GS Paper IV 2017 · Q6 (Section A)
2 parts · 10 marks and 150 words each Emotional intelligence X-Ray · Core #33Q6(a) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
How will you apply emotional intelligence in administrative practices ?
Approach · directive: “how will you apply”
What it asks · Show, in practical first-person terms, how the components of emotional intelligence would improve an administrator's hearings, crisis handling, service delivery and teamwork, and where its limits lie.
It asks 3 things — answer each
- Define emotional intelligence
- Show how its components apply in administrative practice, with examples
- Note its limits and how it can be built
Open with · Emotional intelligence, first formulated by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990, as the ability to appraise, regulate and use emotions in oneself and in others; in administration it turns correct decisions into trusted ones.
Cover
- A table applies self-awareness, self-regulation and empathy to hearings, angry crowds and pension cases.
- Motivation and social skill: purpose drawn from service, not postings; persuading staff and negotiating with agitating groups.
- Leadership with emotional intelligence: when SLV-3's first launch failed, Satish Dhawan persuaded Kalam to stay and faced the press himself; after the second launch succeeded, he sent Kalam to the press.
- Limits: it complements rules and evidence, and manipulation is its misuse; Mission Karmayogi (2020) aims to build behavioural competencies.
Close with · Aristotle's test of anger 'to the right person, in due proportion, at the right time' as the administrator's daily test.
Add value (verified)
- Emotional intelligence was originally formulated by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990, with three major components: appraisal and expression of emotion, regulation of emotions, and utilisation of emotions (Neubauer and Freudenthaler, 'Models of Emotional Intelligence', 2005).Neubauer and Freudenthaler, 'Models of Emotional Intelligence', in Schulze and Roberts (eds), Emotional Intelligence: An International Handbook (Hogrefe & Huber, 2005), hosted by the University of Wuppertal ↗“formulated by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990, three major components of EI were postulated: appraisal and expression of emotion, regulation of emotions, and utilization of emotions”
- Current Science (vol. 109, no. 4, 25 August 2015), obituary of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: after the first SLV-3 launch failed, Kalam wanted to resign, but Satish Dhawan persuaded him to stay and faced the press himself.A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015), Personal News, Current Science vol. 109 no. 4, 25 August 2015 (JNCASR institutional repository) ↗“The story of what happened immediately after these two events is well known: after the failure, Kalam wanted to resign, but Dhawan, who persuaded him to stay, faced the press answering the inevitable awkward questions.”
- The same obituary: after the success of the second SLV-3 launch, Dhawan chose to remain in the background and asked Kalam to talk to the press.A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015), Personal News, Current Science vol. 109 no. 4, 25 August 2015 (JNCASR institutional repository) ↗“till Dhawan concluded it saying ‘I am going to put Kalam in orbit!’. After the success of the second launch Dhawan chose to remain in the background and asked Kalam to go talk to the press.”
- Mission Karmayogi (National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building), approved by the Union Cabinet on 2 September 2020: civil servants are to build Behavioral, Functional and Domain Competencies.Cabinet approves Mission Karmayogi (NPCSCB), 2 September 2020 — PM India (pmindia.gov.in) ↗“To make available to all civil servants, an opportunity to continuously build and strengthen their Behavioral, Functional and Domain Competencies”
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II: to be angry is easy, but to be so to the right person, in due proportion, at the right time, with a right object and in the right manner is not easy.Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, tr. D.P. Chase — Project Gutenberg ↗“just so to be angry, to give money, and be expensive, is what any man can do, and easy: but to do these to the right person, in due proportion, at the right time, with a right object, and in the right manner, this is not as before what any man can do, nor is it easy”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 202words · Minimalist IAS
Emotional intelligence (EI), first formulated by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990, is the ability to appraise, regulate and use emotions, in oneself and in others. In administration it turns correct decisions into trusted ones.
| EI component | How I would apply it |
|---|---|
| Self-awareness | Note my bias before a hearing, so merit, not mood, decides |
| Self-regulation | Stay calm before a mob, a riot or political pressure |
|---|---|
| Empathy | Treat a widow's pension as a human case, not a file |
- Motivation and social skill: drawing purpose from service rather than postings sustains effort through setbacks; persuading staff and negotiating with agitating groups get schemes delivered.
- Leadership with EI: when SLV-3's first launch failed, Kalam wanted to resign; his chief, Satish Dhawan, persuaded him to stay and faced the press himself. After the second launch succeeded, Dhawan stayed in the background and sent Kalam to the press.
- Within limits: EI complements rules and evidence; used to manipulate or to favour, it becomes misuse. Mission Karmayogi (2020) now aims to build such behavioural competencies.
Aristotle named the skill: anyone can be angry, but to be so 'to the right person, in due proportion, at the right time' is not easy. That is the administrator's daily test.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
Q6(b) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
Strength, peace and security are considered to be the pillars of international relations. Elucidate.
Approach · directive: “elucidate”
What it asks · Explain what strength, peace and security each mean in relations between states and how the three hold one another up, with examples.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Explain strength, peace and security as pillars of international relations
- Show how they depend on one another, with examples
Open with · Thucydides' Melian dialogue, 'the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must', set against the UN Charter's first purpose, to maintain international peace and security.
Cover
- A hub shows the three pillars: strength to deter and bargain, peace to cooperate and develop, security to protect states and people.
- Strength through deterrence and defence; peace through non-alignment's area of peace; security widened to human security, freedom from want and from fear (UNDP, 1994).
- Peace needs strength: after Panchsheel (1954) the Chinese border was long left to para-military forces, and the 1962 invasion dented India's image.
- Strength needs restraint: credible minimum deterrence with no first use; force needs a just cause, chiefly self-defence or protecting people from genocide.
Close with · India's security strategy joins all three, military capability, international norms and institutions, and development that lifts citizens out of poverty: strength guided by restraint guards peace.
Add value (verified)
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (tr. Richard Crawley), the Melian dialogue: right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, tr. Richard Crawley (Project Gutenberg) ↗“since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
- Article 1(1) of the UN Charter states the first purpose of the United Nations as maintaining international peace and security through collective measures.Charter of the United Nations, Chapter I: Purposes and Principles, Article 1 (UN website) ↗“The Purposes of the United Nations are: To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 217words · Minimalist IAS
Thucydides' Athenians told the Melians that 'the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must'. The UN Charter answers that the first purpose of the UN is to maintain international peace and security.
International relations: Strength: deter and bargain; Peace: cooperate and develop; Security: protect states and people
- Strength: economic, military and technological capacity; security policy uses it to prevent war (deterrence) and to limit or end it (defence).
- Peace: the condition for trade and development; India used non-alignment to carve out an area of peace outside the two superpower blocs.
- Security: beyond borders lies human security, freedom from want and from fear, as the 1994 UNDP Human Development Report urged.
- Peace needs strength: after Panchsheel (1954), the Chinese border was long left to para-military forces, and the 1962 invasion dented India's image at home and abroad.
- Strength needs restraint: India's nuclear doctrine of credible minimum deterrence professes no first use: strong enough to deter, restrained enough to reassure.
- Force needs a just cause: war is legitimate only for the right reasons, chiefly self-defence or protecting people from genocide, and only after all alternatives fail.
India's security strategy joins all three: military capability, international norms and institutions, and development that lifts citizens out of poverty. Strength guided by restraint is peace's surest guardian.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
