UPSC Mains 2014 GS Paper 4 Q5b: model answer
It is often said that poverty leads to corruption. However, there is no dearth of instances where affluent and powerful people indulge in corruption in a big way. What are the basic causes of corruption among people? Support your answer with examples.
What the question wants
Explain the basic causes of corruption, given that both the poor and the rich indulge in it, with examples.
How to structure it
Need vs greed, then causes.
- Poverty argument and its limits
- Basic causes: individual, institutional, social
- Examples
How to think it through
Need-based (petty) vs greed-based (grand). Examples of affluent: Satyam 2009, 2G (allocation process struck 2012), Commonwealth Games 2010 scam, Nirav Modi 2018. Causes: individual—greed, weak values; institutional—discretion, monopoly, low accountability (Klitgaard: C = M + D − A, 1988); social—tolerance, status from wealth, election finance; legal—delays, low conviction. Petty: low wages, complex procedures.
Model answer
The clerk who takes ₹500 to move a file and the businessman who pays crores for a licence are not driven by the same need. Corruption has more to do with opportunity and values than with poverty alone.
The poverty argument and its limits
- Petty corruption can be linked to low wages and complex procedures.
- But grand corruption is committed by the wealthy: the Satyam fraud (2009), the Commonwealth Games scandals (2010) and the PNB–Nirav Modi fraud (2018) involved people who were already rich.
Basic causes
- Greed and weak values: wanting more than one needs, with no inner restraint.
- Opportunity: economist Robert Klitgaard summed it up as Corruption = Monopoly + Discretion − Accountability.
- Complex procedures that make bribes the fastest route.
- Low risk: long trials and low conviction rates.
- Social acceptance: wealth is admired regardless of its source.
- Election funding: the cost of politics creates a demand for illicit money.
- Collusion: the nexus of politicians, officials and business.
What follows
- Corruption is reduced by cutting monopoly and discretion (online services, auctions), raising accountability (audits, RTI), and changing social attitudes.
Need may explain a small bribe; only greed explains a large one.
Draw: Klitgaard's formula as a balance: monopoly + discretion on one side, accountability on the other.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
need vs greed, petty vs grand corruption, Satyam 2009, Commonwealth Games 2010, PNB–Nirav Modi 2018, Klitgaard formula C = M + D − A, discretion, low conviction, social acceptance, election funding, nexus.
Where most answers lose marks
- Accepting that poverty is the main cause; the question invites you to show it is not.
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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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