(a) Social values are more important than economic values. Discuss the above statement with examples in the context of inclusive growth of a nation. (10 Marks) (b) Some recent developments such as introduction of RTI Act, media and judicial activism, etc. are proving helpful in bringing about greater transparency and accountability in the functioning of the government. However, it is also being observed that at times the mechanisms are misused. Another negative effect is that the officers are now afraid to take prompt decisions. Analyse the situation in detail and suggest how the dichotomy can be resolved. Suggest how these negative impacts can be minimised. (10 Marks).

(a) Social values and inclusive growth

• Economic values are output, profit, fiscal surplus and the growth rate. They matter. They are not the whole republic.
• Social values are dignity, equality, solidarity, trust, and care for those who cannot buy a market share.
• Inclusive growth is growth that the poor, women, Adivasis, persons with disability and backward regions actually enter, not only watch on television.
• If economic values sit first, a dam, a mine or a city can rise while a community loses land, school and health. The average looks fine; the bottom is out.
• Social values first does not mean poverty as a virtue. It means the extra rupee is judged by whether it widens capability: Amartya Sen’s point that development is freedom to live a life one has reason to value.
• Example: a high GDP with falling female labour participation and rising crimes against women is not inclusive. Safety, education and property rights for women are social values that make later growth real.
• Example: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 spends money, but its ethical claim is a right to work and a village asset, not only a multiplier.
• Example: a factory that pays well and dumps effluent into a Dalit hamlet’s pond has economic value and social failure. The National Green Tribunal cases are full of this split.
• Land acquisition that skips consent and livelihood is growth as capture. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 tried to put social cost on the page.
• A nation that keeps social values first will still seek investment; it will not call a poisoned river a success because exports rose.

(b) RTI, media, judicial activism: help, misuse, fear, repair

• The Right to Information Act, 2005, a questioning press, and courts that stay an arbitrary demolition have pulled files into the light. That is a democratic gain.
• Misuse is real. RTI can be a tool of blackmail, of business rivalry, or of a flood of queries meant to freeze a desk. Media trials can destroy a career before a charge sheet. Public interest litigation can become private interest litigation with a camera.
• Officers then delay: every signature feels like a future summons. The honest become slow; the dishonest still move through informal routes.
• The dichotomy is not “people versus officers”. It is accountability versus paralysis.
• Resolve it by quality, not by switching the lamps off.
• RTI: strengthen Section 4 disclosure so routine data is public; penalise vexatious patterns without punishing a poor citizen’s first application; protect bona fide decision notes that are already recorded.
• Media: a statutory or strong self-regulatory line against named trial before inquiry; officers should still brief facts, not hide. Contempt and defamation exist; they must not become a shield for graft.
• Courts: continue to strike down illegality; avoid running tenders and school boards from the bench. The executive must decide; the court must review.
• Decision culture: speaking orders, e-files, and a clear “reasoned dissent” practice so that a later inquiry sees judgement, not a blank.
• Protection for honest error: a defined safe harbour for bona fide decisions taken with reasons, as later company and public-servant debates have sought, so that fear of a fishing inquiry does not freeze a disaster order.
• Training: teach officers to write reasons, not to hide. Teach applicants that RTI is a right, not a weaponised delay.
• Political example from the top: if transfers punish the signer of an inconvenient true note, no Act will make officers brave.