UPSC Mains 2021 GS Paper 4 Q2b: model answer
Besides domain knowledge, a public official needs innovativeness and creativity of a high order as well, while resolving ethical dilemmas. Discuss with suitable example.
What the question wants
Discuss, with an example, why a public official needs innovation and creativity, besides domain knowledge, to resolve ethical dilemmas.
How to structure it
Why knowledge is not enough, then example.
- Dilemmas lack ready answers
- Role of creativity
- Example
- Limits
How to think it through
Ethical dilemma = two rights; rules give either/or; creativity finds third option satisfying both. Examples: Armstrong Pame road; Kozhikode 'Operation Sulaimani' (2015, free meals for hungry—Collector Prasanth Nair); Collector Prasanth Nair 'Compassionate Kozhikode'. Or eviction vs livelihood: street vendor zones. Pune? Limits: creativity within the law; documentation.
Model answer
In 2015, Kozhikode Collector N. Prasanth faced a quiet dilemma: hungry people were too proud to beg, and the administration had no scheme to feed them. Under 'Operation Sulaimani', restaurants served free meals to anyone carrying a coupon from a village or taluk office, funded by public donations. Dignity and hunger were both handled.
Why domain knowledge is not enough
- Knowledge tells an officer what the rules say. A dilemma arises when following one rule or value breaks another.
- Many dilemmas offer two bad options; creativity searches for a third.
How creativity helps
- Reframing: seeing the problem from the citizen's eyes.
- Partnerships: using NGOs, businesses and volunteers where budgets are thin.
- Technology: digital tools that make rules work for people, not against them.
Another example
- Encroachment vs livelihood: instead of evicting street vendors, many cities created vending zones under the Street Vendors Act, 2014, keeping roads clear and jobs safe.
Limits
- Creativity must stay inside the law and be recorded transparently.
- A clever shortcut that bypasses due process is not innovation; it is risk.
Rules give an officer a map; creativity finds a road the map did not show.
Draw: A fork with two paths ('value A', 'value B') and a dotted third path labelled 'creative solution'.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
ethical dilemma, third option, domain knowledge, creativity, Operation Sulaimani 2015, Kozhikode, N. Prasanth, Street Vendors Act 2014, vending zones, partnerships, within the law.
Where most answers lose marks
- Treating creativity as permission to ignore rules.
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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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