[ad_1]
NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Role of women and women’s organization,
Difficulty level: Moderate.
Reference: Live Mint
Why the question:
The theme of 2022 International Women’s Day is “gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the role of SHG’s in women empowerment and suggest measures to improve their performance.
Directive word:
Analyse – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by defining SHG’s and the origin and growth of SHG movement in India.
Body:
Frist, write about the role played by the SHG’s in women empowerment – breaking chains of poverty, collective action, self-employment and financial independence and credit disbursal etc.
Next, write about the various factors which have constrained SHG’s from realising their full potential. Suggest measures to overcome these.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
A self-help group (SHG) is a village-based financial intermediary committee normally consist of 10–20 local women or men. When the formal financial system fails to help the needy, then small groups volunteer to cater to the needs of the financially weak by collecting, saving and lending the money on a micro scale. SHGs have gained wide recognition in most developing countries in Asia where their presence is quite pervasive
Body
Role of SHG’s in women empowerment
- Capital formation: Through micro-finance, many SHG’s have created valuable assets and capital in the rural areas and are sustaining livelihoods.
- Access to credit: SHGs provide better access to credit at acceptable and convenient terms. The members have been able to obtain loans for emergent productive and non-productive purposes on comparatively easy terms. This has reduced their dependence on local moneylenders to a large extent.
- Government initiative such as SHG-Bank linkage program is also increasing their financial inclusion and easy access to credit from formal institutions.
- Poverty Alleviation: The approach of poverty alleviation through SHG is the most effective means and suits the ongoing process of reforms based on the policy of decentralization.
- SHGs have given the poor the access to microfinance and consequently led to important changes in their access to productive resources such as land, water, knowledge, technology and credit.
- Employment generation: Self-employment activities such as collective farming, bee-keeping, horticulture, sericulture have been taken up by SHG’s.
- Social welfare: There are many successful cases where SHG women have come together to close liquor shops in their village.
- Rural infrastructure: Schemes such as Aajeevika express have helped SHG’s in creating transport in rural areas.
- Women empowerment: SHGs have been able to improve the skills of women to do various things by managing the available natural resources.
- It is estimated that more than 25 million rural women of India have been benefited by the Self Help Groups (SHG).
- As a group they can help each other to learn so many things along with the money management because most of the women in the rural areas have a very little knowledge for the management of money.
- g. Kudumbashree in Kerala has been a huge success. Kudumbashree café is an exemplary example of nurturing entrepreneurship through SHG’s.
- They also act as a delivery mechanism for various services like entrepreneurial training, livelihood promotion activity and community development programs.
Challenges faced
- There are issues like regional imbalance, less than ideal average loan size, lack of monitoring and training support by self-help group federations.
- Escalating non-performing assets of self-help group loans with banks.
- Several studies have also found issues related to governance, quality, transparency and irregularity in their functions.
- Low levels of literacy among the rural women.
- The study found that over time groups were disintegrating on account of coordination issues.
- Rural micro-enterprises run by SHG members suffer from critical bottlenecks, whether in raising funds for start-up, growth and working capital or accessing high-quality technical assistance.
Way Forward
- Government programs can be implemented through SHGs.
- This will not only improve the transparency and efficiency but also bring our society closer to Self-Governance as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi.
- Constant and enduring structural handholding support from the self-help group promoting institutions (SHPIs).
- Frequent awareness camps can be organised by the Rural Development department authorities to create awareness about different schemes.
- Periodic capacity-building of all members, to make the group the collective.
- With the Government’s focus on digital financial inclusion, investing in training of group members for transition towards technological platforms.
- It is important to invest in providing the right kind of support to maximize the impact these groups can have on livelihoods.
- Emphasising SHG movement on women’s entrepreneurship as an engine of growth in rural India.
- There should not be any discrimination among members based on caste, religion or political affiliations
Conclusion
SHG approach is an enabling, empowering, and bottom-up approach for rural development that has provided considerable economic and non-economic externalities to low-income households in developing countries. SHG approach is being hailed as a sustainable tool to combat poverty, combining a for-profit approach that is self-sustaining, and a poverty alleviation focus that empowers low-income households. It is increasingly becoming a tool to exercise developmental priorities for governments in developing countries.
Value addition
Evolution of SHGs
- The concept evolved over decades and was pioneered by Noble laureate Mohammad Yunus as Self Help Groups (SHGs) in 1970s.
- SHG movement in India gained momentum after 1992, when NABARD realized its potential and started promoting it.
- NABARD’s SHG-Bank Linkage Program (SBLP) connected group members to formal financial services.
- Over the last two decades, the SBLP has proven to be a great medium for social and economic empowerment for rural women.
- India has witnessed state-led promotion of SHGs through a three-tiered architecture of community institutions at group, village and cluster level.
- In 1999, Government of India, introduced Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgaar Yojana (SGSY) to promote self- employment in rural areas through formation and skilling of SHGs.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Indian Express
Why the question:
Scholars such as Carole Spary and S M Rai have estimated that it would take another 40 years to have 33 per cent women in the Lok Sabha.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about steps that are needed to be taken to improve the representation of women in the parliament.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by giving context regarding the historical high number of women legislators.
Body:
First, compare the number of women law makers with other major democracies as well as the global average. Write the advantages of improving the representation of women in the legislature.
Next, write about the measures that are needed to improve participation of women in legislative bodies.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward.
Introduction
In India, women currently make up 14.6 per cent of MPs (78 MPs) in the Lok Sabha, which is a historic high. However, India needs feminization of politics in a huge way to increase women representatives. It would include the involvement of women in the decision-making process, power-sharing, running political parties, holding political offices, and policymaking at all levels of governance of the state.
Body
Status of women in politics
- In electoral representation, India, for instance, has fallen several places in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global ranking of women’s parliamentary presence, from 117 after the 2014 election to 143 as of January 2020.
- India is currently behind Pakistan (106), Bangladesh (98) and Nepal (43) and ahead of Sri Lanka (182).
- Prior to the 2019 election, scholars such as Carole Spary and S M Rai have estimated that it would take another 40 years to have 33 per cent women in the Lok Sabha, based on historical election trends and assuming that no gender quota is introduced, such as the heavily undermined and ignored the Women’s Reservation Bill.
- According to the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2020,India ranks 18th in terms of political empowerment, far better than its rank in the other dimensions of the index: 149th in economic participation and opportunity, 112th in educational attainment, 150th in health and survival, and 108th in the overall index.
Contribution of women to politics
- The highly effective contributions of local-level panchayat sarpanches and health officials such as Roorkee’s Daljit Kaur, Singhwahini’s Ritu Jaiswal and the mayor of Chandannath municipality in Nepal, Kantika Sejuwal, among many others, have been justly exalted.
- At the global level, much has already been written about the superior performance of women leaders, such as Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Tsai-Ing Wen (Taiwan), Sanna Marin (Finland) and KK Shailaja (Kerala), in handling the pandemic.
- South Asia has had the largest number of women heads of state — including Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Indira Gandhi, Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina, and Benazir Bhutto — of any region in the world till recently.
Reasons for low participation of women in political system
- Prejudice: Ironically it exists among both men and women – against genuine equality. It is believed that male legislators have the gumption to fulfill election manifesto more than women.
- About half the world’s population feel men make better political leaders as per UNDP Gender Social Norms Index.
- Another major factor is familial support to pursue political career for women. In India, it is most often those women who have a political background that enter into electoral arena.
- Role of Money power in politics makes it harder for women to enter the political forum.
- 24% of parliamentary seatsworldwide are held by women, and there are only 10 female heads of government out of a possible 193. This shows the dearth of women representation in politics.
- The unhealthy political environment: For instance In this recent MeToo movement, a journalist Priya Ramani accused Union Minister of state of external affairs, MJ Akbar of sexual harassment.
- On the reserved seats, at the local level, political leaders take positions in the name of their wife, and after winning elections, actual power is used by their male counterparts instead of women. (Concept of sarpanch pati raj/pati panchayat phenomenon)
Need for more representation of women
- Women legislators in India raise economic performance in their constituencies by about 1.8 percentage points per year more than male legislators.
- When average growth is 7%, this implies that the growth premium associated with female legislators is about 25%.
- Lower Criminalization of Politics:Male legislators are about three times as likely as female legislators to have criminal charges pending against them when they stand for election. This explains the growth difference mentioned above.
- Policy Making– Better representation of women’s and children’s concerns in policymaking. Eg: Panchayat Raj institutions serve as a good example in this front.
- Lower Corruption: The rate at which women accumulate assets while in office is 10 percentage points lower, per year than among men. These findings line up with experimental evidence that women are more just, risk-averse and less likely to engage in criminal and other risky behaviour than men.
- Economic growth: It was found that male and female politicians are equally likely to negotiate federal projects for road building in their constituencies. However, women are more likely to oversee completionof these projects.
- Eg: The share of incomplete road projects is 22 percentage points lower in female-led constituencies.
- From a feminist viewpoint politics needs to follow a road that moves women out of the traditional social and political marginalization.
- Despite so many favorable points for women, women make up 14% of the Lok Sabha and 11% of the Rajya Sabha.
Measures needed
- India should have an Election Commission-led effortto push for reservation for women in political parties.
- India is yet to pass a bill introducing 33% reservation in Parliament for women. This experiment at the local level (PRI’s and ULB’s) has been very successful.
- Political mentoring andskill training can enhance their political knowledge; thereby becoming potential candidates who will steer the nation towards development.
- Awareness, education and role modellingthat encourage women towards politics and wipe out Gender stereotypes which perceive women as weak representatives.
- Inclusive economic institutions and growth—both necessary for and dependent on social empowerment—require inclusive political institutions.
- Women’s leadership and communication skillsneed to be enhanced by increasing female literacy especially in rural areas. They should be empowered in order to break socio-cultural barriers and improve their status in the society.
Conclusion
B.R. Ambedkar once said that “political power is the key to all social progress”. Ensuring proportional representation to women in parliament is seen by policy makers as a panacea to the issues surrounding women empowerment. Recognising the significance of roles of women in decision making process in the society is critical to strengthen women’s agencies for building a progressive society with equality of opportunities among all citizens. Male politicians must take a lead role in challenging traditions which foster inequality and also unequivocally condemn the misogynistic language that their counterparts use when it comes to women.
Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, Nano-technology, biotechnology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Indian Express
Why the question:
Targeted, localised and appropriate reprogramming of reactive of nano-macrophages can have a significant impact on many disorders, a recent research has found.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the applications and potential applications of nano technology in medicine.
Directive word:
Discuss – This is an all-encompassing directive – you must debate on paper by going through the details of the issues concerned by examining each one of them. You must give reasons for both for and against arguments.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by defining nano-technology and its various applications.
Body:
First, with examples, write about the areas in medicines where nano technology is being applied – Drug Delivery, Diagnostic Techniques, Antibacterial Treatments, Wound Treatment and Cell Repair etc.
Next, write about the potential treatments where the application of nano technology will revolutionise modern medicine.
Conclusion:
Conclude by summarising the scope of nano-technology modern medicine.
Introduction
Nanotechnology is the science of materials at the molecular or subatomic level. It involves manipulation of particles smaller than 100 nanometres (one nanometre is one-billionth of a metre) and the technology involves developing materials or devices within that size — invisible to the human eye and often many hundred times thinner than the width of human hair. The physics and chemistry of materials are radically different when reduced to the nanoscale; they have different strengths, conductivity and reactivity, and exploiting this could revolutionise medicine.
Body
The contributions of Nanotechnology in medicine:
- Diagnostics and screening:
- There is an urgent need in the developing world for better disease diagnosis, and nanotechnology offers a multitude of options for detecting disease.
- Example: Fluorescent quantum dots could improve malaria diagnosis by targeting the blood cell’s inner membrane.
- Similarly, carbon nanotubes, and other nanoparticles such as nanowires, have been used as biosensors to detect diseases such as HIV and cancer. Cancer biosensors can be made, for instance, by attaching nucleic acid probes to the ends of nanowires.
- Drug delivery:
- Nanotechnology could also revolutionise drug delivery by overcoming challenges such as how to sustain the release of drugs in the body and improving bioavailability — the amount of active ingredient per dose.
- Some drugs can now be delivered through ‘nanovehicles’.
- For example liposomes, which can deliver the drug payload by fusing with cell membranes, have been used to encapsulate HIV drugs such as stavudine and zidovudine in vehicles ranging from 120 to 200 nanometres in size.
- Nanocapsules are pods that encapsulate drugs, which ensures the drugs are released more slowly and steadily in the body
- Nanopharmaceuticals are rapidly emerging sub-branch that deals with the drug-loaded nanocarriers or nanomaterials that have unique physicochemical properties and minute size range for penetrating the Central Nervous system
- Nano-pharmaceuticals can be tailored with functional modalities to achieve active targeting to the brain tissues.
- The magic behind their therapeutic success is the reduced amount of dose and lesser toxicity, whereby localizing the therapeutic agent to the specific site.
- Health monitoring:
- Nanotubes and nanoparticles can be used as glucose, carbon dioxide and cholesterol sensors and for in-situ monitoring of homeostasis, the process by which the body maintains metabolic equilibrium.
- In developing nations, the use of nanotechnology is also being explored in the fight against infectious diseases such as HIV and TB.
- Nanoparticles could also be the basis for delivering an aerosol TB vaccine.
- Needle-free, and therefore not requiring trained personnel to administer it, the vaccine is stable at room temperatures — important in rural areas that lack a reliable cold chain.
- Vaccines:
- Nanotechnology could herald a new era in immunisation by providing alternatives to injectable vaccines for diseases that affect the poor.
- Injectable vaccines need to be administered by healthcare professionals, who may be scarce in developing countries, particularly in rural areas.
- Vaccines also need reliable refrigeration along the delivery chain. Scientists are working on an aerosol TB vaccine.
- They are also investigating a nanotechnology-based skin patch against West Nile Virus and Chikungunya virus.
- Tissue growth and regenerative medicine:
- Researches in tissue regenerative medicine aims in developing implants or scaffolds capable for delivering drugs, growth factors, hormones for tissue repair.
- They provide sustained delivery of bioactive molecules to support survival, infiltration and proliferation of cells for tissue engineering.
- The expected outcome of such treatment modality is to have complete tissue replacement and functional recovery.
Conclusion
Nanotechnology offers the ability to build large numbers of products that are incredibly powerful. Nanomedicines and nanodevices are in their early stages of development. The development processes are heavily intertwined with biotechnology and information technology, making its scope very wide. Nanotechnology based products are capable of overcoming the limitations of traditional methods. But, the major challenges are yet to prevail over its toxicity, environmental hazards, production cost and accessibility to the un-reachable at far-off areas.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Difficulty level: Easy
Reference: Insights on India
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 3 and mentioned as part of Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the role of RBI especially as the ‘lender of the last resort’.
Directive word:
Elaborate – Give a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the context. You must be defining key terms wherever appropriate and substantiate with relevant associated facts.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by giving a brief about RBI and its role in the monetary policy of India.
Body:
Firstly, write the various functions performed by RBI – Monetary Policy of the Country, Inflation control, Decides benchmark interest rate, Government’s banker and Regulator of Foreign Exchange etc.
Next, write about why RBI is known as the ‘lender of the last resort’.
Conclusion:
Conclude by summarising.
Introduction
The Reserve Bank of India, India’s Central bank, was established on April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Though originally privately owned, since nationalisation in 1949, the Reserve Bank is fully owned by the Government of India. The Reserve Bank’s affairs are governed by a central board of directors. The board is appointed by the Government of India in keeping with the Reserve Bank of India Act.
Body
Functions of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
- Monetary Authority
- Formulates, implements and monitors the monetary policy.
- Objective: maintaining price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
- Regulator and supervisor of the financial system
- Prescribes broad parameters of banking operations within which the country’s banking and financial system functions.
- Objective: maintain public confidence in the system, protect depositors’ interest and provide cost-effective banking services to the public.
- Manager of Foreign Exchange
- Manages the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.
- Objective: to facilitate external trade and payment and promote orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India.
- Issuer of currency
- Issues and exchanges or destroys currency and coins not fit for circulation.
- Objective: to give the public adequate quantity of supplies of currency notes and coins and in good quality.
- Developmental role
- Performs a wide range of promotional functions to support national objectives.
- Regulator and Supervisor of Payment and Settlement Systems
- Introduces and upgrades safe and efficient modes of payment systems in the country to meet the requirements of the public at large.
- Objective: maintain public confidence in payment and settlement system
- Related Functions
- Banker to the Government: performs merchant banking function for the central and the state governments; also acts as their banker.
- Banker to banks: maintains banking accounts of all scheduled banks.
- Financial Inclusion
- The Reserve Bank has selected a bank led model for financial inclusion in India. RBI has undertaken a series of policy measures such as no frills accounts, adoption of technology like e-Kuber etc.
RBI is known as the ‘lender of the last resort’
- Under lender of last resort (LoLR) facility, the central bank provides emergency money or liquidity to the bank when the latter faces financial stringency.
- When the central bank extends financial help, the bank can escape from the liquidity crisis.
- Thus, LoLR is a financial safety net provided by the central bank to commercial banks.
- LoLR and the reserve holding have empowered central banks to administer regulatory and supervisory measures on the banking system.
- Lender of last resort’ (LoLR) thus, is an exclusive function of a central bank, whereby it lends money to support financial institution facing temporary liquidity stress after exhausting recourse to the market and whose failure is likely to have systemic implications.
Conclusion
RBI is one of the most powerful Central Banks of the world, both in terms of its statutory powers and the functions it performs. However, there are many criticisms concerning its operational independence. For a healthy economy, the Fiscal Policy by the Government and Monetary policy by the Central Bank should be in tandem.
Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Difficulty level: Tough
Reference: Insights on India
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 3 and mentioned as part of Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
To write about the role of RBI especially as the ‘lender of the last resort’.
Directive word:
Elaborate – Give a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the context. You must be defining key terms wherever appropriate and substantiate with relevant associated facts.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by defining the monetary policy.
Body:
First, in brief, write in brief about the various components of monetary policy.
Next, write about the monetary policy committee (MPC), its aims and objectives. By citing statistics, write the success and limitations of MPC in controlling inflation and in creating conducive atmosphere for growth.
Conclusion:
Conclude by writing a way forward to overcome the above-mentioned limitations.
Introduction
The term ‘Monetary Policy’ is the Reserve Bank of India’s policy pertaining to the deployment of monetary resources under its control for the purpose of achieving GDP growth and lowering the inflation rate. The Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 empowers the RBI to make the monetary policy. While the Government of India tries to accelerate the GDP growth rate of India, the RBI keeps trying to bring down the rate of inflation within a sustainable limit. In order to achieve its main objectives, the Monetary Policy Committee determines the ideal policy interest rate that will help achieve the inflation target in front of the country.
Body
- In May 2016, the RBI Act was amended to provide a legislative mandate to the central bank to operate the country’s monetary policy framework.
- The framework, according to the RBI website, “aims at setting the policy (repo) rate based on an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation; and modulation of liquidity conditions to anchor money market rates at or around the repo rate.
- The Central Government has notified 4 percent Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation as the target for the period from August 5, 2016, to March 31, 2021, with the upper tolerance limit of 6 percent and the lower tolerance limit of 2 percent.
- The Reserve Bank of India, recently in the Report on Currency and Finance for FY21, has said the current inflation target of 4% with a +/-2% tolerance band is appropriate for the next five years.
- The RBI kept the repo rate — the rate at which the RBI lends to banks — unchanged for the tenth time in a row at 4 per cent in February 2022.
Evaluation of the performance of the monetary policy committee
- Inflation targeting has been successful on the grounds that the inflation rate has remained within the band agreed to between the government and the RBI, and whether it has been achieved by “anchoring inflation expectations”.
- However, Inflation in India entered the prescribed band of 2% to 6% two years before inflation targeting was adopted in 2016-17.
- In fact, inflation had fallen steadily since 2011-12, halving by 2015-16.
- The MPC has mostly continued with the accommodative policy stance, where the balance of the growth-inflation dynamic has tilted more towards growth.
- In the current situation, the accommodative policy stance is needed given the rough ride because of the pandemic, and is consistent with the overarching objective of the RBI to maintain price stability keeping in mind growth.
- Trend inflation had fallen from above 9% before flexible-inflation targeting (FIT) to a range of 3.8-4.3 % during FIT, indicating that 4% is the appropriate level of the inflation target.
- However, NPAs have grown since 2016, and the cases of IL&FS, PMC Bank, PNB, and YES Bank suggest that poor management and malfeasance in the financial sector could escape scrutiny when the central bank hunkers down to inflation targeting.
Conclusion
Thus, the Monetary Policy not only controls the active functioning of the monetary instruments but also serve as a capital valve to the policies and funds of the central government. It is the main determining factor of the economic wellbeing of our nation and has a highly qualified board of members to do so.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in-human actions
6. What are the factors on which morality of the human action depends upon? (150 words)
Difficulty level: Moderate.
Reference: A Practical Approach to Ethics Integrity and Aptitude by D.K Balaji.
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4 and part of ‘Conceptual Tuesdays’ in Mission-2022 Secure.
Key Demand of the question:
To write in detail about the determinants of Morality of human action.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by saying that Human action is not at free will but determined by various factors.
Body:
Describe how morality of a person’s action varies situationally. Mention various determinants such as object, circumstances such as person/place/time involved and intention(malafide/bonafide) with an example each.
Use a flow chart for better presentation of the above.
Conclusion:
Conclude by saying that there are many obstacles that a person with a fixed moral construct must go through, which may change his action altogether.
Introduction
Morality concerns the fundamental reason why some actions are good and others are evil. It is a test to find out what acts are good and what acts are evil. It is a search for criteria to assess the goodness or badness of human action. There are several schools of thought on this issue.
Body:
Analysing the morality of the human act is said to be a complex enterprise since it is affected by so many conditions which are within and without. Most of the moralists agree that to judge the goodness or badness of any particular human act, three elements must be weighed from which every act derives its morality. They are: the Object of the act, the Circumstances surrounding the act, and the End or Intention that the one performing the act has in mind.
- Object:
- It is that which the action of its very nature tends to produce.
- Or in other words it refers to the effect which an action primarily and directly causes.
- It is necessarily the result of the act without taking into account the circumstances or the end.
- For example the object of setting fire to hut of a slum-dweller is to burn whereas the end might be revenge.
- The object is usually regarded as the primary factor for moral judgement of a human
- From the viewpoint of object an act is generally classified as morally good, bad or indifferent.
- For a morally good act, the object of it must be good
- Circumstances:
- These include all the particulars of the concrete human action which are capable of affecting its morality.
- They are such things as the person involved, the time, the place, the occasion, which are distinct from the object, but can change or at times even completely alter its moral
- Circumstances can make an otherwise good action better for e.g. giving food to a person who is almost dying of
- They can make good an act which is otherwise indifferent, for g. sitting with a person who is feeling lonely.
- But they can also make worse an act which is evil in its object for g. robbing a beggar from his/her only meal of the day.
- Since all human actions occur in a particular context i.e. at a certain time and at a certain place, the circumstances must always be considered in evaluating the moral quality of any human act.
- Intent:
- The end or intention of a human act is the purpose that prompts one to perform such an
- Every human act, no matter how trivial, is done with some It is the reason for which the agent performs a particular act.
- It is the effect that the agent subjectively wills in his/her
- At times it can so happen that the intention of the agent coincides with the object of the human act, for e.g. offering a glass of water to a thirsty person to quench thirst.
- However at other times both of them might be
- For g. a captured spy may commit suicide in order to safeguard the secrets of the country.
- A human act to be morally good the agent or doer must have a good intention—he must want to accomplish something that is good in one way or another.
- The end too can affect the morality of the human act just as circumstances do.
- A good intention can make better an act which is good in its object, for e.g. helping a poor person to start a small business with the intention of making him independent.
- Also the end can worsen an act which is already evil in its object, for e.g. killing the father, who is the only breadwinner in the family, so that his children might be on the street.
- To a great extent many of the actions that we do which otherwise might be indifferent morally in themselves, but they receive their moral quality from the intention behind them.
According to the moralists a human act is said to be morally good when it is good in its object, circumstances and also in the intention, for it is believed that an action is good when each of these three factors is conformed to order (Bonum ex integra causa). If even one of these determinants is contrary to order, the action will be bad, at least in part (Malum ex quocumque defectu).
Conclusion:
Ethics, whether in an entire society, or in a social sub-system, evolves over a long period of time. Different institutions impact the ethical behaviour of individuals in different manner. Thus, value-based education, good governance, self-realization, just laws, code of ethics and code of conducts are essential to build an ethically just society and state.
Topic: dimensions of ethics;
Difficulty level: Moderate.
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4 and part of ‘Conceptual Tuesdays’ in Mission-2022 Secure.
Key Demand of the question:
To explain environmental ethics and how it has become an important dimension of ethics in the twenty first century.
Directive word:
Explain – Clarify the topic by giving a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the context. You must be defining key terms wherever appropriate and substantiate with relevant associated facts.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by describing the anthropocentric nature of the discourse of ethics. Only recently the focus has shifted to environmental ethics.
Body:
Mention the implications of neglect of the environment, varied cultural beliefs surrounding it, the western ideology that environment is for human disposal without regard to the future generations, concept of sustainable development, associating rights of environment to preservation etc.
Conclusion:
Conclude by saying that environmental ethics is more relevant now than ever in the context of climate change.
Introduction
Environmental ethics is a branch of ethics that studies the relation of human beings and the environment and how ethics play a role in this. Environmental ethics believe that humans are a part of society as well as other living creatures, which includes plants and animals. These items are a very important part of the world and are considered to be a functional part of human life. Thus, it is essential that every human being respect and honour this and use morals and ethics when dealing with these creatures.
Body
Importance of environmental ethics in current times
- The main focus of Ethics has been human rights since time immemorial. However, with industrial revolution and increased globalization and burgeoning population, the negative externalities of growth and development are seen on the environment.
- Present human interference with the non-human world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.
- The recently released Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)reveals how human-caused emissions are altering our planet and what that means for our collective future.
- Global warming, global climate change, deforestation, pollution, resource degradation, threat of extinction of species are few of the issues from which our planet is suffering.
- New dynamic issues like Environmental Refugees and climate migrants has been on the rise across the planet.
- Thus, now it’s time to focus on the rights of the environment and its constituent beings other than humans.
- Environmental ethics, concerned with the issue of responsible personal conduct with respect to natural landscapes, resources, species, and non-human organisms. It is a cluster of beliefs, values and norms regarding how humans should interact with the environment.
How Environmental ethics helps in today’s times
- Strengthens Human-environment relationship:
- Environmental ethics focuses on questions concerning how we ought to inhabit the world; what constitutes a good life or a good society; and who, where, or what merits moral standing.
- Thus, it brings us closer and the help us understand the relationship and strengthens the relationship.
- Environmental Justice to all:
- People living in the economically-advanced sections/ parts use greater amount of resources and energy per individual and also waste more resources. This is at the cost of poor people who are resource-deprived.
- Likewise, there is a need for balance sharing of impacts of environmental degradation among different regions. For instance, island countries of tropical region share the most impacts of Climate Change while contributing least to it.
- Focuses on vulnerable sections:
- Consequences of environmental pollution do not respect national boundaries.
- Moreover, the poor and weaker sections of society are disproportionately affected by negative effects of climate change.
- Sustainable living and development:
- Environmental ethics helps provide better quality living to current generation
- It will help spread awareness among people and thus protect the environment and reminds us of the moral obligation to preserve environment for the future generations to come through regulated use of environment
- Focus on Biocentrism:
- Every entity that share the Earth with us have a right to live with dignity and share the Earth’s resources and living space. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.
- Animal welfare is relevant to environmental ethics because animals exist within the natural environment and thus form part of environmentalists’ concerns.
- It sustains other species as well which is moral responsibility of one species i.e. humankind towards all others.
- Helps overcome Anthropocentric approach of development:
- Anthropocentrism refers to an ethical framework that grants “moral standing” solely to human beings.
- Thus, an anthropocentric ethic claims that only human beings are morally considerable in their own right, meaning that all the direct moral obligations we possess, including those we have with regard to the environment, are owed to our fellow human beings.
- To tackle global issues:
- Pandemics like Ebola, Zika, MERS, SARS etc. had alerted human species about the imbalance in relation between humans and Environment.
- Ignorance causing Covid-19 pandemic has almost stopped the world for human species and has nudged humans to introspect on their relationship with environment.
Human values needed for better environmental ethics:
Human actions and decision-making choice depend on human values. Strong values always help reduce the confusion. If these are coherent with the surrounding environment nature and wildlife, then it will certainly be helpful for sustainable development.
- Empathy: without empathy for all lives, there will always be selectiveness and selfishness among humans towards different lives. Value of Nurturing and protecting biodiversity. Making way for flora and fauna to co-exist with us.
- Love: love transcends only human-human interaction. It’s also between other lives and nature’s beauty.
- Sustainable development: Saving resources for future generation .That is to stop over exploitation of resources specially exhaustible and non-renewable resources.
- Control over mining, deforestation in the name of “development”
- Minimalistic living: Sacrificing certain comforts for protecting environment. Example- reduction in use of polluting vehicles for good of all, carpooling, using public transport.
Conclusion
We must realize the biggest value that Earth belongs not only to humans but to other biodiversity too. Further, protecting this environment for future generation becomes our responsibility as part of environmental ethics.
[ad_2]