstone of every society. It is a universal social institution and it is the first agency of socialization for the child
- Mother is the first teacher of the child, the strong bonding between parents and the children determines the personality of the child. Family is the basis on which values are built. From their mothers, children acquire self-knowledge, self-confidence, learn self-satisfaction, self-worth and the capacity for self-sacrifice.
- The family, forms the child’s viewpoint towards people and society, and helps in mental development in the child and supports his desires and values it will also aid young generation of the family to develop human values and eliminate their negative mental tendencies when they are among elders.
- Social standards and customs demarcated mainly by the father like discipline, fear of law, honesty, strong sense of morality to differentiate between right and wrong provide the emotional and physical basis for a child.
- Values developed by a family are the groundwork for how children learn, grow and function in the world like leading by example a life of frugality , living according to one’s needs and not wants will help a child develop into a responsible, selfless member of the society who does not indulge , encourage or get enticed by dishonest practices like corruption.
- These principles, transmits the way of life of the individual and also permeates into the society and eventually will lead it to a path of progress.
ROLE OF TEACHERS:
Teacher is the most important secondary institute of socialization and a prime motivator .Swami Vivekananda compared teachers with Rishis.
They help by
- Moulding the minds of students by value and moral based education.
- Teacher must be an embodiment of values and hence be a great role model
- Unfolds mental faculties and crystallisation of thought.
- By imparting value education they remove impurities of mind like thoughts of corruption, violence, crime etc and help in personality and character development.
- Inculcate steadfastness of mind and also remove negative feelings like pride, egoism. Promote selflessness and selfless service to mould him into a stress free individual.
- They also help control one’s impulses, infuse civic consciousness and patriotism so that acts like corruption can be nipped in the bud and can transform a land of ordinary men into a Nation of great leaders.
BEST ANSWER
BY SUPER COMMANDER DHRUV
Kalam sir’s auto biography “Wings of fire” repeatedly mentions the value of the father, the mother, and the teacher in his life. He mentions in his book how they have nurtured Kalam sir as a person.
The mother role- Mother is the primary educator for a child. Mother role for physical, mental, and social growth is paramount. Gandhi jI also mentioned in ‘ My experiment with truth” that how Putli Bai shaped her spiritual thought process and guided him throughout. Mother touched every aspect of life like value based child development, the lesson of respecting self and others, role in society, the family value in life, balance in personal and professional life, and so on.
The father role- when mother teaches a child with compassion, it is the father who trains young mind with truth, logic, rationality, discipline, the value of money, social duties, and other aspects. Father role is complementary to mother role and both develop a dutiful child for national service.
The teacher role- the teacher has the highest position after parents in Indian tradition. It is the teacher who works as a torchbearer for the young mind. Teacher allows student’s mind to think holistically, rationally, make him professional for the competitive world, and a value based person. Religious tolerance, love for nature and deeper meaning of life, all are delivered by a teacher to a child.
If we count present day challenges like emotional distress, corruption, poor family values, corrupt people, then largely it is because somewhere all three are missing respective roles and so all three live institutions need to work in totality and complement each other.
2. Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results. Do you agree? Discuss by giving examples.
Introduction:
Due to lack of accountability and transparency, public offices around the world have not been able to deliver the results. Due to which central government has stressed on need for accountability of leaders and officials in public service to achieve the desired results.
Body:
Accountability to work installs commitment and in turn provides the desired results.
- Schemes and policy: For instance MGNREGA and PDS schemes for poverty eradication, if bureaucrats and leaders are held accountable for implementation of schemes and policy for welfare of people, then there will be commitment by them which will show in form of achieving the desired results of poverty eradication and elimination of corruption.
- Defence production: If the ordinance factory is held responsible for quality and delay in delivery, then they will show commitment to work which will result in high quality of products and delivery on time.
- Law and order: If police forces are given autonomy and held accountable for organized crime and underworld activities, they will show more commitment to work and try eliminating crime activities which will result in peaceful environment.
- Cleanliness: If public is held accountable to keeping their surrounding (streets) environment clean, then they will not indulge in polluting by throwing garbage on streets and prevent others from doing it and results in cleanliness.
- Government: Opposition leaders keep government accountable through question hour, adjournment etc. which has preserved the ideals of democracy and parliamentary democracy of our country.
- Doctors negligence: If doctors are held accountable for death due to negligence, then they will show more commitment to patients concerns and provide with best of medication.
Conclusion:
Without accountability, any task undertaken will go to drain. The reason by most of the western countries are so developed is because of its system of accountability. Here in India there is lack of accountability for work which shows is lack of results and reason for us to remain still developing even after 70 years of independence.
Best Answer: Shyam Kumar
3. What do you understand by the principle of trusteeship? What significance does it hold today?
Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy that was propounded by Mahatma Gandhi. It provides a means by which the wealthy people would be the trustees of trusts that looked after the welfare of the people in general. Gandhi believed that the rich people could be persuaded to part with their wealth to help the poor.
Significance:
- Rising inequalities In Indian society can easily be tackled if one follows the principle of trusteeship.
- When in present times the businesses are being increasingly driven by profits at the altar of social cause the principle of trusteeship can help change their attitude. According to Gandhi ji each businessman should take enough wealth to live honourably. He should distribute the remaining wealth back to the society. Gandhiji advised the rich businessmen to voluntarily surrender their surplus wealth.
- Businessmen should produce only those goods and services which are useful for all members of the society. They should not produce goods and services, which are used only by few individuals.
This becomes relevant as seen in recent cases of Maggi high in sodium glutamate content and tobaco industries who oppose reform measures like increase in size of advertisement.
- A person should earn his living by doing hard work. Earning money without doing hard work is just like stealing.
- Relevance: People going for betting, gambling etc and demanding to legalize betting in cricket must understand the importance of hard work.
- Trusteeship provides a means of transforming the present capitalist order of society into an egalitarian one. It gives the present owning class a chance of reforming itself. It is based on the faith that human nature is never beyond redemption.
When in present day the inequality is on rise, gap between rich and poor is increasing etc the principle holds much relevance.
Conclusion:
Thus, the theory of the trusteeship holds tremendous potential in today’s world by developing a sustainable model of the economic development. Its principles must thus be followed in true spirit.
Best answer: Redeemer911
4. Public services like education are the key to nurture participatory growth. The decline in state funding in the key social sector programs, including education, is of particular concern. Do you agree? Examine.
Introduction
Participation is key to success of any welfare scheme of government. it gives feedback, legitimacy, support and sense of ownership. The participation can only be possible if people are literate and able to understand basic terms and logic of things. Their meaningful participation is dependent upon their own understanding of state of affairs. Education teaches us values of life and citizenship. It gives us a foundation through which other things can be understood. Therefore to promote participation which is necessary for success for democracy itself, education is prime requirement.
Main body
Over the last many years, a declining trend has been observed in the proportion of the union budget in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During the year 2013-14, union budget was 13.9 per cent of the GDP, which declined to 12.7 per cent in the current budget. Thus, declining fiscal space of the country resulted in expenditure cut in the social sector programmes. In many of the social sector programmes, allocations have been retained at almost similar levels to what was for the previous financial year.
For instance, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The budget for the rural employment guarantee programme — MGNREGA — in 2017-18 (BE) is Rs. 48,000 crore; this is nearly the same as the outlay of Rs. 47,499 crore in 2016-17 (RE).Looking at the minimum wage rates for MGNREGS (which the Central government revised last year), and the number of workers during 2015-16, the amount is inadequate. Even though there is scope for additional resources to be added by the states with the resources allocated by the union government, it is not enough to accommodate the growing demands of the rural population and arrest migration.
For the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA), there is a marginal increase of Rs. 1,000 crore in the budget, from Rs. 22,500 crore in 2016-17 to Rs. 23,500 crore in 2017-18. Though, the Project Approval Board of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry proposed Rs. 55,000 crore for SSA in 2017-18,This indicates that union government is not financing adequately for the SSA, which is designed to fulfill the commitments of the Right To Education (RTE) Act.
Health is another vital component of development and the state funding for this stands Rs. 50,281 crore for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; this is a 22 per cent increase from the previous year. However, despite this significant increase in the allocation, the country lags behind in meeting the commitments of the Draft National Health Policy (NHP) 2015.
If the goals and principles of the draft NHP were to be achieved then it would require an increased public health expenditure of up to 4 to 5 per cent of the GDP. The sector has been languishing with the shortage of staff and basic infrastructure which lead to poor implementation of programmes and schemes at the ground level. As per rural health statistics 2015, there is a huge gap in the health infrastructural facilities in the tribal populous states of India.
Looking at the priorities of government expenditure ,the Adivasis and Dalits will be further marginalised.
However, There has been a shift in focus from elementary education to higher education and skill development. Thus, an adequate increase in the allocations for setting up new IITs and IIMs instead of providing basic minimum facilities under the Right to Education Act.
The state funding for Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan has increased manifold,government is spending large amount on improved sanitation practice, construction of toilets and solid waste management infrastructure,this complements the efforts for creating a durable social infrastructure and provide better living environment to its citizen.
Write a suitable conclusion writing importance of social sector expenditure by state and overall development of citizens.
Best Answer: One_focus
5. Stalled projects are big dampeners of economic take off in India. Comment. What reasons can be attributed to the stalling of projects. How can it be rectified? Discuss.
Introduction
Unfavourable market conditions and delayed investments in last few years resulted into an “alarmingly high rate” of increase in stalled projects. Stalling of “projects,” a term synonymous with large economic undertakings in infrastructure, manufacturing, mining, power, etc., These sectors are is widely accepted to be a leading reason behind large stalled projects.
Main Body
Stalling of projects severely affects the balance sheets of the corporate sector and public sector banks, which in turn constrains future private investment, completing a vicious circle, characterised by an investment slowdown leading to less financing back to weak investment.
Reasons
Funding constraints, land acquisition issues, delays related to identification and award of projects and shortage of skilled manpower are some of the major reasons that cause delay in infrastructure projects. It can be seen from below image,
Source(http://www.ey.com/in/en/industries/government—public-sector/accelerating-implementation—roadblocks-in-accelerating-infrastructure-development)
Government initiatives regarding these stalled projects and increasing the investments:
- Increase in concession period for BOT highways
- National Infrastructure Investment Fund with a corpus of $6bn
- Online monitoring of projects under Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS)
- Amendment in PPP projects
- Refinancing initiatives to strengthen enterprises e.g. Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana
- Change in FDI norms like 100% FDI in construction through automatic route, FDI in railways etc.
- Relaxing the FDI exit norms
- Assuring resource availability to industries e.g. Coal (earlier in shortage) buffer stock for tpps.
- Infrastructure collaboration with countries like USA, Japan, Spain etc.
- Reverse auctioning route for resources like coal
Best Answer: one_focus
