The need for ethics is felt in all walks of life. More so, in the administration which is responsible for good governance. Needless to say that the governance in our country leaves much to be desired. The onus is certainly on the administrative machinery headed by the civil servants, particularly the officers of the coveted Indian Administrative Services, the kingpins of India’s Administration. Perhaps for this reason there is a complete paper on Ethics, Integrity and Attitude that has been included in the recent past as General Studies Paper-IV for the Civil Services Main examination. The objective of this paper is to test the candidate’s attitude and aptitude towards issues related to integrity and probity in public life, and his ability to handle ethical dilemmas that arise during the course of the career of the civil servant. Ethics is certainly a major issue in the present days and challenges in the form of allurement and sometimes threats to career and even personal well-being do arise in public life. Ethics, it must be understood, is a multifaceted concept which often involves grey areas where the decision maker does not find simple right or wrong answers. It is these areas that offer the greatest challenge to the career bureaucrat and the ability to discriminate is often put to test. Ethics is too wide and complex an issue to be understood and evaluated as consistency is often found missing. The issue of ethics is an issue of attitude, even aptitude but largely character. To ensure that anybody entering the coveted ranks of Indian Civil Services remains ethical in his dealings all through his career is difficult. Ethics is that uncanny ability to exercise the right choices when distraction in the form of rewards are too alluring to ignore. But this is the real test of character. Though this one paper may be of some use in finding out the orientation of the candidate appearing for the examination to some extent, the larger issue is the predictive validity of such examination. What is more crucial is the continuous training and personality development of the incumbent once he joins the services as that is where situations fashion changes in attitudes. One paper then may serve to be some kind of an indicator and, that too, not a very strong one. But the important issue is maintaining integrity all through. Important because the Indian Civil Services is supposed to be the steel fame of Indian Administration. It is, therefore, imperative to ensure that this steel frame does not rust. Unfortunately the rusting is being evidenced as occasional incidents would point out. The big question is training for ethics. How an administrator has to be sensitised. For an effective training regimen the key areas that need to be focused are empathy, non- partisanship, tolerance, humility and compassion. The periodicity of such training is also a consideration. How long and how often? With changes in job requirements the role of the civil servant calls for a systematic change but the intriguing aspect is that the basic model has more or less remained the same. Hence it is important to reinvent the services with emphasis on emotional quotient and morality quotient. The loyalty must shift to the people and the nation rather than the powers that be. The loyalty to the crown was the hallmark of the British rule. Post-independence this seems to have shifted to the party in power in many cases.

Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com