Revision summary
Corruption is private use of a public trust at a desk, a tender, or a vote. Prevention shrinks discretion: charters, DBT, e-procurement, rotation. Detection needs real whistle-blower cover and trials that end. Political funding and corporate books are society’s half of the problem. Digital trails help only if the poor are not pushed back to a tout.
Model answer
Introduction
Corruption is the private use of a public trust — a bribe, a captured tender, a bought vote, or a silent middleman. Prevention in society is not only a new Act; it is less discretion, more light, faster punishment, and a culture that stops treating the bribe as petrol.
Body
Reduce the market for bribes
- Shrink discretionary windows: published citizen charters, time-bound services, and Sakala-like guarantees.
- Direct Benefit Transfer and e-procurement so that a file cannot sit as a toll gate.
- Competitive, open tenders and geospatial public works monitoring.
- Rotate sensitive posts and recuse conflicts.
Detect and punish
- Strengthen Prevention of Corruption Act practice: trap, attachment, and actual trial speed, not only raids on camera.
- Lokpal, Lokayukta, CVC, and vigilance that protect honest officers as much as they chase the dishonest.
- Whistle-blower protection that is real, including against transfer-as-punishment.
- Fast courts for corruption so that delay is not the real judgment.
Political and business society
- Transparent political funding and a ceiling culture on cash elections.
- Corporate books that match SEBI and tax truth; a bribe on the cost sheet is still a bribe.
- Media and RTI as sunlight, with care that sting theatre does not replace evidence.
Values and the counter
- School and training that name integrity as skill, not as a poster.
- Social audit of MGNREGA-type schemes so neighbours, not only auditors, see the muster.
- Stop honouring the “fixer”; public shaming of the middleman must match shaming of the poor who had no other door.
- Fair pay, housing, and protection for the honest constable and clerk so that need is not an alibi.
Technology with a human override
- Digital trails help; they fail if the password is shared or the poor are locked out and then pay a cyber-café tout.
- A named officer must still own an exception.
Sequence
- Prevention first (design), then detection, then punishment that is certain more than it is theatrical.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD D[Less discretion] --> P[Prevention] L[Light RTI audit] --> P S[Speedy trial] --> P C[Culture no fixer] --> P
Conclusion
Preventing corruption in society means closing toll-gate discretion, lighting the file, protecting the honest, speeding trials, cleaning political money, and refusing the culture of the fixer. Law without that culture is a raid that everyone forgets.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Explain the eightfold path given by Buddha for the purification of conduct.
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q19). View answer →
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Is more punishment enough?
Certainty matters more than a rare harsh headline. Design that removes the toll gate matters still more.
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Can society stay corrupt if government is clean?
A clean office still meets a paying culture. Voters, firms, and families have to stop buying the queue.
Same topic · past papers
UPPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2018 · Q14 · UPGS4 · 12 marks
What are the challenges of corruption? What steps should be taken according to you to prevent them from society? Explain. -
2021 · Q5 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
A peaceful protest was being carried out by a group of milk traders. The Superintendent of Police instructs the Police Officials to prevent the group from committing any type of violence. He, however, tells them to ‘teach them a lesson’, if situation warrants. A police official on duty indulges into an argument with a protestor and beats him up. When inquired about his action, he says that he was told to teach them a lesson by the Superintendent of Police. Give your comment on ethical behaviour of both the Superintendent of Police and the Police official in the light of the above-mentioned incident.
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Differentiate between democratic attitude and bureaucratic attitude of public servants.
Attitude
Democratic attitude treats the citizen as the source of authority and shows as courtesy, speaking orders, and inspectable criteria. Bureaucratic attitude is Weber’s hierarchy, rules, and impersonality; its virtue is fairness, its vice is delay-as-power. Merton’s trained incapacity is when the file becomes the purpose. The Second ARC asked for citizen-centric skill inside a rule-bound office. Public service ethics keeps impersonality against favour and drops contempt of the counter.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Explain the role of persuasion in relation to public protest with proper argument.
Attitude
Protest is often an Article 19 voice; persuasion is public reason before coercion. Ethos, pathos, logos and Cialdini’s tools explain how a trusted, factual, felt message works. Naming the grievance and offering an auditable next step convert heat into a file. Gandhi’s satyagraha is persuasion plus discipline, not vandalism. Force is last when life or another’s right is hit; empty persuasion is deceit.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Define impartiality and discuss the role of impartiality in solving problems of weaker section.
Civil Service aptitude and values
Impartiality decides by statute, evidence and need, not by caste, party, gift or fear. Nolan, Kant and Rawls give the same test: a noting that survives a hidden name. For the weaker section it applies Articles 14–17 and 46 instead of selling the free entitlement. Speaking orders, social audit and protection of the honest officer are the method. Ambedkar and field officers like Sankaran show impartiality as social democracy in the file.