The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is the apex recruiting body in India responsible for selecting candidates for various prestigious civil services positions. In 2015, the General Studies Paper 4, also known as the Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude paper, presented candidates with a challenging array of questions aimed at evaluating their ethical and moral reasoning, decision-making abilities, and overall aptitude. This paper, a critical component of the UPSC examination, tests not only the knowledge but also the character and judgment of aspiring civil servants. Let’s delve into the solved questions of the UPSC 2015 GS 4 paper to gain insight into the rigorous standards expected of future administrators and leaders in India.
Q4. (a) Social values are more important than economic values. Discuss the above statement with examples in the context of the inclusive growth of a nation. (150 Words, 10 Marks)
Tags: Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; role of family society and educational institutions in inculcating values.
Decoding the Question:
- In Intro, try to introduce the concept of Social and Economic Values.
- In Body,
- Emphasize on the importance of including these values for inclusive growth of a nation.
- In Conclusion, try to cite examples for amalgamation of social and economic values for the inclusive growth of a nation.
Answer:
Economic values are a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an individual or society. These deal with the material benefits. While social values entail a larger concept, which includes social capital as well as the subjective aspect of citizens’ well-being, such as their ability to participate in making decisions that affects them.
Social Values constitute the values or standards concerned with social aspects of human life, such as truth, honesty, justice, kindness, generosity, tolerance, patriotism, excellence, etc. Hence, social values played an important role and therefore, provided general guidelines for social contact.
Making economic choices involve tradeoffs in allocating resources at disposal. The economic value like efficiency and profits are helpful in guiding when economic choices are made. Measures of economic values are based on preferences of people. Karl Marx also advocated that the main function of modern society is economic function. But even after having the highest level of economic development in developed western countries, social integration and peace is still missing. This is due to the degrading social values, which play an important role and at times economic value appears decimated.
Social Values are Important:
- The social values focus on providing an equal opportunity to all people and their equal say in receiving a particular benefit. Hence social values are more important for inclusive growth. As inclusive growth advances equitable opportunities for economic participants during economic growth with benefits incurred by every section of society focuses on providing benefits to all sections of society with particular reference to weak and marginalized sections.
- For inclusive growth it is essential to provide enough opportunities to all sections of society and the social values focus on this. The economic values deal more with the material benefits and profit making and focus on gains than on equitable distribution among all sections.
- Further for inclusive growth social inclusion is essential which can come only through social values as it increases a sense of cohesiveness and solidarity.
- Delivering on this agenda calls on multi pronged intervention which can come when equal opportunities are provided to all sections of society.
- Social value provides for stability and uniformity in group interaction. They hold society together as they are sharing common and will, therefore, have a sense of belongingness and integration. Moreover, social value brings legitimacy to the rules that govern the nation as they embody the values that most people accept.
Focusing only on economic values and neglecting social values can lead to large scale deprivation and inequality. For example, the Capitalist system which arose during the Industrial Revolution caused large scale inequality in society. Their main focus was creating economic value rather than fulfilling social goals. For improving the social capital, we need to focus on social values. It will also help in improving the quality of life of an individual. For example, current day Welfare states focus on social values, along with economic values.
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