New Delhi. Cracking UPSE examination is no child’s play and it requires sheer hard work, time management and overall clarity of thoughts, while dealing with situations that involves both mind and soul. The only constant in this elite examination is change” and it tests the vast knowledge, intelligence and memory of the aspirants. Of late another paradigm has also been inducted into UPSE examination when in 2013 'Ethics Integrity and Aptitude' has been included as a topic under General Studies.
Actually it was mainly due to the report of 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission, which has expressed deep concern over falling ethical standards of public servants. The 2nd ARC report says that corruption is an important manifestation of the failure of ethics and unfortunately it has become a matter of habit for many people. In addition to this last 4-5 years have seen rising public awareness against corruption in public life. Therefore recognition of the importance of ethics and integrity by UPSC is a widely welcome step.
This new topic is quite complex for the aspirants as few books and study material is available on this new topics. Under such circumstance renowned IPS and Additional DG (Intelligence and Security) Uttrakhand Ashok Kumar and Gaurav Talwar have come forward to guide the UPSE aspirants in form of two books named 'Ethics for civil services' and 'Cracking Civil Services-The Open Secret.' The new books were today launched by Joginder Singh, IPS (Retd) Former Director CBI, Jagdish Chandra, CEO, ETV Network 18 and Nidhi Kulpati, Celebrity Anchor NDTV in IIT Delhi and various distinguished guests and bureaucrats were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Joginder Singh said that current state of the country is quite bad and whole system is corrupted. So it is a responsibility of each one of us has a responsibility to do something to make India corruption free. Citing various grave examples of corruption, he said if 10% of us become ethical then situation in the country becomes quite better.
While congratulating Ashok Kumar for his book Jagdish Chandra suggested that another book should also be written by Ashok kumar that will give some solutions to safeguard the interests of Bureaucrats as this is one of the most challenging situations for current bureaucrats. Nidhi Kulpati also highlighted the great work done by police force in Kashmir that too in the ethical way and lauded the contribution of IPSs and bureaucrats for the development of the country.
Elaborating about the book, Ashok Kumar Says; 'The idea of writing this book came to my mind while guiding a student for preparation of Mains Exam of Civil Services. We went through the G.S Question papers of 2013 and 2014.' 'If we look behind the logic of including Ethics Integrity and Aptitude into UPSE examination curriculum then it is quite clear that UPSC wanted to test aspirant’s ethical aptitude and inherent ethics ingrained in them,' he added. On the USP of the book he said that study material that is available in the market on the subject only provides a heavy dose of philosophy of ethics to the extent that the aspirant gets bogged down by a herd of definitions, philosophers and their theories. 'The emphasis appears to be on defining ethics and philosophy of ethics while it should be on how ethics can be used to improve governance and my book just cater to that,' he explains.
This book tries to decipher complex logic of Ethics in public service. 'I believe that the purpose of including Ethics study in G.S paper is to sensitize the aspirants about ethics and inculcate ethical values in them, quipped Ashok Kumar. 'GS paper is there to test whether or not the aspirant has imbibed good ethical values or not and whether he or she would display impeccable integrity when faced with an ethical dilemma,' he added
The real strength of the book is to guide the aspirants about how to approach the case studies. In fact one full question paper IV of general studies (125 Marks) is devoted to case studies. Even the other half has some questions on case studies pattern. 'Therefore right approach to solving case studies is most crucial to succeed in this exam. We have made an attempt to identify the key issues involved in a particular case study and then weighed various options and then suggested a way out to go for the most ethical alternative,' quipped Ashok Kumar.
This is the third book written by Ashok Kumar and he was the author of books 'Khakhi me Insaan' and 'Challenges of Indian internal security'. A B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Delhi and distinguished 1989 batch IPS officer won UN medal for serving in strife-torn Kosovo in 2001 along with Indian Police medal for meritorious service in 2006 and President’s police medal for distinguished services in 2013.