UPSC Mains 2016 GS Paper 4 Q4a: model answer
“Corruption causes misuse of government treasury, administrative inefficiency, and obstruction in the path of national development.” Discuss Kautilya’s views.
What the question wants
Discuss Kautilya's views on corruption as a cause of treasury misuse, inefficiency and obstruction of development.
How to structure it
Kautilya's diagnosis and remedies, then relevance.
- Views on corruption
- Forms
- Remedies
- Relevance
How to think it through
Arthashastra: 'Just as it is impossible not to taste honey or poison on the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the king's revenue.' 'Just as fish moving under water cannot be found out either as drinking or not drinking water, so government servants... ' 40 ways of embezzlement. Remedies: espionage/spies to test integrity (upadha tests), frequent transfers, audits, punishments, rewards, good salary, king as example (rajarshi), recovery. Relevance: CVC, CAG, rotation, integrity checks, PCA.
Model answer
More than two thousand years ago, Kautilya wrote that just as one cannot avoid tasting honey or poison on the tip of the tongue, a government servant handling money will find it hard not to taste a little of the king's revenue. He treated corruption as a permanent risk of administration, not a rare sin.
Kautilya's view
- Treasury is the root of the state: a leaky treasury weakens army, works and welfare.
- Corruption creates inefficiency, because officials chase gain rather than duty, and slows development, because funds never reach their purpose.
- In the Arthashastra, he lists forty ways of embezzlement, from falsified accounts to delayed collection.
His remedies
- Integrity tests (upadha): officials were secretly tested with temptations before appointment to sensitive posts.
- Spies and audits to watch accounts and frequent transfers.
- Rewards and adequate salaries along with strict punishment and recovery.
Relevance today
- Audit by the CAG, vigilance by the CVC, rotation of sensitive posts and asset declarations follow the same logic.
- Kautilya's warning on leakage is echoed in Direct Benefit Transfer, which cuts intermediaries.
Kautilya's realism is still useful: assume temptation, design for honesty.
Draw: A treasury with forty small leaks and Kautilya's four plugs: tests, audits, transfers, punishments.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Kautilya, Arthashastra, honey on the tongue, treasury as root of state, forty ways of embezzlement, upadha tests, spies, audits, transfers, rajarshi, CAG, CVC, DBT.
Where most answers lose marks
- Writing only modern anti-corruption laws without Kautilya's own ideas.
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Fresh examples from current affairs
Supreme Court: no prior approval under Section 17A needed to probe a bribe demand
In a judgment of 16 October 2026, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria held that investigating a bribe demand by a public servant does not need prior approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Asking for a bribe, the court said, is not part of discharging official duties.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Sections 7, 7A, 17A and 19 of the PC Act. · Mains GS-II/GS-IV: honest officers versus accountability.
19 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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