Jun 26, 2011

[Economy Q] CASA (Current and Savings Account) Ratio: meaning, implications, danger

Siddhant asked

WHAT IS THE CASA ?

Ans:
CASA =Current and Savings Account.
Lets refresh a few concepts before diving into CASA.

In a bank, there is incoming money and outgoing money.

Incoming Money in the bank

Bank will pay you interest, when you deposit money in savings account, as Fixed Deposit (FD),
Bank will borrow from RBI. (and will pay RBI interest)

Outgoing Money from the bank

Bank will give you loans for bike/car/home/business and charge higher interest rate on that.

So in simple terms,
Bank's profit = Interest charged on loans -(minus) Interest paid on deposits.

Now, CASA= Current and savings account

Casa ratio =is the share of current and savings account deposits to the total deposits of the bank.

To keep it simple, lets just say bank's incoming money comes only from two types of deposits: 1) CASA deposits and 2) FD (Fixed Deposit)

#1: CASA (Current and savings account) deposits

Here whatever money you deposit, you can withdraw it any time. banks do not pay any interest on current account,and interest paid on savings account it (pathetically) low as 4%.
And then bank will circulate your money in form of house loan to others, and will charge 9.5% interest rate on it! So, that is a decent profit margin.

#2: In FD (Fixed Deposit)

Also known as Term Deposits, like "double your money in 10 years or deposit 20,000 today and get 50,000 after 10 years" etc.etc. Here bank will pay you interest rate of around 7-9% per year.
But downside:you cannot withdraw your money before the term completes, else bank will charge penalty and you won't get the total 'double your amount' thing.
As you can see, If bank would circulate this FD money in loan, there is not a big profit margin, as in case of CASA.

Implication of High CASA Ratio

For SBI, CASA ratio is around 47%. (That is 47% of their total incoming money in form of deposits, comes from CASA). So SBI can earn lot of profit by circulating this money as loan.
If Bank X has CASA ratio =barely 10%, obviously, not so good position like SBI.

Higher CASA is good only for banks?

Not only banks but loan-taker people also benifit from higher CASA ratio. Because bank with higher CASA, will keep its loan base rates low.
Confused? Let me rephrase: If Bank X has barely 10% of CASA, means lot of their money comes from FD. And in FD they've to pay higher interest rate on deposit, hence they'll keep their loan-interest rates higher to maintain the profit margin.
ex. SBI= loan base rate is about 7%, but for Bank of Baroda its about 8%, because BoB has got lower CASA than SBI.
In India, interest rates paid on current and savings account deposits is administered by banking regulator - the Reserve Bank of India.

Danger with high Casa ratio?

From CASA account, you can withdraw your money any time. So, while bank is circulating this money as loan, then have to be careful.
They do a statistical analysis, like 10000 people deposited total 1 crore rupees in CASA accounts. And on any day, not more than 10 lakh rupees are withdrawn in terms of cheques, demand draft etc.
That's 10% outgoing money from CASA? So lets keep 15% of CASA money in terms of 'cash' in the bank and give away remaining CASA money as loans
BUT, what if suddenly account holders withdraw a lot of money? Example, back in 2008 during sub-prime crisis, some one spread a rumour in Ahmedabad that ICICI has gone bankrupt! So people panicked and lined up in front of ICICI branches and ATMs to withdraw all their account money. On daily basis more than Rs. 5 crores were withdrawn Ahmedabad's branches and they had to order truck load of cash from other cities and even run the branches on holidays to meet the situation.

Take a reverse case, what if thousands of people take home loans and then show inability to pay back [=bad loans / toxic assets / N.P.A. as it happened in America]? And at the same time CASA depositers come and demand to withdraw lo lot of their money? So with this kind of situation, the statistical calculations may go wrong. and if Bank has given lot of its CASA money to long term loans (house loans for example) then it'll be a real panic-situation.

The FD money is safer in this way. because banks know, once you make an FD, you're not going to withdraw it for next 5-10-20 years (in most cases) so they can safely circulate this money as loans.

Curious case of SBI

As we saw SBI has highest CASA Ratio in India = high profit
but then again SBI has highest N.P.A. (Non-performing assets / bad loans/toxic assets) amongst all the banks in India!

Now read the previous para on CASA danger again. :)

Jun 25, 2011

[Economy Q] Zero Interest Rates in Japan and America

RBI increases interest rates slowly and higher interest rates encourage more FDI inflows. I got the reason wich u mentioned that y RBI duznt increase the rates suddenly.
Question wich arises here is wrt Japan. Japan has been keeping near zero interest rates for a while now. Why so? Higher interest rates as usual wud mean more FDI in Japan wich will bolster its growth. So wat r the reasons for keepin low interest rates?

You're right, if Japan or any nation increases the interest rates, then more FDI will come. But Japan's concern at the moment is not FDI but consumer-demand. FDI matters for third world and newly emerging economies because you need big money for infrastructure,factories,machinary, R&D for launching new product etc. but Japan,America are already far ahead in those things hence some-what saturated for FDI. So their main-priority = consumer demand @Home and Abroad.

Interest rates in Japan are kept low, to encourage people to
1. take loans and spend it (=boost in auto-real estate demands etc.at home)
2. take loans and do some production (if loan-interest is low, the final product will be cheaper and can compete with Chinese export-items abroad)

Same is the case, why America too has near zero-interest rates.

They've so much money available as loan but people are not interested in taking it for spending or production =>so decrease the rates even further.*
India is reverse: so much inflation, so you need to swallow some money out of the sytem. =>so increase the rates higher.

*While Japs and American authorities believe that zero-interest rates will help boosting the demand, there are thinkers with opposite view.
Copy pasting from TIME

American consumers, too, are trying to reduce household debt, so borrowing more money for a new car or to remodel the kitchen is not a high priority. And without greater consumer spending, most companies have little need for new loans to expand operations. "Interest rate cuts don't matter in this environment," says Kirby Daley, senior strategist at financial-services firm Newedge Group in Hong Kong. "It doesn't get at the heart of the issue."

[Economy Q] Liquidity and monetary policy

Here is another one wich went over my head. Read this excerpt from monetary policy:

"After remaining in surplus for 18 months, liquidity conditions transited to a deficit mode towards end-May 2010. This was the consequence of a large build-up in government cash balances as a result of higher than expected proceeds from spectrum auctions. Beginning October 2010, liquidity conditions became even tighter. Both frictional factors such as the above-normal build up in government cash balances and structural factors such as high currency demand growth and credit growth outpacing deposit growth contributed to tight liquidity conditions."

My question is if credit growth has outpaced deposit growth (more ppl r takin loans rather than depositin them) then how can that contribute to tight liquidity !!! There will be more money wid ppl due to loans taken. Pls xplain

Ans-
Here liquidity is a relative term. If the banking-system has more money to offer as loan today, compared to last month, we'll say liquidity has increased. If banks have less money to offer as loans today, compared to last week/last month/last year, then we'll say liquidity is tight.

Now there are 3 factors.

#Spectrum auction

In the spectrum auction, the big telecom companies withdrew their deposited money from the banks and also took loans.The telecom companies had to pay around Rs 68,000 crore within 10 days of the auction. So as you can see, that much money went from banking system to the Government and hence was unavailable for loans.

#above-normal build up in government cash balances
If above money from spectrum auction, was deposited in Government's bank account, then it'd be again available for loans again, immediately. But it was deposited in the consolidated fund of India.From this consolidated fund of India, Government gives salary to judges, its whole staff, finances various projects like NREGA, JNNURM, and so on.
Hence, this 68k cr. is no longer available for loan.
=less liquidity compared to earlier.

#credit growth outpacing deposit growth
if credit growth has outpaced deposit growth (more ppl r takin loans rather than depositin them) it means less money available for loans. So we say 'tight liquidity'.

Implications of liquidity

When liquidity is tight (or low), that means less money available for loans hence interest rates on loans increases.

Too high liquidity =easy loans=less interest rates= people have more ca$h than products in market= inflation.
Too low liquidity=hard loans=high interest rates=businessman find it hard to finance new projects, demands for automobie/cars etc. decrease and so on.

Jun 17, 2011

[Topper writes] Problems of Self study at home

You know the topper interviews in competitive magazines like Chronicle, Wizard and Pratiyogita. All of them follow a template, after reading four of them, you can write a fifth interview by yourself without even clearing the prelims. Same goes for all the routine motivational, self-improvement and self-help articles written by the editors of those magz. (They're generally posted just after the index page) So here comes an exception.......

KARTHIK GURUNATHAN IYER

Cleared in First attempt at the age of 21, all India rank #7 without any coaching. Time to copy paste his brilliant article on Problems related with Self study.

Karthik Wrote.....

When i say self study i presume your optionals are set, because i meet many aspirants who are in a dilemma of which optional to chose and whether their choice is correct!Please make up your mind and do not indulge in statistical wizardry as its a sheer waste of time in a rapidly changing exam.i can promise you,chose any two optionals,come in top 5 in both and irrespective of your optionals you will sail through with a modest performance in common papers.too much dithering on optionals confuses a person,and a confused person can not study.
Now that i presume the optionals are decided let me address the

Problems that come with self study

how to pace yourself to ensure you complete the vast portions in all papers.
how to check your own progress in study.
how to keep your head about yourself though you lag behind on both counts(which most will).

The only advice i can offer is enumerated serially:

1.pace is personal

lots of things determine it.your potential,time on hand to study,your grasping,reading speed,retention,choice of optionals,stage of preparation,method of study and so on.however,i presume all of you have a copy of the syllabus (right click >Save as) and some books or notes to study from.check for yourself how much time a identifiable part (but important part) of the syllabus takes to complete.i will use an analogy of history,i may check how many days it takes to complete Indian national movement,or maybe rule of the Mughals by doing it,and then see how many such parts the syllabus entails.multiply the time taken by th number of such parts that remain,and as a safety measure add one third the final figure to come up with a conservative estimate.
Repeating my example,i took say 10 days for Indian National movement,there are 20 such topics in the syllabus of history,means i will take,
20 *10= 200 days for the all the topics.since all are not uniform,as a safety valve i add 1/3*200= 70 (app) to the figure to come up with my final figure of 270 days(at current speed).
Dont be scared by the figure,the example was hypothetical,but do up your calculations to invariably find you are lagging behind the ideal speed.
Once you have figures for GS and both optionals squeeze them in the number of days at your disposal and you have a ready plan with signposts ready to follow to pace your study and complete the portion before the due time.

2.how do you check progress?

First,if you prepare the above plan you have the pre-designated portions in place so you know instantly if you are on track.also,you may join a test series.but most are only active during a certain part of the year,are expensive,ask irrelevant questions,give shaky feedback,and take a lot of time for the feedback,what do you do?
Download all the question papers you can,and make a folder.study each paper divide it into sectors of study from your syllabus.For eg In history,all questions asked on 1857 group aside,all questions on 1909 reforms group aside and so on.apply the same logic to your optional.that would mean you have prepared question banks from your syllabus on each topic from the questions asked thus far.
Once you do feel like checking yourself,ask a friend or anyone else to pick some random questions from the relevant question bank,and jot down 5-8 questions.see how you answer them,and if you are happy with the answers.that should tell you what to revise and with what attention.
3.the last of my questions was the most important of all.When you prepare on your own

#3 you are unaware of the competition

In an empty world of your own. An empty mind is the devils workshop.you begin to worry if you not joining a coaching class was wise,was it the reason you are lagging behind,of miraculous coaching given to other candidates which gibes them an edge.your friends in coaching classes brag and discuss on topics irrelevant and not likely to come at all,but not knowing that adds to your pressure.this is the time when your productive time is being eaten away by stray thoughts.
How you check that is again a personal thing.Try meditation,talking to yourself,writing a journal of record or any such thing that emphasizes the rational side of your mind.accept your situation and bring out the fighter in you.instead of worrying about the edge gained by others,study to give yourself one.as i said methods vary,but each will have to do something to keep his mind in a stable frame to maximize his output in study.
I didnt mean to scare anyone and push them to coaching classes,but to hint at what ordeals await if one takes this path.knowing in advance helps to factor in the problems and not be taken by surprise by them.these are by no means all the problems,just a small part of the common ones,and many others wait to vex your heads.after reading the problems if one feels they are too much to take,i advice them to go on and join a coaching class.what is paramount is a peaceful mind,so that it can absorb.if joining a coaching class does that for you,then by all means go ahead.
Never in the whole time doubt your ability,and gods grace for these are the two things that will pull you through eventually.
All the best and happy studying!

The alternative cycles

The whole universe seems to obey the same mystical rule,life mirrors it,and we experience it when we study alone.what?The alternating cycles of the best with the worst,the lean with the peak.just like a sine wave there seems to be no respite from this wild ride,what should we do?
First,realize this is not just our own problem,but in fact a universal phenomenon.every candidate has to go through this,self-study or coaching class.

Gagan narang despite years of practice peaked in CWG and dipped in ASIAD didnt he?
Its wrong to expect the cycles not to alternate because we are only human,and stressed out at that.then it is futile to imagine the cycling can be avoided.
But,what is achievable is reduction in the Lean time and increase of the peak time.
How you do that is again a personal affair,but here are my tips-
Understand yourself-know what works best on you..In times of lean focus,do things you know will relax you..carefully observe your peak period and make a journal writing what all you did,read,studied and how you felt and so on..in lean times read the previous entries and try to emulate.if you notice,the oldest entries on this blog are of that type.it helps at time to recreate a burst or two of sustained focus.
Also know how you get rid of stress the best,and do it in lean times.Use the lean period constructively and de-stress and re-motivate yourself.
Personally i use the guilt-shock treatment..i leave my studies completely and indulge in a long time wish-watching a movie,going out to play a match,reading a novel,or just anything that tempted me earlier but i put it on hold.
I keep my books and scheduler both on the table,and at times open...i have learnt by experience that barely a day or two into the lean period guilt mounts...i drive that guilt higher.
At the same time i read interviews by toppers and other sites and blogs on civil services preparation online.Seeing these adds to my guilt and a feeling of being left out in the rat race.
I let both of the feelings grow till my tipping point is reached and its back to the books with a bang!

As i said the method may vary,but here you are no different from an out of form cricketer trying to regain his touch.its often said the best way to do that is spend time in the middle,and maybe for some thats the best way to maintain consistency.as i said,the cycles will come and go,but your goal and mind need both be steady and resolute,and the rest can be managed by self-understanding!

P.S. Karthik is Also known as Swamy_me on Indianofficer forum and running his blog at http://swamyme.blogspot.com

Jun 16, 2011

[Economy Q] Investment banking Meaning and functions

sanchit asked

investment banking samjha do plz

Suppose you want to start a new factory, don't have enough money. Banks are not giving you loans or their loan-conditions are very tough. So you want to Issue an IPO/security in the primary market to get the required funds.

*security =a piece of paper. When someone buys that piece of paper from you, they give you money like 100. And you're supposed to pay them back after a period or share your profits with them (Shares).

But what if nobody buys your IPO? And how to go and launch your IPO in the first place? You don't know the technical nitty gritty or paper-work involved in it, or have the competent staff to do that? Easy, just walk in to an investment bank, they'll launch the IPO on your behalf. They'll sell you on your behalf and if no-one buys it, the investment banker will buy it and pay you the money. This is called underwriting.

Investment banks's primary job =offering underwriting.

For example, on following link see the big underwritings made by Kotak Investment bank and the list of their big clients

Kotak Investment Banking: Leaders in the Equity Capital Markets

Other functions of an investment banker

If you're a big corporate co., currently under heavy-debts, they'll help you re-structure your debts. e.g. longer EMIs, selling or renting your non-core assets to squeeze some money and so on.
help you make deals,big investments, joint ventures, Mergers and acquisitions with other companies. They provide you with Research data like how much risk is there, what'll be your return on investment, is there any technical or legal hurdle, if yes then how to bypass it.
Settle your family disputes. (like big corporate dad died and now people fighting for property, they help you come at an amicable compromise, without getting involved in lengthy court process.
They also help you convert your money from one currency to another.

So investment banker is not just a banker but combo of many things: lawyer, financial adviser, money-lender, insurer, Real estate agent and so on.
But Investment banks don't do anything on small scale. Like you can't walk in to get bike/car/house loan or get your 100$ converted into rupees.

Their customer base= big MNCs and corporates.
Their scale of operation= in millions and billions of Rs./dollars.

[Economy Q] Financial innovation : Meaning advantages and criticism

What is Financial innovation ?

financial innovation=when you come up with complex financial instruments (bonds, securities etc).
e.g in 1980s there was simple thing :just one LIC life insurance policy. you pay installments, you die your family gets money. Now there are complex ULIPs (Unit linked insurance planning), child education plans, pension fund, travel insurance, health insurance... this and that. =financial innovation.

Other examples of financial innovations (wiki)

interest rate swaps ,
credit default swaps,
Collateral debt obligation.
credit and
debit cards and
online payment systems like PayPal.

Advantage

Makes life easy, e.g. Paypal, credit card, travel insurance etc.
Helps you hedge the risk. Hedge= a fence or compound wall built to protect your property. Hedging = a method of preventing risk. Example, Oil Hedging

Two main Criticisms

fool's paradise

There is no "neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth."
example The money gone into bonds and policy should lead to real asset/physical product creation (like you buy insurance policy from me, and I lend that money to a businessman who makes a factory or launches a new physical product like cola or breads or a service like Hospital/ Hotel chain and so on... ) Then we can say yes this financial innovation is leading to economic growth.
But instead Some of the money goes into two directions

#1: further speculation business like mutual funds, commodity market or share market

(click me to first understand the Derivatives)
Like you buy some insurance policy/mutual fund/complex security bond from me, I invest that money in speculation, whether xyz share/commodity's price will go up or not. (via options and futures contract) So I've a virtual portfolio : today 5 lakh, tomorrow 1 lakh third day not even worth 10,000, fourth day jumping to 10 lakh rupees. I'm betting and speculating, like those kids playing and trading WWF wrestler's cards. No real asset creation or economic growth. In the meantime, you claim your policy, If my portfolio is 10 lakh, I would pay away otherwise I would borrow from third party to pay you and give that third party a futures bonds, he sells it to forth guy as a derivative who again invests it into some speculation game. This game goes on, without any real economic growth. Just more papers and bonds.

#2: The Complex financial products=Chor bank robbing you in daylight

Similarly you open a bank account in that Chor party bank (Chor=thief, you know which bank I'm talking about), they trick you into getting a credit card and deduct insurance premium behind your back saying that credit card comes with a 'free' health-insurance policy. And adding insult to the injury, when you get heart-attack, they don't pay you, saying sorry heart attack is not covered, this health insurance covers minor injuries in road-accidents only* (*provided that you were wearing helmet/seatbelt, driver had licence and was driving under speed limit)! And whatever money the Chor party bank earns from this unethical game, they reinvest it into putting more 'feel-good' advertizements on TV to trick more people like you, while the already fooled customers get redirected like footballs from this call centre to that call centre. = No economic growth.

So, end product of this kind of financial innovation is a new even complex financial product - not a physical product or service that you can see/touch/feel or consume.

Led to recession

This innovation led to complex Derivatives that led to *asset bubble and ultimately we got recession.
*Explanation of Asset-bubble click me

Jun 15, 2011

[Strategy & Precaution] The dangerous Compulsory Language papers (Mains)

Introduction

In mains you'll face two compulsory language papers. (300 marks each)

1. English

2. Regional Language (i.e. your mother tongue: Hindi/Gujarati/Tamil/Telugu )

Candidates from North-Eastern States
of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim are exempted from this paper. They’ve to give only English paper.

Both papers are held on same day.

Your score in compulsory language papers is not counted in the merit list. But if you don't pass in these two papers, UPSC will not check your remaining papers and you'll be declared “NOT-Qualified” (=failed)

DANGER-PRECAUTION-Red alert

A disturbing thing I saw: 2010 mains, lot of candidates were declared failed in the exam, because of the Compulsory regional / English paper. Some of
them even have decent scores in CAT/Bank PO/GMAT verbal and grammar section. Some of them Doctors, Engineers, science-commerce graduates completed
their college in English medium. So what went wrong?

Mark sheet of candidate in 2010 Mains

I think of following

1. Proportionately the number of failed candidates in language papers is same all years, its only that we are hearing more reports on orkut/forums this
time, so it appears that more have been failed than previous year.

2. Conspiracy theory – papers weren’t checked properly. But we can’t prove or reject as UPSC has nasty habit of stonewalling the RTIs. So I come to
last conclusion -

3. (May be) UPSC has increased the cut-off / minimum qualifying marks for compulsory papers, to save themselves from having to check the remaining
papers for large number of candidates. So what is the new passing marks/cut-off? Again don’t know as UPSC doesn’t tell.

Caps again

While holding your good score in CAT/Bank PO/GMAT’s English section and your graduation in English medium college in extreme high-regard, I need to
humbly point out that mains papers are descriptive, including the Compulsory English and Regional language papers. And proficiency in MCQs
(Multi-choice questions) and proficiency in descriptive questions=two different things that don’t overlap much in a Venn diagram.

So whatever cap you’re wearing, put it down and have some practice for compulsory language papers for mains. You shouldn’t let UPSC waste your whole
year’s preparation because of two stupid papers.

Types of questions

Compulsory Regional Language paper has following types of questions

1. Reading comprehension

2. Essay (around 200 words)

3. Basic grammar: synonym, antonym, meaning of proverbs etc.

4. Translation Back and forth (i.e. one paragraph given in English -you've to translate it in your language (Hindi/Gujarati/Tamil/Telugu)

5. Second paragraph is given in your regional language and you've to translate it into English.

6. Précis writing (long paragraph is given, you’ve to condense it in 40-60 words)

Essay:

4-5 routine topics are given: Naxal, SEZ, Domestic violence etc. You’ve to pick only one. Not much difficult as you already prepare them for GS.

Translation:

Little complicated. Because they give lengthy and complex paragraphs with (Sometimes) philosophical subject and unfamiliar words.

if you’re appearing in mains in English medium and your compulsory regional paper is Hindi/Gujarati/Tamil etc. and you’ve totally lost touch with the standard written-language form of your mother tongue since high school, then you will have tough time translating them
verbatim line by line, Even if you understand what the paragraph is trying to say. (Reverse also true for non-english guy translating mother-tongue to
English)

So practice the old papers.

Basic Grammar:

synonym,antonym,active-passive,fill in blank, proverb meaning etc routine stuff.

The grammar is of basic level only so you don’t have to do M.A. or Ph.D. in that.

Which books to refer?

I only solved the old papers and cleared both papers, without going through any special book. (may be UPSC had a liberal cut-off for language papers
that year!) As UPSC notification says: The Papers on Indian Languages and English will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of
qualifying nature only.

So you can refer some grammar-comprehension book of 10 standard, or any special book made for compulsory papers for UPSC/State PSC exams.

Where to find old papers?

English compulsory

From (1997-2007) you can get from following link

http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com/2009/05/collection-english-compulsory-mains.html

Remaining you can get from UPSCportal.com

Regional Language question papers

It’s hard to get them on internet. UPSC has uploaded regional papers only for 2010 (right click>Save as)

If you want 5-10 years’ papers then you’ll have to try your luck at your bookstores. (
click me to see list of bookstores around major States of India)

If no luck then there is another trick too: use old papers from State PSC, dealing with compulsory regional and English paper. They’ll have different
question style, but you’ll get some practice.

To Gujarati candidates

Finally some publisher has compiled the both compulsory Gujarati language papers as well as optional literature papers of Gujarati and released it in a
book format. I don’t remember the name of the publisher, but I did see it in the bookstore. So better visit Atul or Liberty bookstore @Lal-darwazaa
Under bridge, Ahmedabad.

Jun 14, 2011

[Answerkey with Explanation] CSAT GS Paper I 2011 by Animitra of IOfoum

As coaching classes are releasing faulty answer-keys (even for simple questions), Animitra got fed up and took the matters in his own hands and prepared an answer-key with explanations and reference links by himself (GS 2011)
You can access / download it from the links below

Any doubts in the answerkey

Or want to say thanks to him, you can discuss it on following thread

http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10716-animitras-solution-key-upsc-preliminary-examination-paper-i-2011-a.html#post36932

Question Papers

Anyone having trouble finding the question papers of CSAT 2011, goto this link

http://upscportal.com/civilservices/Download/CSAT-PAPER-1-General-Studies-UPSC-IAS-PRELIMS-2011

Jun 13, 2011

[Topicwise Analysis] Aptitude paper II of CSAT 2011

Page 9 of 9 No cut-off queries please

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Reading Comprehension 3

LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation) 4

Reasoning 4

Data and GRaph interpretation 4

Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability 5

Conventional mental ability 5

English language (No Hindi questions here) 5

Decision Making (no penalty for any question) 5

Conclusion (again not looking for debates) 7

Speed calculation vs Speed reading 7

Engineer-science-MBA friendly? 7

Remove the caps and start from the scratch 8

Introduction

CSAT Aptitude Paper-II had 80 questions worth 200 marks.(Exam on 12 June 2011)

Comprehension	28
Mental Ability	10
Verbal reasoning	17
Data interpretation	8
English	9
Decision Making	8
total	8

Number of Questions asked from each topic

% Wise topic breakup for CSAT 2011 Paper II (Aptitude)

Reading Comprehension

Paragraph	Questions	# of 4TFs	Lifted from
Right to Education (lifted from The Hindu editorial)	5	3	The Hindu editorial
Inclusive growth	5	3	Economic Survey 2009-10, Chapter "Micro-foundations of Inclusive growth"
Creative society	4	All 4	Manoranjan Mohanty, "Social Movements in Creative Society: Of Autonomy and Interconnection " in people's Rights
Country under Foreign domination	4 questions	2	Discovery of India by Nehru
Keystone species	4 question	3
Ecosystem	3	All 3
Moral Act	3	2	Ethical Religion (1907) by M.K.Gandhi
Total	28	20

As you can see, Comprehension question =28 = more than any two of the remaining topics combined. So Comprehension for Aptitude=Climate Change topic for GS=HOT.
In school exams, the comprehension questions are direct- simple 4 options and answer can be found directly from any single sentence. Here we find most questions are 4TF.
4TF means (4 statements: true or false) i.e. you’re given multiple statements and asked to identify how many correct/incorrect. These types of questions eat more time and energy because you have to read each sentence very carefully to make sure there is no hidden meaning inside it. Mere hasty superficial reading, may lead to wrong conclusions. You may need to re-read many passages again and again for each 4TF. (same was the case with GS paper…lot of 4TF questions)
In UPSC prelim-question papers, paragraph is one first page then questions will be on 3rd page. (page #1=English, Page#2=Hindi translation) So you’ve to frequently flip the pages. And if it is a 4TF question, then you’ve to flip pages more number of times. So it requires practice.

LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation)

Reasoning

Set	Questions
Family Tree. Paragraph about A,B,C,D,E is given – relate them to each other.	3
Description of Mr.X,Y and The standing in line, who is in front of whom.	1
2800 people taking part in a voting, some of them male and some of them female. Tabulate the data to answer the questions	3
70% male, 2/7th of them married. How many females are unmarried	1
All animals are carnivores	1
All trains run on diesel	1
All poets are poor	1
2*2 squares. Find the Missing number	1
A,B,C living in North,south etc. (Map direction)	1
Plane mirrors	1
Min Colors required to paint a big wheel with number of sectors	1
2*2 square. A going to B, how many ways	1
Number of triangles in a pyramid	1
Total	17

Data and Graph interpretation

Set	Number of questions
Age pyramids of 4 nations. Identify the nation with declining population	1
Population growth curve of ABCD	1
Pie Charts comparing diseases of two towns	2
Velocity of Train A and B (graph)	1
Disease graph-# of bacteria vs Time	3
Total	8

Compared to BANK PO verbal-reasoning and Data interpretation questions, these are relatively easy. Hence For LR/DI portion, R.S.Agrwal’s Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning book is more than sufficient to get a grip on logical-reasoning and data interpretation. No special coaching is required for this.

Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability

Conventional mental ability

Topic	Question	Marks
Word problem	Coin of Rs. 1 and 2, total amount 50 Rs.	1
HCM LCM	Three persons walking with different steps	1
Time Speed Distance	Two trains, ratio of distance covered by them. Graph showing speed and time of three athletes.	2
Venn diagram	% of students not playing Football	1
Geometry	Water of the tank will last for how many days Square divided into four rectangles.	2
Averages	Student: 3 tests with average N score	1
Counting	6 routes from City A to B	1
Progression	Penalty for Each day	1
Total		10

As you can see, these questions don’t require mugging up tons of complex formulas for liquid mixtures allegation, partnership, moving railway and boat speeds etc. You don’t need to master the Chinese Remainder theorem or Vedic math formulas for high-speed calculation.

English language (No Hindi questions here)

He walked several miles	3
My toothbrush	3
Polar bear	3
Total	9

These questions required only interpretation of simple English paragraphs and answer the question based on that. In this portion there was nothing complicated like Sentence correction in GMAT or complex synonyms-antonyms in CAT/Bank PO.

Decision Making (no penalty for any question)

Meeting missed because boss did not tell you
Local thug asking you to vacate the plot in Bollywood ishtyle.
Project deadline, you met accident.
Earthquake survivors alleging corruption charges against you.
Boat prices high during flood.
Vaccine for Gram-Pradhan
Night shelters for homeless=increased thefts in area.
Dowry case

These were quite complex than the mock-Situation reaction tests given in RS Agarwaal etc books, where the options are black vs white: good vs evil. Here most options are either in gray area or equally ‘white’.

More than one correct answer is possible depending on your approach (humane officer vs rulebook officer vs boy scout vs Jhola-chhaap NGO or Activist of pseudo-civil society vs Columnist of The Hindu/Frontline vs IPS officer of a typical South Indian movie (who is not bound by CrPC, IPC, Police manual or even Newton’s three laws).

Mr.Rulebook officer approach is not necessarily the bad option for every question and every situation e.g. in financial matters or subjects handled by different departments: there are rules to be followed, there is office-discipline to be maintained, there is division of work and separation of powers and they all exist for a good-reason.

Same way Mr. Humane-take-no-punitive-action officer approach may not be the ‘best’ answer for every situation. Officers are given discretionary coercive powers for a reason and they’re expected to exercise them according to the situation.

Similarly encroaching upon the jurisdiction of other Departments (even with good intentions) may have long term negative impacts as everyone starts to poke his nose in other’s business: it leads to chaos.

So selecting the “Superman(Lokpal!) cum Superjournalist cum superNGO cum judge-jury-executioner cum Mr.Poke-my-nose-in-everything-disregarding authority-&-rules“ approach for every question and every situation may not lead to the best answer. Like UPSC said ‘response will be evaluated based on level of appropriateness for given situation’

In these Decision Making questions : which is the best answer? Even the real-life officers with impeccable service record will have different answers, if you ask them to solve these…so only UPSC can tell and I don’t think they’ll release the official-answer-key for this. As JohnRambo said “These decision making Qs are too subjective, one could successfully argue on all four options.”

Conclusion (again not looking for debates)

Most people concluded that this was the easiest and cheapest of all aptitude paper they’ve ever seen. That happened because UPSC was testing the waters for the first time. You can be sure that next paper won’t be a total Pappu like 2011’s paper. because UPSC takes pride in its tough exams, when things become transparent or too easy or unambiguous- UPSC takes it as a personal insult :D

So How can (and may) UPSC increase the toughness of next aptitude paper In 2012?

Increasing number of 4TF questions in comprehension. It’ll put candidates on panic because of the time limit. Even this time people had hard time going through the comprehension.
Increasing the number and complexity of Decision Making questions (as there is no proper book/material available on this, it’ll keep coaching classes at bay. So for UPSC it is two birds in one stone.)
Diversifying the English portion: not limiting it to just paragraph reading. May be some easy fill in the blanks etc. but I don’t think they’ll immediately toughen this up, in order to give the rural candidates a level playing ground.

Speed calculation vs Speed reading

Speed calculation: A Must have skill for Bank PO and CAT. But for CSAT, simple mathematical understanding and accuracy in calculation is sufficient. You’re not required to memorize or calculate the cube roots of 16 digit numbers.
Speed reading is going to be the must have traits from now onwards for Prelims. As you saw both GS and Aptitude paper had lot of 4TF question- they eat lot of your time in reading. God forbid, if UPSC decides to increase the number of 4TF questions even further- that’ll give very stressful time in exam-hall.

Engineer-science-MBA friendly?

Some people had been saying that now Engineers, MBA and science-graduates are at advantage than Arts/Commerce graduates because of the changed trend. Is it really so? Let us see.
In the GS paper, the science topics did not require subject specialization. Anyone doing proper preparation from NCERT,GS manuals could have solved majority of those questions. If they asked for chemical formulas of compound released in ATP cycle or the amount of light emitted by 50 CFL bulbs of xyz power-rating….then we could say yes it is friendly for them.
So there no need for anyone to feel guilty for not being an engineer/science graduate.
Similarly now there is enough time and idea on how to deal with the secret aptitude paper. So again being a non-MBA, non-CAT, non-Bank PO guy is not going to put you at disadvantage because now you have enough time to practice and master your aptitude skills in right direction, till now you had compiled a mountain of material on your desk, from internet and bookstores dealing with everything from CAT,GMAT,Bank PO, CDS,LIC,SSC everything because you did not know what kind of aptitude paper will be there. But now the 2011 exam is gone and you know what is worth doing and what is worth skipping.

Remove the caps and start from the scratch

What I’m trying to say is, this exam requires you to start from basics and removing whatever cap you’re wearing and start from scratch. I used to take pride “I’m a Pharmaceutical guy so I know all about science, biochem and medicines” and still my concepts about Artificial sweeteners/ Sugar-free are not clear and they asked a 4TF question= I’m fumbling for answers.

Similarly, I had mugged down Sprectum’s book on Gandhi-Nehru Tagore and other (50+) Personalities of Modern India. So I consider myself ‘freedom fighter specialist’ And yet a new freedom fighter Usha Mehta comes in GS 2011 and I’ve no idea about her!

So for 2012: Remove the caps and start from the scratch and basics. (true for any tough competitive exam)

No cut-off queries please

Please don’t ask about cut-offs via email / blog-comments because my answer remains the same as pointed out in my [Topicwise Analysis] of CSAT Paper-1 General Studies (click me).

Now some good opinions worth copy-pasting from Indianofficer forum

Chakreshm	i made the mistake of not studying till pre result in my 1st attempt and paid the price by missing final selection by 10 marks, and it really hurt at that stage. so guys take care.
VishalSingh	I don't understand logic behind making paper II so easy. Given the difficulty level of questions, there should have been at least 120 questions in paper II. May be UPSC tried to make a level playing field so that students who are not so good at maths don't have to lose out. However, nothing can be said until results are out. It'll be good if UPSC declares marks of candidates this time, so that there is no space for ambiguity and speculation. ….. Dude, stop worrying about cut-offs and start preparing for Mains. You've fair chances of clearing it. There are only four months left, and results will be announced in another one and half months. There is no point in speculating and wasting time.
Acroback	you know what, you might not get selected because I am not the one to take that call, not even those who claim to score 80%. It is UPSC which shall decide not us, so why so much anxiety? Just relax and work hard. You do not want to repent loosing precious time, do you?

Visit www.mrunalpatel.co.nr To get free updates and queries about UPSC civil service IAS exam /CSAT

Jun 12, 2011

[Topicwise Analysis] General Studies (GS) 2011 CSAT Prelims paper

Introduction

CSAT 2011 exam was taken on 12 June 2011. There were 100 questions worth 2 marks each. Majority of them were “4 statements true and false” (4tf) questions, i.e. 4 statements are given for each question and then you’re required to identify the correct and incorrect ones. So mere acquaintance with some topic doesn’t help, you need to have idea about ‘what, why and how’ of a topic.

To compare this 2011 paper with 2010 paper, click me

Broad analysis

History

Ancient

Indus valley (secular/textile)
Jain philosophy- world is created by
Vedic civilization-meaning of dharma and rita

Medival

Reasons for cultural contacts between southeast asia and bay of bengal

Modern post 1857

Nehru report recommendations
Usha mehta-role indian freedom struggle
Home charges in drain of wealth.
Kheda satyagraha, why
Land settlement system of lord cornwallis
Quit india movment- false statement
Weddernburn and caine committee 1893
Gandhi-book unto this last

Again no point in mugging up those 150 places of harappa where painted gray pottery was found or the 1500 kings, 1500 timelines and 1500 places (stupa here and there, castle-mosque-tomb and temple in every city) from medieval portion.

Dates, places and kings have lost relevence for CSAT.

Polity

Panchayat

metropolitan planning committee
73rd amendment provides for-statements

Financial polity

vote on account and interim budget-difference between them
union budget is not pass it by the lok sabha when
the functions of finance commission of india.
consolidated fund of india-withdrawing money
revenue of union government goes into each account

Static

fundamental duty-which of the following is not

See majority of questions from budget /money related matters of constitution. And not a single question asking to match the article numbers or timelines. Economy is gaining importance and lime-light like never before and in future prelims, its going to the surpass the current Katrina kaif (geography). It is also time to put D.D.Basu on rest from now onwards for prelims.

Geography

Agriculture

Lower Gangetic climate good for which crops
Micro-irrigation
Name of state producing lot cash crops, central part producing cotton.
Salinization in irrigation
State with good climate for orchid cultivation

Physical

La nina is different from a el nino
Westerlies in southern hemisphere are stronger. Why
Jetcraft flies easily in lower stratosphere why?

World geography

Brahmaputra makes u turn because
African and eurasian desert belt, why formed?
Malacca strait-reducing travel time to east asia.

Only 11 questions (because lot has gone in to climate change topic). Agro profiles of states have became important. No mapping-questions. No specific place (city, district) based question. Only one, biodiversity area at Odisha.

Climate change-biodiversity

Animal living in sandy and saline area in india
Algal blooms in seawater
Carbon cycle, which adds co2
Biodiversity forms the basis for human existence by
Oil-zapper
Coal combustion at thermal plants, pollutants emitted
Ozone hole in antarctica why
Microbial fuel cells-statements
Bioasphalt important because
Mangroves in tsunami
Red data book for endangered species
Carbon credits-false statement.
Why western ghats and indo-burma regions are hot spots of biodiversity
Why carbon dioxide does not remain in lower atmosphere
Marine upwelling zones are important for ecosystem productivity because
Why tropical rainforest does not regenerate quickly
Himalayan range is rich in species diversity because
Central acts, having relevance with biodiversity conservation
Two rivers of jharkhant and odisha merging and forming biodiversity area at
Site for in-situ method of conservation of flora
Biodiversity between lower and higher latitudes

Almost 1/5th of the paper is from climate change.

Let me quote a passage from civil service times’ december issue dedicated to biodiversity

Pteridophytes: india has about 1200 species under 204 genera. While species of marsilea, azolla and salvinia grow in aquatic habitats, those of acrostichum occur in mangrove ecosystems.

^See how deep and minute details are bombarded in various magazines and books, while here we find the question don’t require that much depth. As UPSC itself said in syllabus “general issues on environment that donot require subject specialization” however, most questions are “4TF” type so you need to have your concepts clear.

Science and technology

Computers

blu-ray disc is different from dvd
bluetooth and wi-fi device -difference
virtual private network

physics

lake frozen on top but bottom is liquid
cfl and led lamps-difference between them
artificial satellite does not fall down because
asteroids and comets-difference between them
geostationary satellite meaning
ionosphere facilitates radio-communication because

chemistry

brent crude oil meaning
heavy water in nuclear reactor-its function

biology

biochemistry

antioxidants and fruit
aspartame artificial sweetener
blood groups
trans fats advertisement

genetics

bt-brinjal advantage
dna sequencing will help us in

botany

tree dies when bark is removed because

Total 18 questions from science. If you count algae bloom and carbon-cycle like questions from climate change into science portion then it is around 25/100= 1/4th of the paper from science only.

No disease question this time. 3 bio-questions directly related to day-to-day life. We see ads of calorie-free sugar and trans-fat free cooking oil and antioxidants everyday. But in almost every question, they gave 4 statements and asked you to identify the true/false out of them. That’s why mere acquaintance with a topic won’t help, you need to have some idea on how and why of the topic. Botany makes comeback, carnivore plant last time, tree bark this time.

Bt-brijal, DNA sequencing= current affairs from magazine. (Otherwise the 'current S&T portion of Mags dealing with all those Graphene etc. didnot turn out to be very helpful)

Economy

Gdp and per capita income increased during last 5 years or not
Credit to agriculture and allied activities by various institutes
Economic growth is coupled with
Lowering of bank rate leads to
Value added tax. False statement
Closed economy, meaning
Class struggle process in karl marx's theory
Fdi and fii difference between
High food inflation because
Fiscal stimulus.
Current account deficit, how to reduce
Economically-foreign visitors in common wealth games amounts to
Teaser loans by commercial banks
Base effect's role in inflation
Why disinvestment in public sector enterprises
Mega food parks- why
Imf gives loans to which nations.

Like 2010, this new economy is not about numbers but understanding. Prime reason for giving economy such an important, imo is to put coaching classes at disadvantage, because their GS strategy heavily relies upon current affairs and geography.

Some coaching classes used to show off like by merely doing geography one can crack prelims. Economy has been their weakest link.

In 2010 there were 26/150 questions from economy (17%). This time it 17/100= 17%. So economy is given equal importance like last time. If you count financial polity’s 5 questions in economy then it is 22/100 marks = even more than climate change.

Social economical development, rights issue, empowerment etc

Human rights given under universal declaration of human rights
Tribal insurrection in 19th-century
National minority-advantages given
Physically disabled people-benefits available under the law
Inclusive growth can be furthered by
Aam admi bima yojana
Micro-finance includes which facilities
Who is eligible for mnrega
Demographic dividend meaning

Again for empowerment and socio-economic topics were covered from theoretical angles by books and mags. (lifted from M.A. Sociology) child-women rights from un declarations, 500+government schemes named after rajiv and indira since the independence: big list of chronology, names-dates. Nothing asked. These questions could be solved by self study of routine books without having any special material.

Current international affairs

Look east policy means
New start
Australia group, and wassenaar arrangement
South-east Asia has got attention of global community because

Manmohan singh and Patil’s visits to southeast asia were making lot news in magazines and recently concluded trade pacts with asian nations, hence I’m putting look east in current-international. You may have prepared lot from current based national and international affairs, and here it is barely 4 marks of international! But don’t get disappointed, it’ll help in mains.

Public policy or yearbook stuff

Public policy study-material in market, was designed according to college-syllabus and was leading nowhere. Example, public policy topic in magazines and books was going towards all the theoretical and philosophical stuff, minister-bureaucrat relations etc. (lifted from m.a. Socio/pub.ad) while here we see the public policy questions are not philosophical but to the point e.g. Disinvestment in PSE, food parks etc. So I’m putting them in to relevant sections (economy) rather than classifying them strictly according to syllabus.

Person in news, sports and awards

Just like 2010, it is a very sad day for all those Shantiswaroop Bhatnagars, Magsaysay, Nobles and national film awards, CWG and Asian games winners. Not a single question! What a shame. Now they’re doomed to be remembered only by their wives, kids, friends and neighbors…not by competitive exam candidates anymore. I call upon all the civil service aspirants to stop paying attention to them. Pratiyogita darpan should totally scrap down their monthly sections dedicated to these (and give us discount for less number of pages)…lol wait a minute! You may get some 2 markers related to bigwig NRI and sportsmen in mains so don’t totally neglect, just because they did not ask it in prelims. Think of them as cash-crops, if you get good market price, then nothing better than that.

Please Don’t ask me about cutoffs in blog comment or emails

My answer to all your cut-off queries is this: Result will be declared around 15th August, till then presume that you’ve cleared the prelims and start preparing seriously for mains from tomorrow. If you don’t, then others will and they’ll get more marks.

My friend Chakreshm said

i made the mistake of not studying till prelim result in my 1st attempt and paid the price by missing final selection by 10 marks, and it really hurt at that stage. so guys take care.

Lets say 2 lakh appeared, but out of them only 20-25 thousand candidates are serious, and rest janta is JBPS (just because papa said, i’m appearing). So 80% of them cannot even score more than 20%. Hell, many of them just come to roam and picnic in the city and don’t even bother to sit through both papers. So 20,000 serious players competing for about 12000 mains seats. = 2 serious guys competing for 1 mains form.

So whatever your score is, from 30-40-70-90 anything, it is good. And you mustn’t give up hope just because some fancy coaching class sir at delhi came up with a magical cut-off figure of 60 after surveying his 50 brilliant students in a shanty basement of Mukharjinagar or just because someone said he attempted more than you..

Prelim marks = not counted in final merit but mains marks are counted and to get a decent rank in final list, you need to score huge in mains. Many friends cleared the prelims but missed the interview call by just a few marks, it hurts. So instead of waiting and worrying about cut-off till august, get busy doing mains. Talking of which, here are some useful links for mains strategies by toppers.

Mains strategies by toppers

Public administration and General Studies (anay dwivedi)

http://anaydwivedi.wordpress.com/

Anthropology (Dr.K.Vijayakarthikeyan)

http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10586-q-share-your-anthropology-action-plan.html#post35979

Political Science by Abhiram

http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10560-topper-strategy-how-i-prepared-political-science-mains-abhiram-g-sankar.html

Geography by Abhiram

http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10532-topper_strategy-how-i-prepared-geography-mains-abhiram-g-sankar.html

If you’ve some odd subject and can’t find its mains strategy or book list then this ebook has all answers

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6192829/How-to-Crack-Civil-Services-Examination

Conclusion

Basically the brief of whatever I’ve already mentioned above +not looking for any debates.

Dates, places and people = not important. (be it history, geography or current affairs)
Economy = new katrina kaif.
Geography= fast losing its popularity like Akshay kumar. Specific names of city, village, mountain or waterfalls not important because of the new climate change-biodiversity topic. May be this was done to crush the coaching factories.In short, Wizard's Geography special book (and any other 'special Geography book') blasting your head off with 50000 x 10^20 place names in India and World, are not important anymore. Same is true for all those 'prelim special issues' of various magazines dealing with Geography, Economy etc. because all they do is throw date-place-name-height and length details at you without clearing your concepts.
Self-study is sufficient for biodiversity –climate change topic, you don’t need some magic-material by coaching class/magazines copied from M.sc (botany) or IPCC journals and bombarding you with tones of minute details. Climate change is taken over geography as the new ‘hot topic’.
Aint no point in studying in depth for medieval/ancient anymore. (hardly 4 marks) if you’re feeling lucky, you may even sell your books related to that, it’d not hurt much.(unless history is your optional subject) because GS (History) mains syllabus is only post- 1857 mutiny onwards. *GS (Mains) also has Art-culture portion from Ancient-medieval, but it requires different books and different approach. Not the conventional kings and battles stuff.
The glorious era of India yearbook is finally over. Don’t throw it away though, you can use it as dumbbells or to kill cockroaches.
Polity very easy, financial polity given emphasis, you could solve most by merely going through the legendary Laxmikanth. DD basu is as irrelevant for prelims as Mimoh Chakhrabarti is for bollywood.
Say Goodbye to PSLV chronology and Planet :size and number of moons tables. The new 'Space/Astronomy GS' is about basic understanding only.
Sayonara to All the sports-related terms,famous players of each sports, measurements of playgrounds, countries participating in FIFA, CWG or Asian Games, All the Hindustani and Carnatic musicians, dancers and painters.
Government has setup 5000+ National institutes on each subject (dairy,fisheries,pulses,...) in each town. But no need to remember it anymore.

The 90s are officially over

When you’re newcomer to ias exam, you search for booklist on internet and you come across this list :Mishra Puri, Dutt Sundaram, Dd Basu, S.C.Kashyap etc.etc. This booklist is doing rounds all over google because it was on famous vajiram’s official site since last 4-5 years. This booklist is no longer relevant because it was prepared keeping the late-90s trend in mind. Whatever we do for GS current: names, places and awards..it is all part of that late-90s trend. From 2008 UPSC was moving away from it, 2010 this trend was given a proper burial and 2011 =cement is poured over it and it is sealed forever. If you’re still preparing with that 90s mindset then better get over with it asap.

To see the analysis of paper-II (Aptitude) Click me

Now I take the liberty of

copy-pasting other people's views

EclipsedFate :You forgot 1 thing. Nothing from census either.....I spent hours on it.

Subsvirgin /Subhash (2010 topper) My observations

1. Short paper
2. Toughness level was more or less the same as that of the last year's paper.
3. The trend of delving into seemingly inconsequential but inherently logical concepts continues. Bark of tree, Jet flights, Malacca straits, Aspartame, antioxidants, etc.
4. Geo + Economy + General Science = 60 % of the questions. 2010 trend continues.
5. UPSC does not want the rate of interest IMF charges to developing countries. Neither does it care about the logic behind restructuring of loans. Simple. It wants to know who gets these loans. As the idea advert says, Keep it simple, silly!
6. NCERT Fan boys got a breather this time. Year book fan boys again gulped down hard

Visit www.mrunalpatel.co.nr To get free updates and queries about UPSC civil service IAS exam

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Utilities

Labels

Jun 26, 2011

Incoming Money in the bank

Outgoing Money from the bank

#1: CASA (Current and savings account) deposits

#2: In FD (Fixed Deposit)

Implication of High CASA Ratio

Higher CASA is good only for banks?

Danger with high Casa ratio?

Curious case of SBI

Jun 25, 2011

#Spectrum auction

Implications of liquidity

Jun 17, 2011

KARTHIK GURUNATHAN IYER

Problems that come with self study

1.pace is personal

2.how do you check progress?

#3 you are unaware of the competition

The alternative cycles

Jun 16, 2011

Other functions of an investment banker

What is Financial innovation ?

Other examples of financial innovations (wiki)

Advantage

Two main Criticisms

fool's paradise

#1: further speculation business like mutual funds, commodity market or share market

#2: The Complex financial products=Chor bank robbing you in daylight

Led to recession

Jun 15, 2011

Introduction

DANGER-PRECAUTION-Red alert

Caps again

Types of questions

Essay:

Translation:

Basic Grammar:

Which books to refer?

Where to find old papers?

English compulsory

Regional Language question papers

To Gujarati candidates

Jun 14, 2011

Any doubts in the answerkey

Question Papers

Jun 13, 2011

Introduction

Reading Comprehension

LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation)

Reasoning

Data and Graph interpretation

Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability

Conventional mental ability

English language (No Hindi questions here)

Decision Making (no penalty for any question)

Conclusion (again not looking for debates)

Speed calculation vs Speed reading

Engineer-science-MBA friendly?

Remove the caps and start from the scratch

No cut-off queries please

Jun 12, 2011

Introduction

Broad analysis

History

Ancient

Medival

Modern post 1857

Polity

Panchayat

Financial polity

Static

Geography

Agriculture

Physical

World geography

Climate change-biodiversity