GS Paper IV 2025 · Q4 (Section A)
2 parts · 10 marks and 150 words each Foundational values for civil service X-Ray · Core #25Q4(a) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
“For any kind of social re-engineering by successfully implementing welfare schemes, a civil servant must use reason and critical thinking in an ethical framework.” Justify this statement with suitable examples.
Approach · directive: “justify (with suitable examples)”
What it asks · Argue, with examples, why a civil servant who re-engineers society through welfare schemes must reason from evidence, think critically and stay within ethical limits.
It asks 3 things — answer each
- Justify why social re-engineering through welfare schemes needs reason and critical thinking
- Justify why both must work within an ethical framework
- Support the argument with suitable examples
Open with · Social re-engineering defined: using public policy to change entrenched behaviour and structures; such intimate power is safe only when reason designs it, critical thinking tests it and ethics limits it.
Cover
- A table matches each faculty to its role and an example: reason, critical thinking and ethics.
- Reason: the Aspirational Districts Programme's data ranking and its principles of competition, convergence and collaboration.
- Critical thinking: the 15th Finance Commission's call for rigorous performance evaluation; fixing authentication failures that exclude eligible ration-card holders.
- Ethics: the Emergency's coercive mass sterilisation as the warning; Amartya Sen's capability approach as the compass.
Close with · Article 51A(h): the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform, joining reason, critical thinking and ethics in one duty of the civil servant.
Add value (verified)
- The 15th Finance Commission noted the Aspirational Districts Programme rests on competition, convergence and collaboration, but asked for rigorous performance evaluation of its effect.Report of the 15th Finance Commission for 2020-21, para 4.35 — fincomindia.nic.in ↗“The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), piloted by NITI Aayog, is based on three principles of competition, convergence and collaboration. There has been improvement in the social and economic indicators of the targeted areas, but rigorous performance evaluation is required to establish the effectiveness of the ADP in bringing about or accelerating such improvement even without providing any additional funding.”
- Amartya Sen pioneered the capability approach, which holds that the freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be, and so of the kind of life they can effectively lead.The Capability Approach — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗“it is economist-philosopher Amartya Sen who pioneered the approach and philosopher Martha Nussbaum and a growing number of other scholars across the humanities and the social sciences who have significantly developed it. The capability approach purports that freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2025, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 218words · Minimalist IAS
Social re-engineering means using public policy to change entrenched behaviour and structures, from open defecation to keeping girls out of school. Power so intimate is safe only when reason designs it, critical thinking tests it and ethics limits it.
| Faculty | Its role | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Reason | Design from evidence | Aspirational Districts' data ranking |
| Critical thinking | Test claims, spot failures | Exclusion by failed authentication |
|---|---|---|
| Ethics | Limit the means | Emergency sterilisation as warning |
- Reason, evidence first: the Aspirational Districts Programme ranks districts on data and rests on competition, convergence and collaboration.
- Critical thinking, testing success: even so, the 15th Finance Commission held that 'rigorous performance evaluation' was needed to establish the programme's real effect.
- Fix the process, not the poor: when authentication failures shut out eligible ration-card holders, the remedy is an offline fallback and grievance redress, not blame.
- Ethics, the limit: during the National Emergency, a coercive programme of mass sterilisation turned a welfare goal into force; targets pursued without ethics become coercion.
- Ethical compass: Amartya Sen's capability approach judges welfare by what people are able to do and to be, not by money spent or targets met.
Article 51A(h) asks every citizen to develop 'the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform': for the civil servant, that is reason, critical thinking and ethics joined in one duty.
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.
Q4(b) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
What are the major teachings of Mahavir? Explain their relevance in the contemporary world.
Approach · directive: “what (are the major teachings); explain (relevance)”
What it asks · State Mahavira's major teachings and explain how they speak to the problems of the contemporary world.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- State the major teachings of Mahavira
- Explain their relevance in the contemporary world
Open with · Mahavira, the 24th tirthankara (sixth century BCE), taught a conquest of the self: the jina is a conqueror not of territory but of ignorance and attachments, an ethic of restraint for an age of violence, excess and polarisation.
Cover
- Teachings: the three jewels of right faith, knowledge and conduct; the five great vows; anekantavada and syadvada; equal souls and one's own effort.
- A table maps ahimsa, aparigraha and anekantavada to present problems: hate and war, consumerism and climate stress, post-truth polarisation.
- Ecology: the interdependence of all creatures as an ethic for biodiversity; Mission LiFE as mindful consumption.
- Public life: satya and asteya against corruption and misinformation; equal souls against caste and gender bias.
Close with · Mahavira's saying that living creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away: a charter for a violent, warming world.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2025, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 215words · Minimalist IAS
Mahavira, the 24th tirthankara (sixth century BCE), taught a conquest of the self: the jina is a conqueror not of territory but of ignorance and attachments. That ethic of restraint speaks directly to an age of violence, excess and polarisation.
Major teachings of Mahavira
- Three jewels (triratna): right faith, right knowledge and right conduct form the path of liberation.
- Five great vows: ahimsa (non-violence in thought, speech and action), satya, asteya (non-stealing), aparigraha (no possession beyond need) and brahmacharya (renouncing passions).
- Anekantavada and syadvada: truth has many aspects, and our knowledge is partial and relative.
- Equal souls, own effort: all souls are potentially equal, and liberation comes through one's own conduct, not ritual.
Their relevance in the contemporary world
| Teaching | Present problem | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Ahimsa | Hate, war, cruelty to animals | Restraint in word and deed |
| Aparigraha | Consumerism, climate stress | Mindful use; Mission LiFE |
| Anekantavada | Polarised, post-truth debate | Dialogue and humility |
- Ecology: Jainism stresses the interdependence of all creatures, which cannot live without one another: an ethic for biodiversity.
- Public life: satya and asteya mean integrity against corruption and misinformation; equal souls counter caste and gender bias.
His saying that living creatures 'should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away' reads today as a charter for a violent, warming world.
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.
