5th June, 2025

Data and Facts for Mains

GS III

Ecology

Online food deliveries generate 22,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste every month.

Agriculture

• There are 4 lakh illegal pumpsets in the State of Karnataka. Of theses 2.5 lakh have been regularised and remaining need to be regularised.

• Karnataka has set a target of generating 2,400 megawatts of solar power through feeder solarisation of agricultural pumpsets under the Kusum-C scheme.

• Currently farmers receive free electricity to run agri pumpsets upto 10HP.

GS IV - Ethics

Issue: Cab service providers doubled the prices during recent victory celebration of RCB in Bengaluru. This prevented many people from escaping the venue and was one of the causes of overcrowding and deaths.

Ethical Issues Involved

• Exploitation of Demand (Price Gouging)

  
  

  Issue: Cab aggregators (like Ola, Uber, etc.) used surge pricing algorithms to increase fares when demand peaked.

  
  

  Ethical Concern:

  
  

  This practice exploits a vulnerable situation, where people are desperate to get home safely.

  
  

  Basic services like transport during emergencies should not be treated like luxury goods.

  
  

  Example: If someone cannot afford the surge price, they may be forced to walk or wait in unsafe, overcrowded areas—risking stampedes, harassment, or worse.

• Public Safety Negligence

  
  

  Issue: Cab services are part of the urban mobility ecosystem and their actions indirectly impact public safety.

  
  

  Ethical Concern:

  
  

  By restricting affordable transport, they contributed to mass immobilization, leading to overcrowding and panic.

  
  

  This raises questions of indirect responsibility for the chaos and fatalities.

• Lack of Social Responsibility

  
  

  Issue: Private cab providers focused solely on profit maximization at the cost of social responsibility.

  
  

  Ethical Concern:

  
  

  In large public events, all service providers must act in a socially responsible way.

  
  

  This includes helping facilitate movement, cooperating with civic authorities, or at least avoiding price hikes in sensitive situations.

• Algorithmic Decision-Making without Human Oversight

  
  

  Issue: Surge pricing is automated, and there's often no override mechanism during emergencies.

  
  

  Ethical Concern:

  
  

  Algorithms should be ethically designed to recognize human emergencies and not act purely on market principles.

  
  

  Lack of oversight makes it difficult to hold anyone accountable.

• Inequity and Exclusion

  
  

  Issue: Only those who could afford high prices could escape the venue quickly.

  
  

  Ethical Concern:

  
  

  It creates a class-based mobility divide in public spaces.

  
  

  Violates the ethical principle of equity in access to essential services.

• Failure of Anticipatory Governance (Shared Ethical Responsibility)

  
  

  Though this point goes beyond cab providers alone:

  
  

  Concern:

  
  

  Event organizers, civic authorities, and private operators all had a shared ethical duty to prepare for safe dispersal.

  
  

  The cab providers did not coordinate or limit surge pricing, despite knowing the situation.

Key Ethical Principles Violated

Principle	How It Was Violated
Utilitarianism	Actions caused more harm than good to the majority.
Justice and Fairness	Unequal access to safe transport during a crisis.
Non-maleficence	Led to indirect harm (e.g., stampede, deaths).
Social Contract	Failed to uphold social obligations in a public crisis.