Ethics– Examples
ETHICS
EXAMPLES
For UPSC Mains 2024
Ethics– Examples
Sr. Topic Examples
No.
1. Good 1. M.S. Swaminathan – Father of Green Revolutions in Asia
Administration 2. GVG Krishnamurthy– The former Election Commissioner
of India, stellar role in the legal team that fought against
American multinational Union Carbide in the American
courts for handsome compensation to the victims.
3. E. Sreedharan– meticulous planning and execution of Delhi
Metro system.
4. IAS Umakant Rao – Dewas Model was recognised by The
UN.
5. Dr Manmohan Singh – New Economic Policy 1991
2. Integrity 1. Sucheta Dalal – Uncovered Harshad Mehta Scam
2. M Visvesvaraya – He accepted the position of Diwan of
Mysore and strictly told his family not to ask for favours
from him.
3. Following the traffic rules
4. Mahatma Gandhi – Ended the NCM after the Chauri–
Chaura incident took place.
3. Intellectual 1. Pepsi notified Coca Cola on getting an offer of selling the
Integrity secret ingredients
2. Socrates – Continued searching for truth and knowledge
and chose to die instead
3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy– Stood for women rights even after
facing criticism
4. Public Service 1. Mother Teresa – Missionaries of Charity, Shanti Nagar,
Homes for the Dying and Children
2. Frontline Warriors during Covid –19
3. Sundar Lal Bahuguna – Chipko Movement
4. MC Mehta – Environment
5. Arunachalam Muruganantham – Padman of India
6. Gates Foundation – Poverty Alleviation
7. Ratan Tata – Pets Project – Tata Trusts Small Animal
Hospital
8. Red Cross, Red Crescent
5. Impartiality 1. Principles of Natural Justice
2. Nelson Mandela – Apartheid
6. Political Patronage 1. Special Grants to Bihar Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha
and Andhra Pradesh after 2024 Lok Sabha Elections
2. Electoral Bonds
7. Political Neutrality 1. Other Countries remaining silent/abstaining to comment
during a war between other countries
2. Speakers and Governor of States
3. Judges in Courts
4. Election Commission of India
Ethics– Examples
8. Empathy 1. Buddhism – Concept of Karuna
2. Sheryl Sandberg – Book (Lean In) – Empathetic Leadership
at Workplace
3. Oscar Schindler – Saved lives of 1200 jews during the
Holocaust
4. Vaccine Maitri Programme – Supply of Medicines to the
world
5. Sushma Swaraj – Evacuation of Indians stuck overseas,
Granting visas to Pakistan’s citizens for medical emergency,
6. Operation Dost – The search and rescue operation initiated
by the Government of India to aid Syria and Turkey, after
the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake devastated both
countries on 6 February 2023.
9. Tolerance 1. Secularism in India
2. Decriminalising Homosexuality in India
3. Akbar
4. Ashoka
10. Compassion 1. Sudhir Kudalkar – Animal Activist and Senior Police
Inspector
2. Mother Teresa
3. Sonu Sood – Medical Help during Covid
4. Princess Diana – The People’s Princess
11. Emotions 1. Basant Rath IPS All Three is abuse of Emotions
2. Pooja Khedkar
3. Sympathy Votes
12. Intelligence / 1. Railway Men during Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Emotional 2. Kiran Bedi Tihar Jail Vocational Training Reforms
Quotient 3. Hitler abused EQ
4. Wilma Rudolph won 3 track and field gold medals in 1960
Olympics
5. Muhammad Ali vs Liston (World Champion) stated that
game depends on the Psychology of a person
13. Unity 1. India– Unity in Diversity
2. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s
3. Religion
4. Mahatma Gandhi – All his movements in Freedom Struggle
5. Uniforms in Institutions
6. Din-I-Illahi by Akbar
14. Descriptive Ethics 1. Exit Polls
2. Movie Reviews
3. Surveys
15. Teleological Ethics
1. Satinder Lamba IFS – backchannel talks with Pak after
Kargil
2. Arjun picks up arms after listening to Bhagwat Geeta
3. Ram referred to as Maryada Purushottam
16. Deontological 1. Manusmriti defines duties of men and women
Ethics– Examples
Ethics 2. Eightfold path in Buddhism
3. Concept of Karma
4. Triratna of Jainism
5. Traffic Rules
6. Laws in any country
17. Virtue Ethics 1. Florence Nightingale
2. Kasturba Gandhi for Indigo Workers
3. Guru Nanak Dev Ji was given money by his father to do
business but instead he fed the poor
18. Accountability 1. Collective Responsibility of Council of Ministers in India
Governance 2. Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned as Railway Minister after the
Mahabubnagar, Andhra Pradesh railway incident in 1956
3. Central Vigilance Commission– Investigation of corruption
in the Food Corporation of India in 2021
4. Election Commission of India– Cancellation of Vellore Lok
Sabha election in 2019
19. Ethical 1. European Union– C Type cables for all mobiles for
Governance environment sustainability.
2. New Zealand Govt’s proactiveness during COVID 19
20. Corporate 1. TOMS Shoes is a company that is committed to giving back
Governance to society by donating a pair of shoes to a child in need for
every pair of shoes purchased.
2. Patagonia– Environment Management
3. Coke– Greenwashing and Bluewashing (need for corporate
governance)
Ethics– Examples
Sr. Example Topic
No.
21. Ethical Issues in 1. Israel and Palestine Dispute
International 2. Russia and Ukraine War
relations 3. Russia tried to cover Chernobyl Disaster
4. Funding to terrorist organisations
5. Ticketmaster Entertainment, LLC data breach of over
560 million users
22. Public Service 1. Mother Teresa
2. Mahatma Gandhi– advocated women's rights and
abolition of child marriage, Concept of Sarvodya
3. Kasturba Gandhi– Taught students and girls about the
rules of cleanliness and community sanitation.
4. Smita Sabharwal – “fund your city” project for
infrastructure development.
5. Ashok Khemka — 45 transfers in 23 years.
23. Probity 1. Durga Shakti Nagpal IAS, action taken against land
mafia racket in UP
2. Anna Hazare refused to join politics.
3. Community scorecards in France, Malawi, Maharashtra
and Andhra Pradesh
24. Transparency 1. Marks & Spencer– profitable transparency
2. Espionage System in Mauryan Period
3. Centralised System during Mughal period
25. Conflict of Interest 1. India–Pakistan Conflict over Kashmir Valley
2. Russia’s claim over Sevastopol
3. RTI seeking details of my past mistakes
4. Interview family member for govt recruitment
26. RTI 1. Suvarana Bhagyawant death certificate obtained within
8 days
2. Crawford Market redevelopment Scam of 6000 crores
unveiled
27. Code of Conduct 1. General Motors (GM) code of conduct known as
“Winning with Integrity.”
2. L’Oreal – The L’Oreal Spirit
3. Elections Code of Conduct
28. Code of Ethics 1. Google’s Code of Ethics strictly prohibits discrimination
2. Walmart Code of Ethics is based on Trust
3. Tesla’s code of Ethics depends on Sustainable Energy
29. Political Ethics 1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Mahatma Gandhi
Ethics– Examples
3. Nelson Mandela
4. Yudhishthir in Mahabharata known as Dharma Raja
5. Kautilya’s Chanakya Neeti
30. Work Culture 1. France’s Work Culture
2. Vedantic view of karma
3. Dharma and Karma (Work is Worship)
31. Service Delivery 1. Sewage and trash disposal, public education, and health
services
2. Amazon, Flipkart
3. Zomato, Swiggy
32. Corruption 1. Vijay Mallya
2. Neerav Modi
3. The Panama Papers
4. FIFA Football
5. Siemens Corruption in Germany
33. Legislative Control 1. Draft Public Service Bill, 2007
2. Central Services Conduct Rules, 1964
3. All India Service Conduct Rules, 1968
4. Code of ethics, 1997
5. All Laws passed by the Parliament
34. Judicial Control 1. Precedents set by the Courts
2. Doctrine of Stare Decisis
35. Ombudsman 1. Lokpal & Lokayuktas in India
2. Swedish institute of ombudsman - an instrument of
human rights. The Swedish institution of ombudsman
is described as a protection agency against government
abuse and human rights violations.
36. Social Audit 1. Awas Yojana, National Social Assistance Programme,
Midday meal scheme and Public Distribution
Scheme,MGNREGA.
2. Meghalaya became the first state to pass a Social Audit
law, the Meghalaya Community Participation and
Public Services Social Audit Act.
37. E–Governance 1. Aadhaar-Digital Biometric Identity Infrastructure.
2. Open Data.
3. Government Procurement - Government e-Marketplace
(GeM)
4. GI Cloud (MeghRaj)
5. Service Delivery Gateway.
6. State Data Centre.
7. State Wide Area Network (SWAN)
8. eTaal.
38. Sacrifice 1. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev
2. Frank Foley– rescued more than 10000 people from
Nazis
3. The Chernobyl Three– To prevent the nuclear fallout,
Ethics– Examples
the 20 million litres (5 mil gal) of water needed to be
drained, which required the correct valves to be
manually turned down. Senior engineer Valeri
Bespalov, mechanical engineer Alexei Ananenko, and
shift supervisor Boris Baranov volunteered to undertake
that mission
4. Neerja Bhanot
5. Eklavya
39. Courage 1. Rani Laxmibai
2. Mahatma Gandhi – Salt March
3. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, USA,
1955
4. Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, Burma, 1989 –
2010
40. Persuasion 1. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel– Persuaded Princely States to
be a part of Union of India
2. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao
3. Sales Calls
Sr. Example Topic
No.
41. Credibility 1. Mahatma Gandhi – Truth and Non–Violence
2. Barkha Dutt – Kargil live Reporting
3. Yudhishthira – Pledged to Speak only truth
42. Dependability 1. Apple products durability and data security
2. Rahul Dravid – Mr Dependable
3. Sushma Swaraj – Repatriation of NRI’s
43. Tactfulness 1. Dr. S. Jaishankar
2. Guerrilla warfare Technique
3. Australian Cricket Team under Ricky Ponting’s
Captaincy
44. Forgiveness 1. Nobuo Fujita forgiven by the town he destroyed in
WW2
2. Pope John II forgives his would be assassin
3. Mahatma Gandhi forgives the British for the inhuman
massacre of innocent, peaceful and unarmed.
45. Honesty 1. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United
Nations
2. Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and
women's rights activist
3. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former President of Liberia
4. Abraham Lincoln
5. Nelson Mandela
46. Trust 1. Reliance on Smartwatches for Health related Data
2. Raymond
3. ‘Thanda’ in India means Coca Cola
Ethics– Examples
4. Bata
47. Responsibility 1. Vandana Singh, Nainital District Magistrate
2. Divya Mittal of Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh
brought piped water to Lahuria Dah village
3. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to represent India in a UN
meeting at Geneva
48. Patriotism 1. Mahatma Gandhi
2. Annie Besant
3. Jyotiba Phule
4. Jawaharlal Nehru
5. Bhagat Singh
49. Leadership 1. APJ Abdul Kalam and his vision for India
2. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore
3. Mahatma Gandhi
4. Martin Luther King Jr.
5. Dalai Lama
50. Perseverance 1. Chandrayaan–3 Mission after failure of Chandrayaan–2
2. Dashrath Manjhi– Health access distance reduced from
55 to 15 kms
3. Helen Keller – deaf and blind, 14 books + US Prez
medal of freedom
4. India's bicycle girl Jyotikumari - Carried injured father
on bicycle for 1200 km from Gurugram to Darbhanga
(BH)
