SECURE SYNOPSIS: 03 FEBRUARY 2018
SECURE SYNOPSIS: 03 FEBRUARY 2018
NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: World geography
- Indigenous peoples are among the first to face the direct consequences of climate change, owing to their dependence upon, and close relationship with the environment and its resources.
- Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by vulnerable indigenous communities, including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination and unemployment.
- Examples include:
- In the high altitude regions of the Himalayas, glacial melts affecting hundreds of millions of rural dwellers who depend on the seasonal flow of water is resulting in more water in the short term, but less in the long run as glaciers and snow cover shrink.
- In the Amazon, the effects of climate change include deforestation and forest fragmentation, and consequently, more carbon released into the atmosphere exacerbating and creating further changes.
- Droughts in 2005 resulted in fires in the western Amazon region. This is likely to occur again as rainforest is replaced by savannas, thus having a huge affect on the livelihoods of the indigenous peoples in the region.
- Indigenous peoples in the Arctic region depend on hunting for polar bears, walrus, seals ,fishing and gathering, not only for food to support the local economy, but also as the basis for their cultural and social identity.
- Some of the concerns facing indigenous peoples there include the change in species and availability of traditional food sources, perceived reduction in weather predictions and the safety of travelling in changing ice and weather conditions, posing serious challenges to human health and food security.
- In Finland, Norway and Sweden, rain and mild weather during the winter season often prevents reindeer from accessing lichen, which is a vital food source. This has caused massive loss of reindeer, which are vital to the culture.
- Rising temperatures, dune expansion, increased wind speeds, and loss of vegetation are negatively impacting traditional cattle and goat farming practices of indigenous peoples in Africa’s Kalahari Basin, who must now live around government-drilled bores in order to access water and depend on government support for their survival and bringing different cultures together leading to ethnic clashes.
- Indigenous peoples may be more vulnerable to irregular migration such as trafficking and smuggling, owing to sudden displacement by a climactic event, limited legal migration options and limited opportunities to make informed choices.
- Deforestation, particularly in developing countries, is pushing indigenous families to migrate to cities for economic reasons, often ending up in urban slums.
However over the period of time indigenous peoples interpret and react to the impacts of climate change in creative ways, drawing on traditional knowledge and other technologies to find solutions which may help society at large to cope with impending changes.
- Examples include:
- In Bangladesh, villagers are creating floating vegetable gardens to protect their livelihoods from flooding, while in Vietnam, communities are helping to plant dense mangroves along the coast to diffuse tropical-storm waves.
- It is important to note that enhancing and supporting the adaptive capacity of indigenous peoples will only be successful if this is integrated with other strategies such as disaster preparation, land-use planning, environmental conservation and national plans for sustainable development.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
2) It is said that the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement has become obsolete and there is a need for India to negotiate a new nuclear deal with the US. Considering new global realities, how should India revive this deal? Critically analyse. (250 Words)
Reasons which make the deal obsolete or what is the need for the revival of the deal?
- Issues with the Companies:-
- So far there is no sign yet of any concrete contract between an American company and the Indian authorities to build a reactor. In 2009, both GE-Hitachi and Toshiba-Westinghouse had begun talks on techno-commercial agreements for six reactors each in India.
- GE-Hitachi’s plans were shelved after it rejected the Obama-Modi agreement in 2015, saying GE would not accept the compromise formula on supplier liability.
- Toshiba and Westinghouse had major financial troubles last year. The track record of the company does not inspire confidence.
- In the US too, work on four nuclear plants began but not one has been completed yet.
- India is thinking of reviving the deal with Westinghouse. While the construction of the plant will be done by a local partner, design and consultation will be provided by Westinghouse. No one knows if the technology is reliable as no plants with the technology are in operation around the world.
- The deal that took place earlier was under different circumstances .No there have been shifts in global politics, boom of renewable energy technology is happening ,there is change in the U.S.’s commitment to India.
- There are changes in the deal itself:-
- The financial crisis was set off because Westinghouse went into major cost overruns in building four AP1000 reactors at two projects in the U.S., the same reactors as the ones meant for India.
- India’s past record with Russian projects puts the mean time to construct a reactor here at nine years. This would mean that even if an India-U.S. techno-commercial contract is finally readied in 2019 it may not see fruition until 2029, a good 20 years after the nuclear agreement was signed. This was not the deal wanted
- US policy on renewable energy changed:-
- Trump’s presidency has taken a very sharp turn away from renewable energy and nuclear energy.
- America wants to mine, export and push oil, gas, coal and shale trade into its foreign outreach. So India may not get the support that the Obama administration had promised both on financing renewable energy projects and in facilitating India-U.S. civil nuclear power deals.
- India’s own requirements from the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal have changed considerably.
- In 2017, the Cabinet approved a $11 billion, 7,000 MW construction plan for 10 Indian-made pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). So India is making a push for indigenous nuclear power plants
- India has also found much more comfort in its existing agreement with Russia’s Atomstroyexport, which makes steady pace in delivering reactors and operationalising power projects.
- The cost that India is prepared to pay for nuclear energy through foreign collaborations has also changed now.
- Shifts in the world nuclear industry must be studied closely before heading back into negotiations with new companies.
- As the pressure to lower nuclear power tariffs increases, nuclear safety requirements have become more stringent, putting intense strain on all those in the business.
- Even the world is compromising on its commitment with nuclear energy post Fukushima disaster .
- Nuclear power is losing its primacy in the energy mix. In 2016, for example, global wind power output grew by 16%, solar by 30%, but nuclear energy only by 1.4%.
How to revive the deal:-
- The above mentioned issues need to be carefully discussed and logical conclusions need to be derived
- Supplier liability need to be stressed.
- Safety mechanisms need to be imbibed more seriously.
- The projects need to be delivered on time and should also include cost over runs and bankruptcy of the companies.
- Enrichment and reprocessing is needed to avoid future of nuclear waste.
Topic: Development processes and the development industry- the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders
- Some of the immediate challenges which were of concern to India immediately following India’s partition were food security, illiteracy, vast population and depletion of resources etc.
Role played by NGO and international institutions:-.
- Family planning:-
- With the approval of the Nehru government, the Rockefeller foundation(RF) also took steps to examine population growth rates and initiate a programme of human fertility restriction in rural Punjab beginning with support for a pioneering longitudinal study in 1953.
- This represented the first attempts on the part of international philanthropic organisations to connect the imperatives of rural development and economic growth to a programme of fertility restriction.
- Indus water treaty:-
- World bank’s role in completing the international agreement that to this day governs hydrological and agricultural resources along the Indo–Pakistani border.
- The connection between water, soil fertility, and the potential of new high-yielding seed varieties to increase Indian food production proved clear within the negotiations surrounding the treaty.
- The emphasis placed upon improving soil health within Indus water treaty would enable the extensive cultivation of these high-yielding wheat varieties across post-partition Punjab.
- Further, the RF and the IARI’s advocacy for the wider use of fertilisers would enable farmers to cultivate these varieties extensively. So the start for green revolution was given by NGO’s .
- Food security:-
- These organisations helped India getting food grains from abroad, tackling famine successfully.
- With green revolution food imports largely reduced and slowly India became self sufficient
- India was facing the challenge of illiteracy .So many NGO’s contributed to ensure education for the Indians.
- Drinking Water:-
- The India mark IIis a human-powered pump designed to lift water from a depth of fifty metres or less. The Mark II is world’s most widely used water hand pump.
- The pump was designed in the 1970s to serve village water needs in developing countries and rural areas.
- The pump was designed in the 1970s in a joint effort between the Government of India, UNICEF, and The World Health Organization(WHO) to address the severe drought and a water shortage affecting India during that period and to prevent evacuation of villages to refugee camps.
- The role played by these institutions reached vast reaches of the society without any discrimination and India got slowly access to implementation of immunisation programmes, development projects etc.
Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health
- In the world there are lot of people who are dying of diseases, no proper quality health care .So for effectively tackle it access to healthcare is necessary.
- From prohibitive cancer drugs that make it harder to fight the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, making resources available to fight microbial drug resistance, investments for neglected tropical diseases , or getting access to timely diagnostics access issues are a cornerstone for equitable health systems worldwide even as overall health systems strengthening driven by countries is important.
Reasons why access to healthcare is needed and why countries were unable to provide access so far:-
- Equitable access to medicines is denied due to market distortions and price barriersto procurement which may include IP provisions, extremely tight regulatory standards and monopolies.
- Lack of transparency in research and development
- Issues with transfer of technology.
- High cost of drugs affect rich countries as well, eating into their health budgets and denying medicines to those in need.
- In addition, the benefits accruing to generic producers of cheap drugs in alliance with pharmaceutical giants have also changed the dynamics.
- Health care to the well-being of citizens enhances the productive capacity of its population thereby enhancing economic growth of the country.
- In India ,Part IV of the Constitution of India talks about the Directive Principles of State Policy. Article 47 under part IV lists the “Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health”
- India’s health-care infrastructure is largely inadequate to serve its vast population. So access of healthcare does not ensure quality.
- The total number of hospitals and health-care professionals, public and private included, fall short of addressing the total demand for health-care services, despite being large in numbers.
- According to KPMG report, around 80 per cent of all doctors and 75 per cent of dispensaries serve 28 per cent of the country’s population.
- The focus of policymakers has been to address the demand-side issues rather than the supply-side inefficiencies.
- Dismal health-care expenditure has aggravated the inadequacy of health-care infrastructure.
- India accounts for over 17 per cent of the world’s population while spending very less of the world’s total health expenditure.
- There is usually a considerable delay of funds disbursed for utilisation in critical government schemes rendering them ineffective.
- Funds allocated for skill building of health-care professionals are usually not utilised owing to lack of such human resources.
- Problems of governance deficit and regulatory capture arise due to myriad laws and regulations which impede the normal development of this sector.
- A large number of institutions and health-care providers like doctors, equipment manufacturers, drug companies, and hospitals are not formally recognised by the state due to a host of laws and regulations. This has inhibited access to health care.
- Finally, the lack of awareness and monitoring of diseases as well as the steps needed to eradicate them pose a serious challenge to the access of health-care.
- UN panel recommendationis that governments and the private sector must refrain from explicit or implicit threats, tactics or strategies that undermine the right of the WTO Members to use TRIPS [the agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights] flexibilities
- The panel said that undue political or commercial pressure, including punitive measures against offending members, should be reported to the WTO secretariat and its members.
- Experts recommended pushing for national laws to reflect TRIPS flexibilities and improve transparency in R&D costs in addition to asking countries to commit spending at least 0.01% of their gross domestic product to basic and applied research relevant to the health needs of developing countries.
- India requires an urgently integrated action on health care to make it universally accessible and affordable at the same time. This will not just address the country’s health needs but also have a positive impact on its poverty and growth levels.
- Similarly, Japan’s rapid growth since the second decade of the 20th century can be understood in light of the higher investment in health and education after the Meiji restoration. India needs to follow a similar strategy to make its citizens more competitive and act as an asset to the country’s growth.
General Studies – 3
5) In the recent budget it was announced that the Central government will increase the ambit of the Ujjwala scheme from the existing five crore to eight crore beneficiaries. Critically evaluate the performance of the scheme and comment on the feasibility of the new target. (250 Words)
- The Prime Minister’s Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) aims at making poor women free from the smoke of burning wood.
- Families below the poverty line (BPL) can get free LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connection.
- Initially, the target was to provide free LPG connections to about 5 crore poor women. But in view of the pace of implementation of the Ujjwala scheme and its popularity among women, the government proposed to increase the target of providing free connections to 8 crore poor women.
- Under Ujjwala, the government aims to give 50 million LPG connections to BPL families by 2019. For this, it has allocated Rs 8,000 crore.
- Successful made women realise the benefits of LPG cooking as cooking with it is quite easy compared to the traditional chulha.
- The number of indoor air pollution deaths would be reduced
- Within a year, the government had distributed more than 22 million LPG connections, exceeding the target of 15 million. Uttar Pradesh has benefitted the most.
- It brought down the upfront cost. Earlier, an LPG connection would cost Rs 4,500 to Rs 5,000. Now it cost barely Rs 3,200.
- Of this, the government gives half the money as a one-time grant. This grant of Rs 1,600 covers the cost of a 14.2 kg cylinder, pressure regulator, hose and miscellaneous charges. They have to bear the cost of a two-burner stove, which comes to another Rs 1,600.
- If they cannot bear the cost of stove, they can get a loan from oil marketing companies. Thus, one can get the LPG connection for free under Ujjwala.
- The extraction of firewood from forests earlier has intensified India’s environmental problems but with use of LPG this has reduced.
- The new target is feasible when it comes to number of connections to be established.
However some concerns remain:-
- High Refill cost:-
- Economic Survey 2018 had highlighted that only 79 per cent of beneficiaries came to refill the cylinder.
- While the number of LPG connections across India has increased by an impressive 16.26% since the scheme was launched, the use of gas cylinders increased by only 9.83%. according to data from the government’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell
- If the family has availed a loan at the time of taking the connection, it will have to shell out more money for the first few refillings .
- High installation cost:
- CRISIL data – Of those surveyed, 86% said they had not shifted from biomass to LPG because the price of installing a connection was too high.
- The long waiting time to get a refill for an empty LPG cylinder.
- Gram-panchayat level surveys found that in a fourth of the panchayats, users had to wait for more than 15 days on average to get a cylinder refilled.
- As per Census 2011, nearly 121 million house-holds are still in the chulha trap. This takes a huge toll on the health of women and children. Indoor air pollution is now the second biggest killer in India after high blood pressure.
- LPG usage in villages depends on what other fuels are available. Since many families get cow dung, crop residue, twigs and fuel wood free, they ration their use of LPG.
- The distribution of LPG in remote villages:
- LPG cylinders are distributed by three oil marketing companies in India, namely Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. These companies appoint dealers and distributors all over the country.
- In the past three years more than 5,000 LPG distributors have been added in the country, according to the petroleum ministry. Close to half of these distributors have been recruited in the past 16 months alone. However, this is not yet sufficient.
- Gas agencies do not provide door-to-door facility. Many women carry the empty cylinder over a distance of three to 15 km.
- Since the distributors are not willing to go to remote areas this leaves scope for middlemen who either overcharge or divert the gas
- It is failing in its objective of persuading households to stop using firewood and traditional biomass fuels that have the potential to cause respiratory diseases.
- Relying too much on LPG also makes India dependent on petroleum imports
- Grading the subsidy according to the economic strata.
- Making people more aware of the benefits of LPG especially the health benefits.
- Village level ASHA workers can be roped in to create awareness about the ill effects of traditional chulhas. This will create a bottom up demand for cleaner fuels.
- Diversifying fuel options and making cylinders in different portable sizes available is needed.
- Since biomass is abundantly available in Indian villages, the government should continue its efforts on clean cook stoves and community-based biogas plants, so that the poor have alternative cleaner fuels.
- The cost of refilled cylinders would have to be further subsidised by the government. In addition, the infrastructure for delivering cylinders – bottling plants, dealers and distributors had to be enhanced substantially.
- To arrive at an accurate assessment of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, experts say, merely counting the number of new gas connections cannot be the only yardstick.
Topic: Environmental pollution
6) The Economic Survey 2018 finds that climate change is now hurting Indian agriculture and farmers considerably. In this regard critically examine how the latest union budget seeks to address environmental concerns raised by the Economic Survey 2018. (150 Words)
- The Economic Survey 2018found that the effect of extreme temperature shocks on productivity in un-irrigated areas, which account for more than half of our agricultural land, is significant.
- An extreme temperature shock in unirrigated areas reduces yields by 7 per cent for Kharif and 7.6 per cent for Rabi.
- Similarly, extreme rainfall shocks lead to reduction in yield .These losses could rise significantly in the coming years as the warming level reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next 10 years.
Union Budget measures:-
- Ujjwala scheme is expanded with coverage increased from 3 crore to 8 crore beneficiaries.
- For cleaning of India’s polluted rivers, the budget has increased fund allocation for the National River Conservation Programme from last year’s INR 7.23 billion (USD 114 million) to INR 7.70 billion (USD 121 million) for 2018-19, an increase of only 6.5 per cent.
- Operation Green on the lines of Operation Flood for enhancing the production of tomato, onion and potatoes. A sum of Rs 500 crore has been allocated for this new measure.
- Government will launch a scheme for Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARDHAN) that will promote composting and promote usage of biofuels .
- Issue of air pollution due to crop burning in Delhi-NCR region as tackled as a special scheme to subsidise machinery required for in-situ management of crop residues was announced.
Many issues were not dealt:-
- Crop burning and air pollution is not restricted to only Delhi-NCR and the surrounding states. It is happening in large parts of the country. Most cities do not meet the ambient air quality standards.
- Allocations for renewable energy and environment in India’s federal budget was criticised
- The budgetary allocation for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which deals with the solar and wind power sector in India, rose by a mere 9 per cent to INR 103.2 billion .In comparison, MNRE allocations expanded in the past two fiscal years by 37 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively.
- Renewable energy sector is already facing policy and trade regulation uncertainties which would be further complicated because of no measures in budget
- India aims to install a renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by 2022. It is now unlikely that the government will achieve this target experts said.
- Incentives that were already there, like 80 per cent accelerated depreciation and tax holidays for renewable energy, were withdrawn last year. Due to this, the investment in renewable energy was appallingly low this year,
- The budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) rose by a mere 4.5 per cent for 2018-19 compared with a growth in allocation by 19 per cent for the previous financial year.
- Sustainable development, climate change, and environment conservation are not dealt effectively in the budget
- Groundwater irrigation schemes were announced without much focus on water recharge.
- Funding for the government’s mega Ganga clean-up programme remained the same as last financial year
- Climate change:-
- The budget for the climate change action plan and the adaptation fund has more or less remained the same as the last year at about Rs 150 crore.
- Withdrawal of cesses:-
- The budget is also silent on various environmental cesses. Due to the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), all environment-related taxes have been withdrawn.
- The National Clean Energy Fund, financed through a cess on coal consumption, has been diverted to compensate states for losses incurred due to GST.
- The water cess, which charged industries for water consumption, was withdrawn.
- In the budget there is no mention of how these cesses would be replaced or compensated.
- A national action plan to combat air pollution backed with significant budgetary allocation would have been an appropriate response .
- ‘Ease of Living’ is not only about infrastructure; it is also about a clean and healthy environment. India needs to ensure that
7) It is argued that to make Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) really attractive for farmers, various serious measures need to be taken. In the light of the recent budget, discuss these measures. (250 Words)
- Agriculture insurance is recognised as an important part of the safety net for farmers to deal with the impacts of extreme and unseasonal weather. To protect farmers government has come up with Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana:-
- The PMFBY was launched by the Centre in 2016 to help farmers cope with crop losses due to unseasonal and extreme weather.
- It replaced the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and the Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme.
- PMFBY was more farmer-friendly provisions than its predecessors. It reduced the burden of premium on farmers significantly and expanded coverage. It also promoted use of advanced technologies to estimate losses accurately and accelerate payments to farmers.
- Government has further targeted at increasing the coverage. In Budget 2018-19, allocation to the PMFBY scheme is Rs 13,000 crore and a target of increasing coverage to 98 million ha gross crop area has been set.
- However still concerns remained:-
- Gaps in assessment of crop loss:
- The sample size in each village was not large enough to capture the scale and diversity of crop losses.
- In many cases, district or block level agricultural department officials do not conduct such sampling on ground and complete the formalities only on paper.
- There is lack of trained outsourced agencies, scope of corruption during implementation and the non-utilisation of technologies like smart phones and drones to improve reliability of such sampling
- Less number of notified crops than can avail insurance,
- Inadequate and delayed claim payment:
- Insurance companies, in many cases, did not investigate losses due to a localised calamity and, therefore, did not pay claims.
- Only 32 per cent of the reported claims were paid out by insurance companies, even when in many states the governments had paid their part of premium.
- High actuarial premium rates
- Insurance companies charged high actuarial premium rates
- Massive profits for insurance companies
- Coverage only for loanee farmers:
- PMFBY remains a scheme for loanee farmers farmers who take loans from banks are mandatorily required to take insurance. Like previous crop insurance schemes, PMFBY fails to cover sharecropper and tenant farmers
- Poor capacity to deliver:
- There has been no concerted effort by the state government and insurance companies to build awareness of farmers on PMFBY.
- Insurance companies have failed to set-up infrastructure for proper implementation of PMFBY.
- There is still no direct linkage between insurance companies and farmers.
- Insured farmers receive no insurance policy document or receipt.
- Delayed notification by state governments
- PMBY is not beneficial for farmers in vulnerable regions as factors like low indemnity levels, low threshold yields, low sum insured and default on loans make it a poor scheme to safeguard against extreme weather events.
- Gaps in assessment of crop loss:
- However, merely increasing the budget allocation for PMFBY scheme might not help the farmers.
- There have been farmers’ protests in various states against compulsory coverage of loanee farmers under this scheme. Farmer activists fear that this scheme might end up benefitting insurance companies more than the farmers.
- CAG report:-
- Private companies are not properly monitored and premium subsidy is released to them simply on the basis of affidavits provided by these companies without checking actual situation on the ground.
Various serious measures need to be taken:-
- Insurance unit has to be brought down to individual farm level
- Currently insurance unit is at village level. This scheme does not guarantee relief for individual farmer in the event of crop loss. Bringing insurance unit at individual farm level is a major technological challenge, which should be addressed at the earliest.
- Making claims payment fast and transparent
- There should be strict compliance of timelines with regard to the process of claim settlement to provide adequate and timely compensation to farmers.
- Danger of discouraging mixed cropping and crop diversification
- A limited number of crops are notified by states under PMFBY. This can act as an impediment to crop diversification. PMFBY will have to make insurance relevant to farmers by including more and more crops under notification and by allowing insurance for mixed cropping.
- Improve scheme monitoring and grievance redressal mechanism
- Dedicated common toll-free numbers should be channelised to address all queries, concerns and grievances of farmers with respect to crop insurance. This toll-free number should serve as a one-stop solution for crop insurance. Farmers should be able to avail of a single window that is accountable to them for all aspects of the scheme.
- Coverage of losses expanded:-
- Coverage of tenant and sharecropper farmers should increase
- Damage caused by wild animals, fire, cold waves and frost to crops should also be considered at the individual level. Damage caused by unforeseen weather events like hailstorms should also be included in the category of post-harvest losses.
- Farmers must be informed before deducting crop insurance premium. They must be given a proper insurance policy document, with all relevant details.
- Capacity building:-
- Panchayati Raj Institutions and farmers need to be involved at different stages of implementation.
- Incentivise groups of small farmers or women farmers and promote group insurance.
- Robust assessment of crop loss should be done through capacity building of state governments, involvement of PRIs and farmers in loss assessment, auditing and multi-level checking to ensure credibility of data and testing incorporating technology such as remote sensing, drones and online transmission of data.
- In an era of climate change, a universal, subsidised agriculture insurance is crucial to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of farmers. So India needs a farmer-friendly, fair and transparent agriculture insurance.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators;
In this, King calls people to actively seek ways to elevate the needs of others within the society. He embodied these ideals in a life devoted to justice, and his actions as a leader reflected this creative altruism. An individual has not started living fully until they can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity.
While the concept describes civic life and responsibilities, it also holds true in professional interactions. When success world leaders are observed i.e..,those who have credibility and have the ability to influence others, are all creative altruists. Sometime in their journey, they’ve made the choice (whether deliberate or through formation of habit) that intentionally finding ways of helping others is non-negotiable.
Adam Grant in his book Give and Take, demonstrates that “givers” are also often the most successful people in any organization, even when the environment is “cutthroat and competitive. In the long run, the greatest success and the richest meaning will come to those who, instead of cutting other people down, pursue their personal ambitions in ways that lift others up.
Creative altruism comes in many different forms. But it stems from a mindset of helping others whenever you can even when there is no direct benefit to you.
Destructive selfishness would only push the humanity into darkness with people resorting to violence like ISIS, during communal riots etc where only their perspective is understood by them .
There are several steps of creative altruism:-
- Set a personal intention for a win/win outcome where everyone can get some of what they need and want.
- Meet with everyone affected and find out what they need.
- Ask for suggestions from everyone involved about how to solve the problem in a way that allows everyone to gain something of value.
- Try to work to allow the greatest benefits to the greatest number of parties.
- Decide on a plan for carrying out the group’s decision.
Through creative altruism, any ordinary career can tip the scales towards becoming an exceptional career, defined as one of service, meaning, purpose, and growth. King ignited a new vision for an entire nation and opened the chapter for a more collaborative world.