Proffesional values in engineering profession , Codes , Intellectual property , Ethics , General studies , UPSC ESE

 5 key values

1. Safety 
2. Human progress
3. Clean , clear decision making 
4. Community
5. Partnership with nature

Safety

Occupational healthy and society

Health: the protection of the bodies and minds of people from illness , resulting from the materials , processes and procedures used in workplace.

Safety : the protection of people from physical injury.

Accident :

• It is an incident plus its consequences.
• Accident is the end product of a sequence of events or actions resulting an undesired consequence (injury , property , damage , inter eruption and delay).

Injury :

• Injury is a consequence of an accident.
• Only chance decides the extent and severity of consequence.

Employee wellbeing :

Occupational health objectives / aims : 

• Promotion and maintenance of physical and mental health of workers .
• Prevention amongst workers of illnesses caused by their working conditions.
• The placing of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to physiological capabilities.

Working conditions at the workplace leads to health issues.

• Cancer
• Muscoskeletal diseases 
• Respiratory diseases
• Hearing loss
• Circulatory diseases
• Stress related problem
• Communicable diseases

Constitutional and policy mechanisms for occupational health in India:

Directive principles of state policy and occupational health

• Article 39 E : the health and strength of workers are not abused .
• Article 42 : just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
• Article 43 A : securing a living wage , conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life .
• Article 24 : prohibition of employment of children (below 14) in factories , mines or in any other hazardous employment .

Legal framework / laws relating to occupational health and safety:

Laws related to equality and empowerment of women:

• The maternity benefit act , the equal remuneration act , the sexual harassment of women at workplace act.
• The bonded labour system , abolition act 1976.
• The child labour (prohibition and regulation) act 1986.

Safety policy:

What is safety policy?

• The core document in the management of safety.
• Safety policy is a written statement by an employer stating the company's commitment.
• It serves as a record of the intended standard of care to be provided by the employer.

Need for safety policy?

• Effective means of implementing safety.
• Outlines safety operations and procedures to be followed  in case of a accident.
• Having a policy helps the employee by cutting down his liability in case an accident takes place due to negligence of an employee.

Accidents:

Procedual accidents:

• Most common and are the result of someone making a bad choice or not following established procedures.
• These accidents can be prevented through increased training more supervision new laws or regulations or closer scrutiny by regulators.

Engineered accidents:

• Are caused by flaws in the design.
• These are failures of materials , devices that don't perform well under all circumstances encountered.
• It should be corrected during testing.

Systemetic accidents:

• It is the complex technology and complicated operational systems that create these accidents.
• Its not from one single error, its due to series of minor mistakes.

Engineer's can transfer risk:

• After incoming
• After giving the people choice

Human progress:

• Complete engineer is drawn to innovative solutions that advance human knowledge.
• Seeking to use engineering skills for helping others.
• Complete engineer is civic minded , showing compassion and being helpful to others.

Clean , clear decision making 

• Engineering as a profession is dedicated to making decisions.
• Professional engineers must value precision , clarity , creativity , care and the value of excellence .

Community

Engineering is all about working out a :

• Joint vision
• Relationship
• Shared experience

Partnership with nature:

• Retaining the special quality of nature.
• Sensitive to beauty of nature (design should work with not against nature)
• In the process of remaking over world , we should not intrude more than necessary.

Ethical challenges in engineering:

Confedentiality:

• Principles implies that some information should not be released to people outside of certain circles.(information can be shared with certain limited people for e.g. cabinet meetings)

Privacy vs confedentiality:

Responsible "disobedience"

• Disobedience by contrary action (doing the right thing)
• Disobedience by non participation
• Disobedience by protest (whistle blowing)

Whistle blowing 

• It is about sounding an alarm from within the very department in which they work.
• aims to highlight neglect or abuses that threaten  the public interest.

Moral conflict in whistle blowing :

• Public interest vs department interest
• Whistle blower must consider his responsibility to serve the public interest against the responsibility he owes to his collegues and the institution in which he works.

Types of whistle blowing:

• Internal whistleblowing : alarm is raised within the organisation , may involve bypassing the immediate superiors.
• External whistleblowing : goes outside the organisation , alerts the regulatory bodies.
• Open whistleblowing : identity of whistleblower is revealed 
• Anonymous whistleblowing : identity of the whistleblowers is cancealed.

Whistle blowers protection act 2011

The act seeks to protect whistle blowers i.e. persons making a public interest disclosure related to an act of corruption , misuse of power or criminal offence by a public servant .

Gifts , bribes and kickbacks

• Gifts : are small present offered in normal conduct of relation
• Bribes : substantial amount of money offered beyond the stated business contract with the aim of winning advantage.
• Kickbacks : pre arranged payments made by contractors to departmental officials in exchange for contracts actually granted/

Intellectual property rights

What is intellectual property ?

A category of property that include : 

• Intengible creations of human intelligence
• Many covers , copyrights , patents , trademarks along with other types of rights such as trade secrets , publicity rights , moral rights and right against unfair competition.
• Intengible : cannot be seen , touched , can be easily appropriated , cost of reproduction is negligible.

Categories of IPR

IPR can be divided into 2 categories: 

1. Industrial property : this include patents for inventions , trademarks , geographical indications and industrial designs.
2. Copyright : this covers literary work novels , plays . poems , films , music , articles works (drawings , paintings , photographs , sculptures , architectural designs)

IP chain of activities

• Creation : coming up with a new product 
• Innovation : not seen before
• Commercialisation : execution and availability for selling 
• Protection : registering under new law
• Enforcement : cannot be copied or stolen as per law

Why IP needs protection ?

• High expenditure in creations of new product or designs
• Avoiding free riding problems  - usage of property by others for free
• To retain profits

What is a patent ?

• It is an exclusive right granted for an invention as product or process that provides a new way of doing something or that offers a new technical solution to a  problem
• A patent provides patent owners for protection for their inventions , a term of patent in India is 20 years.

What  is a trademark?

• It is the distinctive design which identifies certain goods and services produced by an individual company .
• It helps consumes in identifying and purchasing a product or service based on its quality and characteristics.
• Trademark can be combination of words , letters , numerals , drawings , symbols , shapes , colour , hologram.

What is an industrial design?

• It refers to ornamental or aesthatics aspect of an article.
• The design consist of the shape of article , pattern , size , colour.
• Industrial designers are applied to products such as medical equipments , watches , jewellery , electrical items , household , houseware , textile design ,luxury goods.

What is geographical indication?

• It is a sign used on goods that denotes the belongingness of goods or reputaion to a particular geographical location.
• Commonly , it consist of name of place of the origin of the goods.
• It is commonly used for agriculture products ------------ darjelling tea

Responsibilities of an engineer

Kinds of responsibility

• Active responsibility : is  a responsibility  before something had happened.
• Passive responsibility : is applicable after something had happened.

Professional responsibilities of an engineer

• Maintenance of confedentiality and protecting proprietary information (data , test results , information of upcoming products , design formulas, project information in terms of suppliers , production cost , etc)

Professional rights of an engineer

• Right to professional conscience : moral right to exercise professional judgement without interference.
• Right to conscientious refusal : rights to refuse to engage in unethical behaviour and refuse to do so because one views it unethical.
• Right to recognition 

Laws , conscience and code as sources of ethical issues

Laws and conscience

• Sources of guidance by which humans being can judge morality of their actions.
• Offers practical guidance 
• Law is outside the actor
• Conscience is within the actor

The notion of law

• Law is common , not private , good
• It must be physically and morally possible to obey laws

Conscience

• It is something within human beings that determines the morality of human activities.
• It is a special act of mind that comes into being when the intellact pass judgement on the goodness or badness of particular act.
• It is not a feeling or an emotion but rather an intellactual decision.
• It is a practical judgement on the morality of either a past action or an action about to occur.

Codes

• As foundational document they can provide the framework that public servant use to carry out their public responsibilities.
• Codes are clearly explain unacceptable behaviours as well as providing a vision for which the govt. official is working.

Purpose of codes

• They are a means of providing guidance to public officials on doing good and avoiding evil.
• They explain the standards of behaviour in public organistion.
• They provide guidance to decision makers decision makers dealing with situation where values may be conflict.
• They are a means  of defining ethical conduct.
• Codes of ethics are written to guide behavior.
• Contemprary social psychological research also strongly suggests that codes can guide or induce work place appropriate behaviors.
• Codes are not designed for the bad people , but for the persons who want to act ethically especially public servants , welcome ethical guidance in difficult or unclear situations.

Codes of conduct:

• Guidelines for responsible behavior.
• Detailed and prescriptive
• Express values and norms for guiding behavior and help in decision making .
• Addition to the requirement of the law 
• Codes can supplement the law.

Engineers are required to follow codes formulated by:

• Professional associations of engineers
• Cooperate code of conduct that are formulated by organisations , departments in which engineers are employed (DDA, DJB)

Types of code of conduct:

• Aspirational code : moral values
• Advisory code : moral decisions
• Disciplinary code : disciplines

Evolution of code :

• World war 2 changes engineering paradigms as new issues came up , further technology and science developed a questionable image.

Post world war 2 , two important codes were added :

• Engineers should not work for those who fail to respect human right.
• Duty of the engineer to serve the public interest was especially stressed (safety , health and welfare of the public)
• Western codes were about skills
• Indian codes were about character