GS Paper IV 2026 · Q2 (Section A)
2 parts · 10 marks and 150 words each Ethics in public administration X-Ray · Core #36Q2(a) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
An endangered tribe has developed a severe skeletal deformity. A university research has identified a mineral supplement as a possible remedy, though clinical trials are yet to be conducted. Should the District Magistrate (DM) use this research on the tribe? Discuss from the perspective of medical and administrative ethics.
🧭 How to think about this question · directive: “should (discuss from the perspective of medical and administrative ethics)”
Decode the demand
- 'Should the DM use this research' plus 'discuss from the perspective of medical and administrative ethics': give the decision first, in one line with its reason, then reason through the two lenses, then say what he should do instead.
- The facts that decide it: an endangered tribe (vulnerable, least able to refuse), an untested remedy (no dose, no safety data), and a DM, who is an executive, not a physician. The trap is treating compassion as a licence.
Think in a structure
- Medical ethics through the four principles, non-maleficence, autonomy, beneficence, justice, with a code and one real trial that went wrong inside the points.
- Administrative ethics through role, legality, accountability and the duty to act, each with the rule that binds a DM.
- End with the lawful path as a flowchart and what you would do in the first week, then close on a code's principle.
Facts checked at source (8)· open
- Declaration of Helsinki (2024): an unproven intervention may be used for an individual patient when approved options fail and a trial is not possible, but physicians must first seek expert advice, weigh risks and obtain informed consent, and the intervention should then be researched.WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants (as amended by the 75th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, October 2024) — World Medical Association ↗“When an unproven intervention is utilized in an attempt to restore health or alleviate suffering for an individual patient because approved options are inadequate or ineffective and enrollment in a clinical trial is not possible, it should subsequently be made the object of research designed to evaluate safety and efficacy. Physicians participating in such interventions must first seek expert advice, weigh possible risks, burdens, and benefits, and obtain informed consent.”
- Declaration of Helsinki (2024): excluding groups with distinctive health needs from research can perpetuate or worsen their disparities, so the harms of exclusion must be weighed against the harms of inclusion.WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants (as amended by the 75th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, October 2024) — World Medical Association ↗“When such individuals, groups, and communities have distinctive health needs, their exclusion from medical research can potentially perpetuate or exacerbate their disparities. Therefore, the harms of exclusion must be considered and weighed against the harms of inclusion.”
- ICMR's National Ethical Guidelines (2017): research on tribal populations only for specific therapeutic, diagnostic or preventive purposes with appropriate benefit to them, and only after approval of authorities such as the tribal welfare commissioner or district collector.National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants, 2017 — Indian Council of Medical Research ↗“6.7.1 Research on tribal populations should be conducted only if it is of a specific therapeutic, diagnostic and preventive nature with appropriate benefits to the tribal population. 6.7.2 Due approval from competent administrative authorities, like the tribal welfare commissioner or district collector, should be taken before entering tribal areas.”
- PM-JANMAN (for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) provides for 1,000 mobile medical units with medicine cost, 10 per district.PM JANMAN: Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan — PIB backgrounder, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, November 2023 ↗“Mobile Medical Units with medicine cost 1000 (10/district) Rs 33.88.00 lakhs/MMU”
- Declaration of Helsinki (2024): the purposes of medical research can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individual research participants.WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants (as amended by the 75th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, October 2024) — World Medical Association ↗“These purposes can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individual research participants.”
- The Nuremberg Code (1947), first principle: the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.The Nuremberg Code: Directives for Human Experimentation — US Office of Research Integrity (HHS), Introduction to RCR, chapter 3 ↗“The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.”
- ICMR's enquiry into the 2009–10 HPV vaccine 'demonstration project' on girls in Khammam (Andhra Pradesh) and Vadodara flagged the inclusion of vulnerable groups and the process of consent, and investigations in children of marginalised populations without appropriate consent; the projects were suspended in 2010.Final report of the Committee appointed by the Government of India to enquire into the 'alleged irregularities in the conduct of studies using HPV vaccine' by PATH — ICMR ↗“Ethical Issues of subjecting children of marginalized populations to these studies, and investigations in children without appropriate consent.”
- Clinical Trials Registry – India: registration of trials has been mandatory since 15 June 2009 by order of the Drugs Controller General (India).Clinical Trials Registry – India (CTRI), ICMR–NIMS ↗“since 15 th June 2009, trial registration in the CTRI has been made mandatory by the Drugs Controller General (India) (DCGI)”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2026, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Guidance: Minimalist IAS, checked 8 Nov 2026 (how we verify). ·
Model answer· 362words · Minimalist IAS
No, not as an administrative remedy: an untested supplement given to a whole community is an experiment, and an endangered tribe is least able to refuse one. The DM must act, but through proven care and a lawful trial.
From the perspective of medical ethics
- Non-maleficence: dose, toxicity and side effects are unknown; for a small people the harm could be irreversible.
- Autonomy and informed consent: the Nuremberg Code calls voluntary consent 'absolutely essential'; authority and low literacy make a tribe's refusal unlikely.
- Khammam HPV vaccine trial (2009–10): tribal girls enrolled without proper consent; suspended after ICMR's enquiry.
- Beneficence with evidence: the Declaration of Helsinki allows an unproven intervention only for an individual patient, after expert advice and consent.
- Justice (Rawls): the least advantaged come first; Helsinki warns that excluding vulnerable groups deepens disparities, so the answer is a fair trial, not neglect.
- Persons, not means (Kant): a people may not be the means to test a remedy, however noble the end.
From the perspective of administrative ethics
- Role morality: a DM is gatekeeper, not prescriber; the rules say who may run a trial.
- ICMR guidelines (2017): the collector's approval for research in tribal areas; NDCT Rules (2019): ethics clearance; CTRI registration, mandatory since 2009.
- Rule of law over compassion: good intentions cannot bypass statutory process; where evidence is absent the precautionary principle governs.
- Accountability: if harm follows, the State answers and the tribe's trust in every future programme collapses.
- Duty to act (positive beneficence): inaction fails too; proven care starts now.
- PM-JANMAN mobile medical units; specialist screening and treatment of the deformity; tests of water and diet for its cause.
What I would do as DM
- Specialist screening
- Proven care and nutrition
- ICMR-approved, CTRI-registered trial
- Community and individual consent
- Independent monitoring
- First week: the CMO and a referral hospital screen every case; the university is asked for an expedited, registered trial.
- Consent that is real: through the gram sabha and each family, in their own language, with an independent monitor reporting to the ethics committee.
The purposes of research, says Helsinki, 'can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individual research participants': compassion must travel through evidence and law.
Reviewed by Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) on 8 Nov 2026 · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 8 Nov 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
Q2(b) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
Discuss how national security can be balanced with concerns of human rights.
🧭 How to think about this question · directive: “discuss (how … can be balanced)”
Decode the demand
- 'Discuss how X can be balanced with Y': not a debate on which wins. Show where security and rights collide, then the principles, safeguards and institutions that reconcile them. The trap is a one-sided answer.
- Vocabulary the examiner looks for: legality, necessity, proportionality, due process, dignity, restraint, legitimacy.
Think in a structure
- Open with a historical cost of imbalance, then a test for any security measure as a flowchart.
- Where they collide in two lines; how the balance is struck in points, each with a thinker, a judgment or a leader's act inside.
- Then what an administrator can do, and close on a committee's unfinished recommendation rather than on the problem.
Facts checked at source (5)· open
- Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (10 January 2020): suspending the internet indefinitely is impermissible; every suspension must be proportionate, temporary and subject to judicial review.Anuradha Bhasin vs Union of India, Supreme Court, 10 January 2020 — Indian Kanoon ↗“An order suspending internet services indefinitely is impermissible under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Service) Rules, 2017. Suspension can be utilized for temporary duration only. d. Any order suspending internet issued under the Suspension Rules, must adhere to the principle of proportionality and must not extend beyond necessary duration. e. Any order suspending internet under the Suspension Rules is subject to judicial review”
- The fourth pillar of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (reviewed by the General Assembly since 2006): respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism.UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy — United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism ↗“Measures to ensure respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism. Reviews of the United Nations Global Counter Terrorism Strategy Since 2006, the General Assembly has reviewed periodically the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy”
- Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association v Union of India (Supreme Court, 8 July 2016): it does not matter whether the victim was a common person, a militant or a terrorist, nor whether the aggressor was a common person or the State; the law is the same for both; the 1,528 alleged killings in Manipur had to be enquired into.Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association & Anr v Union of India & Anr, Supreme Court, 8 July 2016 (judgment copy on sci.gov.in) ↗“nor does it matter whether the aggressor was a common person or the State. The law is the same for both and is equally applicable to both.”
- Jacinda Ardern to New Zealand's Parliament, 19 March 2019, after the Christchurch mosque attacks: she would never mention the terrorist's name, denying him the notoriety he sought, and asked the country to speak the victims' names instead.Jacinda Ardern, address to Parliament on the Christchurch mosque attacks, 19 March 2019 (transcript, American Rhetoric) ↗“But he will, when I speak, be nameless. And to others I implore you: speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man who took them.”
- The Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy, report of 2005) recorded that the overwhelming view before it was that the Act should be repealed while the Army should remain to fight militants and guard the borders.Report of the Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (Jeevan Reddy Committee, 2005), copy archived by a military-justice research project ↗“the overwhelming response was that while the Act should be repealed, the Army should remain to fight the militants and guard the borders.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2026, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Guidance: Minimalist IAS, checked 8 Nov 2026 (how we verify). ·
Model answer· 313words · Minimalist IAS
The Emergency showed the cost of imbalance: in April 1976 the Supreme Court accepted that the government could then take away the citizen's right to life and liberty. Every security power must therefore be lawful, necessary and answerable.
- Lawful basis
- Legitimate aim
- Proportionate means
- Time limit
- Independent review
Where security and rights collide
- Liberty and due process: preventive detention and special powers act before guilt is proved.
- Privacy and expression: surveillance and internet shutdowns reach whole populations to find a few.
How the balance is struck
- Two duties of the State: for Hobbes security comes first; for Locke a State that violates rights loses its title to obedience; Article 19 holds both.
- Proportionality: Puttaswamy (2017): every restriction needs a law, a legitimate aim and proportionate means.
- Time limits and review: Anuradha Bhasin (2020): no indefinite shutdown; every order reasoned, temporary and reviewable.
- Equal law: the Manipur case (EEVFAM, 2016): 'the law is the same' for militant and State; 1,528 alleged killings ordered enquired into.
- Constitutional guard-rails: an internal Emergency only for 'armed rebellion', on the Cabinet's written advice.
- Oversight and redress: judicial review of detentions, parliamentary scrutiny of special laws, NHRC inquiries, compensation.
- Legitimacy as strategy: the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy makes human rights 'the fundamental basis' of counter-terrorism.
- Jacinda Ardern after Christchurch (2019): 'he will, when I speak, be nameless'; tightened gun laws and denied the terrorist his notoriety.
What an administrator can do
- Restraint by design: human-rights training, recorded detentions and body cameras, community policing that treats people as partners.
- Transparency and repair: published reasons for every shutdown order, as Bhasin requires; prompt compensation when the State errs.
The Jeevan Reddy Committee (2005) recorded the overwhelming view that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 'should be repealed' while the Army remains; acting on that unfinished reform, with needed powers kept under safeguards, would show security and rights are partners, not rivals.
Reviewed by Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) on 8 Nov 2026 · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 8 Nov 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
