Increased ethics education can drive awareness among professionals in the public sector.
CFA Society India could potentially collaborate to provide ethics assessments as a service, making them mandatory for all public servants every three years.
The CFA community is globally recognized for its strong emphasis on ethics, often giving greater weight to ethical knowledge than to technical expertise.A joint venture dedicated to ethics education could begin with mandatory sessions and assessments for police officers, bureaucrats, and similar professionals, eventually expanding to include politicians.
Why This Might Work
Increased awareness and education are crucial. For example, educating a college student about the link between smoking and cancer is far more effective than counseling them after they have become addicted.
Similarly, consider an engineer tempted to accept a bribe for substandard materials in bridge construction. If they realize their own family might one day cross that bridge, their perspective could change. Or take a police officer who accepts a bribe to suppress a crime; if the offender remains free, their actions could eventually harm people close to the officer as well.ConclusionCorruption is fundamentally an education problem.
Business Model
A joint venture between CFA Society and some reputed business group or maybe a dedicated startup could generate recurring revenue through periodic ethics assessments and by delivering high-value, practical ethics training. Once the right mindset is instilled, it becomes a self-sustaining, virtuous cycle.
It would be interesting if a group of corporates filed a PIL in the Supreme Court to mandate professional ethics education across all public servants. If successful, this could become one of India’s most impactful governance reforms.
While I see the merit in your thought, it’s best if a business only raises concerns that’s relevant to it’s field. Say, a policy that’s not helpful for the consumer etc. Public servants are structurally outside the scope of any business.
If at all, the voters are the ones who can request for better competence.
But I believe this particular reform will directly contribute to business growth and ease of doing business in the long run by fostering a transparent, accountable, and corruption-free governance environment.
Corruption is one of the key factors that widens income inequality. Those with money tend to attract more money, allowing only the top of the pyramid to keep squeezing value from the bottom. This reduces the buying power of a large portion of the population and slows down market expansion for any product, even today.
Corporate backing is critical to highlight the importance and seriousness of the PIL. When a group of corporates collectively supports such a reform, it creates a strong, unified voice that local governments or leaders cannot easily silence or ignore, thus ensuring sustained pressure and visibility for the issue.
Just imagine the impact this would have. A police constable, tahsildar, district collector, or even politicians acting with utmost integrity and strictly following the rules. That would be the foundation of a new and powerful India. There is also a strong tailwind, the average years of education for every Indian are steadily increasing, and people are becoming more aware after enduring struggles caused by corrupt public servants. This is an opportunity for the group or corporates filing the PIL to attract public interest, build trust, and unite the entire nation.
