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UPSC 2017 GS-IV · 10 marks · 150 words

“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” What do you understand by this statement in the present-day scenario? Explain.

What “Explain” demands

set out how or why something works, with the mechanism made explicit.

The characteristic failure: stating that it works without showing how.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

  • Napoleon's claim: ambition is morally neutral energy, and the principles directing it decide whether it builds or destroys
  • Paired illustrations are what the question demands — Ashoka after Kalinga against Hitler; Lincoln against Stalin
  • Present-day framing: ambition in politics, business and technology — the same drive behind entrepreneurship and behind Satyam or Enron-style fraud
  • The mediating variables: value education, institutional checks, accountability — ambition constrained by principle becomes public service
  • Close on the administrative reading: an ambitious officer is an asset when the ambition is for outcomes rather than for postings

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