UPSC Mains 2021 GS Paper 4 Q4a: model answer
Attitude is an important component that goes as input in the development of human being. How to build a suitable attitude needed for a public servant?
What the question wants
Explain how a public servant can build the attitude the job requires, given that attitude shapes human development.
How to structure it
What attitude, then how to build it.
- Attitude and its parts
- Attitudes a public servant needs
- How to build them
How to think it through
ABC model. Needed: service orientation, empathy, objectivity, openness to change, accountability, positive outlook. Building: self-reflection, exposure/field visits, role models, training (Mission Karmayogi, iGOT), feedback (360), cognitive dissonance, persuasion, rewards and incentives, organisational culture, reading/biographies, meditation. Example: LBSNAA Bharat Darshan /village visit; Aarambh foundation course 2019.
Model answer
Two officers can receive the same training and the same posting. One sees a queue of villagers as a burden; the other sees a list of problems to solve. The difference is attitude.
Attitude and its parts
- An attitude is a learned tendency to respond to people or situations in a certain way.
- It has three parts, the ABC model: Affect (feelings), Behaviour (actions) and Cognition (beliefs).
Attitudes a public servant needs
- Service, not status.
- Empathy for the weak and objectivity in decisions.
- Openness to new ideas and to criticism.
- Ownership of results.
How to build them
- Exposure: village visits and field attachments during training change beliefs through real contact.
- Role models and mentors: juniors copy what seniors do, not what they say.
- Reflection: journals and case discussions help officers notice their own biases.
- Continuous learning: Mission Karmayogi (2020) offers role-based courses on the iGOT platform.
- Feedback and incentives: citizen feedback and fair appraisal reward the right behaviour.
- Practice first: acting the right way repeatedly changes beliefs too, because people adjust beliefs to match their actions.
Attitude is not inherited with the posting; it is built, one habit at a time.
Draw: A cycle: exposure → reflection → practice → feedback → back to exposure, with 'attitude' at the centre.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
attitude, ABC model, service orientation, empathy, objectivity, exposure, role models, reflection, Mission Karmayogi 2020, iGOT, feedback, cognitive dissonance.
Where most answers lose marks
- Listing ideal attitudes but not explaining how they are built.
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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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