Revision summary
Nolan’s seven — selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership — are the core map of public life. India adds neutrality, constitutional morality, empathy, and procurement probity. Each needs a desk example: recusal, refused envelope, uncooked dashboard, signed riot note, plain RTI. Openness without honesty is theatre; leadership without selflessness is a cult. Principles live or die in the tehsil copy, not on a poster.
Model answer
Introduction
The major principles of public life are the standards that make a public office a trust. The Nolan list is the usual map; Indian administration adds constitutional morality and compassion at the counter.
Body
The Nolan core
- Selflessness: decisions for public good, not for a kin job or a donor. Example: recusing from a contract where a sibling is a bidder.
- Integrity: not placing the office under a financial or other obligation. Example: refusing a festival envelope from a contractor who has a live file.
- Objectivity: merit, evidence, and equal criteria. Example: a selection list ranked by published marks, not by a phone call.
- Accountability: owning the order to the public, audit, and legislature. Example: a district magistrate who signs a riot note and faces the house committee, not a nameless WhatsApp.
- Openness: reasons unless a lawful secret. Example: an RTI reply that explains a mining refusal in plain language.
- Honesty: no deceit in minutes, data, or promises. Example: not cooking a vaccination dashboard to please a review.
- Leadership: setting the tone so subordinates can copy integrity. Example: a superintendent of police who visits the lock-up unannounced and stops a shakedown.
Indian public-life additions
- Impartiality and political neutrality: the same law for every procession. Example: permission time that does not secretly prefer the ruling cadre.
- Constitutional morality: procedure and rights over a crowd’s appetite. Example: protecting a lonely accused from a mob even when the mob is electorally loud.
- Empathy and responsiveness: the widow’s pension is not a leftover file. Example: a camp that clears withheld DBT mismatches in a week.
- Probity in public procurement: example: GeM and open tenders instead of a single-source favour.
How they work together
- Openness without honesty is a press show; honesty without accountability is a private diary.
- Leadership without selflessness becomes a cult of the officer.
- Example of joint failure: a “fast” demolition with no hearing fails openness, empathy, and constitutional morality at once.
- Example of joint success: a published, reasoned, recused, audited scholarship list.
Why examples must be local to the desk
- Principles die as posters if the tehsil copy is sold. Each principle is a habit in a live UP or all-India file, not a UK import only.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD N[Nolan seven] --> P[Public life] I[Impartiality] --> P M[Constitutional morality] --> P P --> T[Trust at the desk]
Conclusion
Public life rests on selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership, joined in India to neutrality, constitutional morality, and empathy. They are proved in recusal, uncooked data, reasoned RTI, and a lock-up that is not a shop.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Nowadays social media is used to influence public opinion either positively or negatively. Being a civil servant, how will you solve this issue?
Next question in the 2023 paper (Q17). View answer →
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Are Nolan principles foreign to India?
The names are imported. The substance — not selling the desk — is Kautilya, Gandhi, and the Conduct Rules as well.
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Which principle is first?
Selflessness and integrity are prior; without them openness becomes a better-lit shop.
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