Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude (GS-4) — Glossary

The ABC tripartite model holds that every attitude comprises three interlinked components: Affect (feelings), Behaviour (action tendencies), and Cognition (beliefs).

The ability model defines emotional intelligence as a set of mental aptitudes for perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions, distinct from personality traits.

Accountability is the obligation of public officials and institutions to answer for their decisions and conduct, justify their use of authority, and accept sanctions for failure.

Adjustment is the continuous psychological process by which an individual harmonises internal needs with environmental demands to maintain effective functioning and emotional balance.

Administrative feasibility is the canon that a tax, policy, or law must be capable of being implemented and enforced effectively, conveniently, and at reasonable cost.

The affective domain refers to the dimension of human psychology concerning emotions, feelings, attitudes, values, and motivations that shape how a person responds to and internalises experience.

The All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 are statutory rules framed under the All India Services Act, 1951 that prescribe the standards of integrity, devotion to duty, and personal conduct binding on members of the IAS, IPS, and Indian Forest Service.

Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and philosopher who won the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on welfare economics, social choice, and development.

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher whose virtue ethics, grounded in eudaimonia and the doctrine of the mean, anchors UPSC GS-IV ethical theory.

Case studies are scenario-based questions that present a hypothetical administrative or ethical dilemma and require candidates to identify stakeholders, evaluate options, and recommend a justified course of action.

The Corruption Perceptions Index is Transparency International's annual ranking that scores 180 countries on perceived public-sector corruption using a 0-100 scale aggregated from expert and business surveys.

Deontology is a normative ethical theory holding that the moral worth of an action depends on its conformity to duty and universal rules, not on its consequences.

Direct Benefit Transfer is the Government of India's scheme to credit subsidies and welfare payments directly into beneficiaries' bank accounts to curb leakage and ghost beneficiaries.

Distinction is the cardinal principle of international humanitarian law requiring parties to an armed conflict to differentiate at all times between combatants and civilians, and between military objectives and civilian objects.

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that systematically studies right and wrong conduct, moral duties, and the principles that ought to govern human and institutional behaviour.

Foundational values for civil services are the core ethical commitments—integrity, impartiality, non-partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service, empathy, tolerance and compassion—that govern administrative conduct.

High-yield retention is a study strategy that prioritises memorising the small set of facts, concepts, and frameworks that recur most frequently in competitive examinations.

A high-yield retention list is a curated set of frequently-tested, high-return facts and concepts that a candidate consolidates for rapid revision before competitive examinations.

The Hota Committee was a 2004 civil-services reform body, chaired by P.C. Hota, that recommended changes to the recruitment, training, and management of the All India and Central Services in India.

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a German Enlightenment philosopher whose deontological ethics grounds morality in rational duty and the categorical imperative rather than consequences.

Integrity is the steadfast adherence to a coherent moral code, ensuring that a public servant's conduct remains consistent, honest, and incorruptible across public and private life.

The JAM trinity is the integration of Jan Dhan bank accounts, Aadhaar biometric identity, and Mobile connectivity to deliver welfare subsidies directly to beneficiaries.

John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher whose theories of natural rights, social contract, and limited government founded classical liberalism.

Kauṭilya was the ancient Indian statesman and political theorist, traditionally identified as Chandragupta Maurya's chief minister and author of the Arthaśāstra treatise on statecraft.

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 is the Indian statute that established the Lokpal at the Union level and mandated Lokayuktas in States to investigate corruption allegations against public functionaries, including the Prime Minister.

The Nolan Committee was the United Kingdom's Committee on Standards in Public Life, established in 1994, which formulated the Seven Principles of Public Life governing holders of public office.

The Nolan Principles are seven ethical standards — selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership — governing all holders of public office in the United Kingdom.

The polluter pays principle holds that the entity responsible for producing pollution must bear the cost of preventing, controlling, and remediating the resulting environmental damage.

The precautionary principle holds that where an activity threatens serious or irreversible environmental harm, lack of full scientific certainty must not be used to postpone preventive measures.

The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is the principal Indian statute criminalising bribery and corruption by public servants and prescribing investigation and prosecution machinery.

Probity is the quality of having strong moral principles, complete integrity, and uprightness in public conduct, especially in the use of public office and resources.

Probity in governance is the practice of strict adherence to ethical, moral, and legal standards of honesty and integrity by public officials in the exercise of authority.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali polymath, poet and Nobel laureate whose writings furnished the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.

Resource-scarcity triage is the ethical practice of prioritising the allocation of insufficient resources among competing claimants using transparent, defensible criteria rather than first-come-first-served or arbitrary choice.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 is an Indian statute that empowers any citizen to seek time-bound access to information held by or under the control of public authorities.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 is an Indian statute empowering any citizen to seek information from public authorities, mandating disclosure within fixed time limits.

The Seven Principles of Public Life are the ethical standards—selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership—expected of all UK public office-holders.

Sevottam is an Indian framework and quality-management model for assessing and improving public service delivery, built around Citizens' Charters, grievance redress, and service-delivery capability.

A social audit is a public, participatory review in which intended beneficiaries verify a government scheme's records, expenditure and outcomes against actual ground reality.

Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory holding that an action is right if it maximises aggregate happiness or well-being for the greatest number.

The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014 is an Indian statute that establishes a mechanism to receive and inquire into public-interest disclosures of corruption or wilful misuse of power while protecting the discloser's identity.

A whistleblower is a person who discloses information about corruption, fraud, abuse of authority, or wrongdoing within an organisation, often a public office, to authorities or the public.