Mrunal Patel

[Strategy] 100 Days to go before CSAT 2012, Where are you?

2012-01-30T13:18:00.000+05:30

To those who've never cleared prelims before,

This post is not to scare you but to shake you up before it is too late to make amendments.
Don't be living in a fantasy world of what you'd do after becoming an IAS/IPS/IFS:

I'll kick some ass and impress the hell out of my friends and relatives!

^Damn right but it all means nothing if you can't crack the Prelims.
In fact for a serious player, nothing can be more insulting and humiliating than failing in prelims. Time for a reality check.

From 1st February to 20th May 2012= About 100 days to go before the CSAT 2012 Prelims.
So let me ask you a question:

How much have you prepared?

The word 'prepared' means = you have impeccable command over the said topic, you've ruminated and digested that topic entirely. You'll only need a cursory browsing of book or self-notes in last 4-5 days before Prelims. That is called ‘prepared’.
If you've read NCERT, GS Manual or any book for only SINGLE Time =does not equal to 'prepared'. In it fact is equals to nothing, because In UPSC Prelims-questions, you either know the answer, or you don't know the answer.
Speculation and Guesswork based on single reading=digging your own grave through negative marking.
So, How many topics are yet to be covered? What are your strong areas and weak areas?
You've to do an honest Self-assessment; you're the best judge of your own caliber, and then make a Strategy for the next 100 days/ 3 months, which must be: Straight-forward, Plausible, and Quantifiable.

THE 100 DAYS STRATEGY:

PLAUSIBLE AND QUANTIFIABLE.

PLAUSIBLE

From Today, I'll give 16-18 hours a day and finish ENTIRE SYLLABUS of GS and Aptitude!

Wrong!!

You haven't counted the mood swings, the hours wasted in friend/relatives' weddings, cricket matches, movies, family outings, facebook , twitter etc.
(If you're employed) Not to mention the hours spent in job assignments, unproductive chatter with colleagues, the daily-commuting between office & home and the fatigue associated with it + family responsibilities if any.
16-18 hours per day, sounds good only in topper-interviews, in real life it is hard to sustain the attention and energy in studies after 6-7 hours on daily basis for a normal person, afterwards it's just eyes moving across the book-pages, nothing actually penetrating inside the mind.
You will be able to pump 10-12-16-18 hours only when you're neck deep in trouble and stress: when there is only one month or just 20 days left before the exam, you cannot sustain 16-18 hours study, continuously for 100 days. Except in Bollywood /Hollywood underdog-movies, where players with Desi-jugaad training can win against players with intense scientific training, e.g Rocky 4, which is not the case in real life.

Assuming that you can do productive study of 7 hours a day then,
100 days times 7 hours= 700 hours.
Sounds good? Divide it by 12 (topics of CSAT syllabus)*= Only 58 hours available for each topic!

*12 Topics = 7 Topics of GS + 5 Topics of Aptitude, according to the OFFICIAL Syllabus by UPSC for the previous CSAT 2011.

GENERAL STUDIES (PRELIMS) HAS GOT TOTAL 7 TOPICS

Current events of national and international importance.
History of India and Indian National Movement.
Indian and World Geography - Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
Indian Polity and Governance - Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Economic and Social Development -Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialisation
General Science.

We are not even counting the 'sub-topics' i.e. Science = Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer etc otherwise it'd cross century before Sachin and then you'd be left with just 7 hours a day. Which essentially means you've got only ONE DAY For Each Topic : for everything reading, revision and practice.

APTITUDE PAPER HAS GOT TOTAL 5 MAIN-TOPICS

Comprehension-Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
Logical reasoning and analytical ability Decision-making and problem-solving
General mental ability Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.)(Class X level),
Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. - Class X level)
English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level)

Again, not counting the subtopics such as Logical reasoning= Circular arrangement, Venn diagrams etc

Secondly, the strategy must be

QUANTIFIABLE

I'm yet to cover Geography, But I'll complete everything of it before the exam.

Wrong!

Geography is not just one topic, it is made up of several: Physical, Human, Current, Indian and World geography.
If you haven't been doing reading and revision diligently, there is hard chance of covering 'entire' Geography or even memorizing 15% of it.
From this day on, it's going to be trade-off between one topic or another. You put too much hours in one topic, you’ll have to compensate it by compromising with another topic because the time will be in short-supply.
Just admit it, you cannot do proper-justice to each and every topic.
So, Plan must be quantifiable and not abstract.
Always check the cost:benefit ratio. = Hours invested in a particular topic vs probability of getting 1,2,5,7 or 10 questions from it vs the probability of you actually recalling that answer in the exam hall.
Geography:

Physical: Full / partial / ignore.
Indian Geography: Full / partial / ignore.
World : Full/ partial / ignore...
and so on

(and if you tick *partial* then what is to be prepared and what is to be skipped?: that alone would require deliberation for some hours, and partial preparation=luck.)

REACHING THE PRIME

For a champion boxer or tennis-player, even if he is in ‘shape’, he still has to do intense training in the weeks before tournament, for that mental conditioning- that feeling of reaching the peak, being in your prime state.
In military, there are separate companies: some ‘combat-ready’, others just for routine patrolling and sentry duties.
All soldiers have gone through same training; perhaps same years in service, but those Combat ready troopers are in a different level of physical and mental state altogether.
You’ve to get ‘combat-ready’. That feeling of “Yes I’m anxious, but I can do it, come what may, but I'm ready for them.”
When you read the books, complete the syllabus = you’re just ‘getting in shape’, but you haven’t reached your prime yet.
20-30 days before the exam, you’d have to put 10-12-16-18 hours a day for intense revision and practice to reach the prime.
Almost everyone: newbies and seasoned players alike go through a period of intense anxiety, stress and self-doubt in the days before any competitive exam. But those who’ve been preparing diligently, also start having that feeling of reaching the prime. But the problem with prime is that its effect doesn't last for more than a fortnight.
What I’m trying to say is: When you decide to skip the attempt just 1 week before the exam, then all the time and energy you invested in reaching the prime, is wasted.
Next year next attempt you have to go through same effort all over again to reach your prime. Because UPSC syllabus is designed in such a way, hardly 15% of topics can stay in long term memory and a prelim that requires precise command and knowledge of topics.
So for Those who’re still in a limbo about their preparation level, about whether to appear in 2012’s prelims or not, now is the right time to decide whether to attempt or to skip. No point in wasting the effort to reach the prime. Remember only you can judge your caliber. Whether you should appear or not, only you can decide so Don't do something because others said so, don't pick careers because others said so.
If you plan to appear for 2012 then from this day on, don't give a single thought about quitting.

THE FLOODS

From next month, every major publication house (Wizard, Chronicle, PD, CST, Spectrum) even Coaches such as Daulat Khan etc will come up with their special booklets for current-affairs, size ranging anything between 150 to 550 pages depending on who is their target-audience.
i.e.

150 pages Book for non-serious unprepared candidates who is looking for short-cuts and quick-fixes.
550 pages Book for sincere but amateur player, who thinks that GS is made up of only current affairs questions and he can mug up entire current-affairs book and the 50,000 facts and data given in it, by investing all of his remaining months AND that UPSC is going to ask atleast 15 questions from it and that he’ll be able to recall all the mugged up data inside the examhall without any mistake.

In any case: The probability of UPSC asking even 2 direct-questions from such readymade- books = Probability of Team India winning a test-match on foreign pitch.

THE CLAIMS AND ADVERTISEMENTS

Certain Publication houses make big (and often false) claims on the cover of their GS books, study material and magazines example

"60 questions in last prelims / mains were asked from our magazine/booklet."

For a stressed candidate it's like finding a panacea, he invests his money and rest of the months in such things. Stops reading or revising whatever he has prepared so far. He too is heading for #EPICFAIL.
Mind it: If you read something for single time- it means nothing in UPSC prelims.
(Frequent) Revision is NECESSARY. Shopping for more and more readymade books as prelims approaches= waste of time and money, unless you’ve the time to do second or third revision of the same book.
You must have faith in whatever books you've read so far, whatever notes you've made so far.
If you haven't made any handmade-notes at all for frequent revision, be ready for the unbearable stress, panic and anxiety in the last week and night before the exam as you fumble through the books, while (trying to do) revision.

So where is the 100 Days-strategy?

Preparing for Civil-Services especially General studies, is like Kung-fu, everyone has to develop his own style.
There are no cut and dried methods to get you through this.
Everyone has different mental makeup and capacity to study, so everyone has to adopt a different tailor-made strategy according to his own caliber and limits. Noone can babysit you or spoonfeed you here. You can only get directions from others, you've to ride the tiger on your own.
Here, Strategy doesn't mean a simple "recommended booklist", it is all about how you prepare the topics and train yourself for a competitive-exam. Always remember, for UPSC you don't have to finish the books, you've to finish the topics.

REAL NIGHTMARE: Not YET

Your fate will be sealed the day you walk out of exam hall in that Sunday evening of 20th May 2012, But that's just the beginning. Another Bigger Nightmare awaits: it's called Mains.
Total number of days between May 21st, 2012 and October 5th, 2012 is about 130 days or 4 months and 10 days between Prelims and Mains.
In this time, You're supposed to cover two optional subjects, each having length of a 2 years post-graduation course syllabus + the infinite General studies syllabus + an Essay.
Not to mention the days wasted in speculating the cut-off and result dates. Not like you're gonna start mains preparation from Night of 20th May 2012.
Not to mention the days wasted in deliberating about how to prepare everything, which books to buy which ones to ignore and so on.

In short, work hard and don't underestimate the competition, there are no consolation prices here.

[Q] Editorials: How much time to allot, Relevance of Internet based study etc

2012-01-25T00:15:00.000+05:30

Some questions, via comments

Editorials: how much time to allot?

Q. I find the editorials of HINDU very interesting, so i use to read them and research them on the net for about 2-3 hours daily.
Do you think I must give more stress on NCERT's and standard textbook more, than relying on internet studies.

It all depends on your preparation stage.
If you're guy who appeared in Mains 2011, and currently awaiting the interview call, well it's a good practice to read and research those editorials for 2-3 hours.
But if you're a greenhorn, targeting Prelims-2012, then you best devote your energy to the core books and material.
I'm not saying "IGNORE" editorials, because even they can be converted into 4 Statements true/false type of MCQs but one has to draw a line, depending on his preparation level vs Number of days remaining before the prelims vs number of pages to be read for each topic. If you're a first-timer, you must concentrate only on prelims from now-onwards.

Relevance of Internet studies: to what extent

Beyond a level, Not much. Core books must be referred. For example, no webpage can become a substitute for Laxmikanth or Bipin Chandra.

Lot of prelim-GS questions, still come from routine NCERTs, GS Manual, Newspapers and standard books. Because UPSC has to keep in mind those candidates who can't access internet much.

Hence, Wikipedia or googling beyond a level, doesn't put you much-ahead of the competition, as far as prelims are concerned. Ofcourse for mains/essay/interview, they do provide fodder material to add extra dimension and depth to your answer.

Last year/semester in College: Can apply for CSE?

Question: I am in 4th year B.tech, do i need to bring any college bonafied certificate for applying in Civil service Exam (CSE)?

If you're in last year / semester of college, no problem you can apply for the exam, provided that you're going get a graduation degree or provisional marksheet in August 2012, (If you're planning to give 2012's CSE.)
Let me elaborate:
Prelims=20.May.2012 (SUNDAY)
For the prelims they don't ask for any documents or certificates or proofs.
You'll get its result somewhere in August. If you pass prelims, you'll have to fill up a new form for mains. Along with the application-form for mains, you'll be required to submit all your xeroxes for 10,12,college degree, work experience, caste certi, handicap certi, Ex-serviceman certi...etc.etc.etc. whatever applies in your case.
Last date for submission of forms is generally August-end to September start.
Mains Exams are conducted from 05.October.2012
Bonafide certificate is not necessary. Your marksheet/degree matters: graduation is 'minimum educational requirement' for appearing in CSE.

[Q] Current Affairs time boundary for IAS exam?

2012-01-23T12:00:00.002+05:30

Question from Nishant,

UPSC asks the current affairs for what period......for example....if
i'm writing my exam in may-2013,,,then from which month of 2012...i should start preparing my current affairs from newspapers & magz.....

UPSC doesn't have that 'strict-time boundary' for asking questions.
But for prelim MCQs and 2 markers/short questions in Mains= 1 to 1.5 year prior to the exam-date, is sufficient in terms of 'current-affairs' related fact and details, persons in news, scientific inventions etc.
However, two facts to be kept in mind:

Fact#1: Hot topics for this year, can be forwarded to next year

2009: Chandrayan happened before mains, was a hot topic but they didnot ask in 2009.
Does it mean safe to 'skip' for 2010 because it is outdated ? Nope
2010: They asked about Chandrayaan in 2 markers.

Fact#2: Same topic can re-appear in consecutive years

2010 Mains Question:: Discuss Recent economic crisis in the so-called 'PIGS' countries of Europe.
Ok does it mean now safe to skip/ignore detailed study of European debt crisis for next mains of 2011? Nope
2011 Mains Question: 6-pack solution of Eurozone debt crisis vs Stability and growth pact.

Caution: The General Awareness Ocean

Those Korean and Vietnaam wars, Cuban Missile crisis, 1991-LPG, end of Cold-war, Kargil, IT-boom, Indo-US Nuke deal, and truck load of other things that happened from 1950 onwards in India and abroad- all part of 'General Awareness' and nothing prevents UPSC from asking any of it overtly or covertly anywhere in the three stages: Prelims, Mains, Interview.

This doesn't mean you should go through entire wikipedia or do Ph.D on each topic but never shy away from reading some topic just because it didn't happen in last 1-2 years.

When a candidate start acting like a frog in the well, a mugger-topper in university exams: restricting his reading to the conventional and selected few books and topics- he will end up digging his own grave.

[Q] When to start Newspaper reading for IAS exam?

2012-01-23T11:18:00.003+05:30

Many newcomers have this doubt:

at what time do we start to read newspaper for next year exam

First,

Why should we read newspapers at all?

UPSC doesn't have any strict 'time-boundaries' about questions, especially for the descriptive ones: Direct Tax code, GST, formation of new states, corruption, Education, Food security, planning Commission, India-America etc: these are hot topics for every year.
General Awareness and broad understanding of international/social/political/economic issues will not develop immediately after reading one book or class-note or magazine.
Daily newspapers and editorial columns' reading broadens your vision, provide you the food for thought and nutritional-fodder material for descriptive answer, helps you link up one issue with another. It helps you see the real-life examples of theories and academic stuff you read in the reference books.
And and those things are essential for writing decent essays and giving decent answers in interview. [Marks of both, counted in final merit list]
So Keep in mind, Newspaper is not just a short-term investments for MCQs in prelims- it is long term investment for scoring high in Essay and interview.

When should we start reading newspaper?

To gain the the awareness about contemporary issues, you should start reading newspapers from this day onwards, no matter whether you're planning to appear in 2012 or in 2014.
Besides you're always competing with veterans who've been upto interview stage multiple times, Their current-awareness level will be higher than yours, so you can't ignore newspapers or put any time-frame on it just because your target is 2013 or later.
By newspaper, I mean the serious newspapers : Indian Express, The Hindu. and not the page3 Masala stuff that appears in Times of India.

till when???

Until your name appears in the final list of successful candidates
or until you cross the attempt-limit
or until you cross the upper age limit.
or until you give up your civil service dream

For More on How to read newspapers and what to ignore in newspapers :CLICK ME

[Question papers] of all optional subjects 2011 Mains Exam

2012-01-22T15:26:00.000+05:30

Courtsey Mr. Velmurugan for bringing this :

UPSC has uploaded all the question papers of 2011's mains examination,
Use right click>Save as for required papers.

Essay
General Studies	Paper I
General Studies	Paper II
English Language (Compulsory)
Indian Languages (Compulsory)
Assamese	Bengali
Bodo	Dogri
Gujarati	Hindi
Kannada	Kashmiri
Maithili	Manipuri
Malayalam	Marathi
Nepali	Oriya
Punjabi	Sanskrit
Tamil	Telugu
Urdu
Optional Subjects for Main Examination
Agriculture Paper I	Agriculture Paper II
Animal Husbandary & Veterinary Science Paper I	Animal Husbandary & Veterinary Science Paper II
Anthropology Paper I	Anthropology Paper II
Botony Paper I	Botony Paper II
Chemistry Paper I	Chemistry Paper II
Civil Engineering Paper I	Civil Engineering Paper II
Commerce & Accountancy Paper I	Commerce & Accountancy Paper II
Economics Paper I	Economics Paper II
Electrical Engineering Paper I	Electrical Engineering Paper II
Geography Paper I	Geography Paper II
Geology Paper I	Geology Paper II
History Paper I	History Paper II
Law Paper I	Law Paper II
Management Paper I	Management Paper II
Mathematics Paper I	Mathematics Paper II
Mechanical Engineering Paper I	Mechanical Engineering Paper II
Medical Science Paper I	Medical Science Paper II
Philosphy Paper I	Philosphy Paper II
Physics Paper I	Physics Paper II
Political Science & Internation Relations Paper I	Political Science & Internation Relations Paper II
Psychology Paper I	Psychology Paper II
Public Administration Paper I	Public Administration Paper II
Sociology Paper I	Sociology Paper II
Statistics Paper I	Statistics Paper II
Zoology Paper I	Zoology Paper II
Literature Subjects for Main Examination
Arabic Paper I	Arabic Paper II
Assamese Paper I	Assamese Paper II
Bengali Paper I	Bengali Paper II
Bodo Paper I	Bodo Paper II
Dogri Paper I	Dogri Paper II
English Paper I	English Paper II
French Paper I	French Paper II
German Paper I	German Paper II
Gujarati Paper I	Gujarati Paper II
Hindi Paper I	Hindi Paper II
Kannada Paper I	Kannada Paper II
Kashmiri Paper I	Kashmiri Paper II
Manipuri Paper I	Manipuri Paper II
Maithili Paper I	Maithili Paper II
Malayalam Paper I	Malayalam Paper II
Marathi Paper I	Marathi Paper II
Oriya Paper I	Oriya Paper II
Pali Paper I	Pali Paper II
Persian Paper I	Persian Paper II
Punjabi Paper I	Punjabi Paper II
Russian Paper I	Russian Paper II
Sanskrit Paper I	Sanskrit Paper II
Santali Paper I	Santali Paper II
Tamil Paper I	Tamil Paper II
Telugu Paper I	Telugu Paper II
Urdu Paper I	Urdu Paper II

Got problems? use following link
http://www.upsc.gov.in/questionpaper/2011.htm#PageTop

[Q] IJPA journals from IIPA are unnecessary for Public Administration (mains)

2012-01-21T10:02:00.000+05:30

Since I'm getting this question multiple times in email

where i can get iipa journals for public administration(either online OR book format)

IJPA: Indian journal of Public Administration.
IIPA (Indian institution of Public Administration) publishes ^this journal every three months. You can't find its journal online, you've to subscribe to it manually. But it is quite unnecessary. Let me tell you why:

What utility does IJPA serve?

In Government library, I've seen multiple volumes of this IJPA. Most of the time it's just 'case-study' with numbers, Management theory, and academic stuff of what kind of contemporary research is going on, in India and abroad.
The points you can quote in your mains answers, or the topics you need to study for Public Administration syllabus : well they rarely appear in that journal.
If you're reading Yojana, Kurukshetra and newspapers regularly, you'll get more than enough points and examples to cite in any Public Administration questions.
Now consider this: IIPA releases the journal every 3 months, even if you subscribe right now, you'll get at most 2 or 3 issues before the mains. So, What's the probability of you getting some decent exam-oriented stuff from just 2-3 issues. You might wanna go in library Archives and refer to all IJPA issues of last 3-4 years. But what's the point in doing overkill? You don't have to do Ph.D. here.

So, if this journal is unnecessary,

why IJPA has crept into the 'recommend booklist'

Outdated articles written by coaching class experts, still in google-ranking. When a newcomer searches for recommend booklist, he/she gets this IJPA, same reason Mishra Puri, Dutt Sundaram for economy= unnecessary overkill.
Topper interviews.You see, while giving interviews to magz, some toppers have mis-tendency to list a truckload of reference-books even if they didnot read it by themselves. They think people will respect them less if they didnot mention lot of books!

But Anay Dwivedi is one of the rare-gems, a UPSC topper with Public Administration optional subject-here is what he said in his own blog: (copy pasting)

i didnt read iipa journals as the info i had frm newspapers was more than enough for writing my answers…i didnt have the time to go thru them..so it is not necessary tht u must go thru ijpa to score well in pub ad…

Instead of reading three books once, read one book thrice

[Q] IFS Officers abroad get more salary according to Cost of living

2012-01-19T23:20:00.001+05:30

Amitsingh of IO forum asked,

Do the IFS (Indian foreign service) get salary according to posting or they have fixed salary anywhere in the world?

Copy pasting verbatim from the Gazette notification,

During the service abroad, the officers are granted foreign allowance According to their status to compensate them for the increased cost of living, and also to make special responsibility in regard to entertainment.

In addition, the following facilities are also available during the service of abroad

free furnished accommodation according to status
medical attendance facilities
one set of home leave passage is given during each posting abroad for a normal tenure of two or three years, so self independent family members.
In addition two emergency passages given during an officer's entire career for self of a member of his family to travel to India for reasons of personal or family emergency.
annual return air-passage, For children between the age of 6 and 22 studying in India to visit their parents during vacation, subject to certain conditions.
Children education allows for maximum of two children between the ages 5 and 20, studying at the station of officer's posting, In any of the schools approved by Ministry of external affairs.

<please don't ask me minute details of which country how much allowance, as I don't have that information.>

[Economy Q] SENSEX calculation

2012-01-10T15:54:00.000+05:30

Before venturing into SENSEX calculation, lets refresh basic concepts of Index calculation, that we saw in WPI calculation

Suppose Price of a Lifebouy soap was Rs.10 in 2001.
And now it has increased to Rs.12 per bar.

We take 2001 as our base year.
We take Rs. 10 as our base price.
Then our index for 2001,
= Price of soap in 2001 divided by price of soap in 2001
=(10/10) x 100= 100%

Our index for 2011
=Price of soap in 2011 divided by price of soap in 2001
=(12/10) x 100=120%

The formula is essentially, "new price divided by old price"

Now for SENSEX

Base year : 1978-79 [to be specific, the price on 1st April 1979]
First the concept of-

Free Float market Capitalization

1. Kingfisher: suppose has total 1 lakh shares: 30,000 held by Malya and rest 70 thousand held by general public.
2. Value of each share in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on 11 January 2012 is Rs. 150.

Now we first calculate a thing called “Free float Market capitalization” for Kingfisher, which is nothing but
= Number of shares held by general public multiplied with Value of Each share on the given date in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)
= 70 thousand x 150
= 105 lakh rupees
So Kingfisher’s Free float Market cap (FFMC) for 11 January 2012= 105 lakh rupees.

Like this kingfisher, you pick up total 30 companies, calculate their FFMCs, add them together.This number becomes our “Price of lifebuoy”, say it is 15 crore rupees. (NEW PRICE)

And total Free floating market cap of 30 companies, on that 1st april 1979 was say 10 lakh rupees. (OLD PRICE)

So as we saw earlier, INDEX= new price divided by old price (% value)

Now SENSEX = Total Free float market cap (FFMC) of 30 companies today divided by Total (FFMC) of 30 companies on 1st April 1979
=(15 crores / 10 lakh) x 100
=15000
This 15,000 my friends, is the today’s SENSEX.

P.S. Actual formula not this linear.

Some points

The 30 companies, in that list keeps changing. So 30 companies in today’s SENSEX not necessarily included in 1979’s list. But we take their values.
Actual SENSEX calculation involves minute technical-items such as “free float factor for each company” but it’s beyond the scope of routine competitive exams. However curious souls can access it by clicking following http://www.ehow.com/how_5184590_calculate-sensex.html
Different companies have different 'weights' in the Index. So calculation won't be directly new price by old price but weighted average, similar to how in WPI we assigned weights to different commodities.
Total market capitalization =total number of shares of a company (i.e. Malya+General public) multiplied with price of each share on given date.
SENSEX from 1986 to 2003, was calculated on this Total market capitalization. In 2003, they switched to Free Float Market Cap.
The word SENSEX is made by combining two words: Sensitive + Index.

Dollex

BSE’s dollar version of SENSEX. [SENSEX is calculated on rupee values]

NIFTY

SENSEX is calculated on 30 chosen companies. (Started in 1986)
NIFTY is calculated on 50 chosen companies. (Started in 1995), otherwise method is same.
Similarly BSE 100= calculated on 100 companies, since 1989.
PS: “years and dates” are not that important.

[Economy Q] Story of Forex Part II

2012-01-10T15:07:00.002+05:30

Continuing the Technically-not-so-correct story of Forex and currency conversion

Kashyap asked,

First Question

Why king of Saudi does not accept payment in rupees?

If he accepts rupees, his hands are 'tied', meaning he can only use that cash to buy stuff from India.
But even If he wishes to import Indian mangoes or oranges, the Indian exporters would gladly accept American dollars, so why bother with rupees?
Secondly, What if he wants to buy I-phone or Ferrari from America?
He'll have to get those rupees converted into Dollars.
But everytime he converts one currency to another, there will be taxes and Commission charges applied @ the forex market. So why waste money in it? Just get the dollars- it's universally accepted-Can buy anything from anywhere.
You buy something from my medical store and pay but instead of returning change (छुट्टे पैसे), I give you plastic coin or coupon with "2-rupees" written on it. It can be used to purchase items from my store only. So, will you accept that plastic coin currency or will you demand an actual Indian currency coin? Which one has more benefits?

Second Question

At the beginning only 1$=Rs.40?why not 1$=Re.1?

First, Why do we want to convert one currency to another? Because we want to buy something from that country, or to invest in that country.

Let's just presume for a moment,there is no share-market or speculation or FDI/FII, just plain buy n sell of goods between nations.

In the initial years after independence, we didnot have the excellent manufacturing technology,
There were droughts so food shortage. We were dependent on the west for food supplies.
There was heavy inflation because of wars with China and Pakistan.
We emphasized on 'Swadeshi', we were using "Import substitution strategy". We prevented the entry of foreign companies, hence our Swadeshi automobiles, cameras, etc were not of 'export-quality'. If the third guy (British) wanted to buy a car, he'd convert his pounds to dollars and buy a ford from America and won't come to India to buy the khataraa Ambassador.
In those years, America was quickly advancing, they had color TV, missiles, tanks, weapons, sports cars for sale and export in their show-room.
Compared to them, We didnot have much expensive stuff to export.
As we saw a paragraph ago: why we exchange currency? so that we can buy something from their local market. So how do you motivate an American to exchange his one dollar to your rupees?
1$=1Rupee? ofcourse not. Why should he give you his one dollar for just one rupee?
What is so precious in your Indian show-room that he feels tempted to exchange his dollars for your rupees?
1 gallon is approx 4 litres. He can buy 4 litres of petrol, in about 16$ on American gas-station while you'll need Rs. 280 to buy 4 liters in Indian petrol pump.
He can buy a computer mouse in 7 dollars in America, while here it costs no less than Rs.150 in India. ( I mean to say, if he exchanges 1 dollar for 1 Rupee and imports things from India, he is at loss.)
Besides, we are have desperate need of dollars to purchase his weapons, his machinery, or to pay $$ for crude oil.
So you would need to motivate him by offering more rupees for each dollar so that he can purchase more from India.

That's why 1 Dollar did-not equal to 1 Rupee. You had to offer him more than 1 Rupee.

PS issues of officially Fixed exchange rate, devaluation etc intentionally skipped to keep the explanation plain and simple. You can read more about that by clicking me

Third Question

3. why did Allen exchanged dollars with rupees?

Because India would have appeared a good investment-destination 3-4 years ago when Allen came, and America was struggling with recession.
But then thanks to Jairam Ramesh's Environmental activism, Niyamgiri-POSCO agitations, Cairn-Vedanta deal obstacles, mining scams and energy crisis etc. the scenario right now, may not appear attractive to new investors.

[Economy] Link between Credit Rating & Interest Rates

2012-01-09T15:51:00.003+05:30

Another Question from email

"DOWNGRADED rating could lead to hiked interest rates and borrowing costs": What does this mean?

first of all,

What is a credit rating agency?

A credit rating agency is like the Box office review columns in Saturday's newspapers: 2 star out of 5, means waste of money. (Ra.One, Don 2 for example).
Similarly Credit rating agency (CRA) assigns credit ratings to issuers of bonds and securities : companies, Governments etc.
From their rating, you can know issuer's credit worthiness (i.e., its ability to pay back a loan)
Example of CRA are :Standard & Poor's (U.S.), CRISIL (India)

Standard & Poor's (S&P) credit rating

It has "stars" from AAA to D.
AAA means the guy is most likely to pay back.
D means the guy is most-bogus.

Now consider this:
But if I get lower ratings such a BB, or CCC.... in that case most people wouldn't want to purchase my bonds because they're afraid that I may default on payments.
So how do I motivate them to invest money in my bonds? Obviously by offering higher returns. example

“Anyone who gives me 100 Rs., I’ll give him 170 rupees after 6 months, instead of 120 that I promised earlier!”

From your side (Lender) what do you see?= hike in interest rate.
From my side (Borrower) what do I see?=increased cost of borrowing, because I have to offer higher interest rate.

S&P downgraded U.S. long-term credit rating from AAA to AA+
So, Borrowing costs will rise for U.S. government (via treasury bonds), companies etc in long-term because now they'll have to offer higher interest rates.

This was the credit rating for governments, companies, but what about

Credit Rating for individuals

Credit Information Bureau of India (CIBIL) is a central agency that prepares a report of all loan borrowers who have defaulted on their payment to their banks.
In short, CIBIL knows if you are a good borrower or a bad one. Banks seek these reports, called as credit reports, from CIBIL before they sanction you a loan amount.
If your credit history is not good, your loan request may be rejected, or you may be required to pay higher interest rate.

Non-related question,

What is Angel fund?

A wealthy individual who provides financing to a start-up compny.
Start up company means a company in its earliest stage of development, usually before its IPO.

Feeling bored and confused? Well refresh the concept of security, derivatives, primary and secondary market by clicking me and read this article again.

[Economy Q] difference between current account deficit and trade deficit

2012-01-09T14:45:00.001+05:30

Tanvir asked,

What's the difference between current account deficit and trade deficit?

Current account

First the meaning of "Balance of Payment"= keeping track of incoming and outgoing money from a country.
In Balance of Payment, we've two components :

Current Account and
Capital Account.

Current Account= the sum of

Balance of trade (exports minus imports of goods and services)
Factor Income (interest and dividends from international loans and investments.)
Net transfer payments (such as foreign aid).

When we say Current account deficit, means incoming money is less than outgoing money.
For more on Current account and Capital account Click me

Trade deficit

First, the meaning of "Balance of Trade" = difference between value of import and export.
When we are importing more than our exports: we've Trade Deficit.
It doesn't consider foreign aid and interest payments but only the 'trade' part.
Do you see the hierarchy ??
Balance of Payment >> Current Account >> Balance of Trade >> Trade Deficit
If not, then re-read the article!

Want to know about other deficits: Budgetary, Fiscal and Primary? Click me

[Guest Article] Some tips for the First Timers by Mr.Bharat

2012-01-09T14:25:00.000+05:30

This is a guest-article by Mr.Bharat R:
--starting copy paste---

I have written a small piece on the experiences i had in my first attempt and the lessons i learned. I don't want the first timers to go through the same difficult road like i did.
I would request all the first time aspirants to give this a read and introspect.
Making a decision that will change your life is not an easy thing to do, especially when it comes to civil service. Sure, why not! Everyone wants to become an IAS officer. But there is a difference between a "want" and a "need". This is what cuts you from the rest.
So, when you think about IAS, ask yourself,

Do I need to become an IAS officer?

if you get the answer, then that is your path.
Below are some of the things which should cross your mind as first timers:

Don’t build a palace in the air first up, you just cannot keep dreaming about what all you will do if you get into the service. The thing is you have to get into the service.
Don’t assume anything. I repeat don’t assume anything. Its only either you know it or you don’t. Guesses don’t work in this exam. Trust me, I’ve paid the price.
Keep your enthusiasm in check, don’t overdo it. Burnouts and late nights are not a recipe for success here.
Change the way you think from day one, this is the key point one has to work upon continuously. If one can think in different angles, he/she is as good as any experienced person in this arena.
Rely on yourself more than any other source. There are countless books and magazines out there for money (not for knowledge) use the resources you can get your hands on in a smart way, unless you want to open a library.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the scale of the competition, remember, all you need is one post, strive towards that. Don’t worry about what others are up to.
Thankfully, UPSC has made this exam so general that, you longer have to go to Delhi (as it was before, where it was believed that the closer you are to UPSC the better are your chances).
Understand that you are different from the others in this exam, just because you wanted to top and couldn’t, doesn't mean you are not competent. Assess and introspect.
These are some of the most common things we apply in our daily life otherwise. It only fades away when you sit for the exam. Don’t let that happen.
Don’t be disheartened if you fail. That’s the specialty of this exam, you never leave empty handed.

All the best!
-Bharath R

[Current] Strait of Hormuz & oil blockade

2012-01-09T12:45:00.001+05:30

What is a Strait?

A narrow body of water that joins two larger bodies of water
Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and the Oman
It links the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea.
Almost One third of world's oil supply comes through this Strait.

Narrowest point of this Strait if 54 kms wide.

then What is Isthmus?

A narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas.
ex.the Isthmus of Panama: connects North and South America.

Why the Strait of Hormuz is in news?

There are talks of US imposing fresh sanctions on Iran oil industry.
The West is concerned that Tehran might be planning to build nuclear weapons under the cover of its civil nuclear program.
Iran has threatened to block oil deliveries through the Straits of Hormuz if sanctions are imposed.
U.S. has deployed the Fifth naval Fleet to prevent any such blockade.
Meanwhile,EU states have reached an agreement in principle to ban Iran’s oil exports.
Consultations are continuing, but diplomats say the ban could come into force by January 30.
Such rumor-mongering and drama is going to increase the oil-barrel price in future.

India in this drama

Iran is the fourth-largest oil producer in the world
India is Iran's second largest client after China and absorbs about 20 percent of its crude exports.
India imports more than 300,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Iran.
India pays about $1 billion every month to Iran via Turkey.
Obama signed a Bill into law late last month, empowering U.S. authorities to impose penalties on foreign banks dealing with the Central Bank of Iran to settle oil import payments.
India fears that Turkey might come under the US pressure after a fresh round of sanctions are imposed on Iran.
So, India is exploring all options to find a way out to make oil payments to Iran. (Critical at the time of State elections, a petrol-price increase could reverse the prospects of ruling party's victory!)

[Mock #1] Interview Questions for UPSC Civil service Exam (US/UK politics special)

2012-01-09T00:28:00.000+05:30

Want to try these questions?

Q. American President has term of 4 years only, should we also reduce Lok Sabha term to 4 years? What benefits and problems do you see?
...
Q. What's the difference between Democrats and Republicans?
...
Q. If you were an American citizen, Which party would you vote? and why?
...
Q. Why did Nixon and Indira hate eachother?
...
Q. Then why don't Obama and Manmohan hate eachother?
...
Q. What do you know about Watergate scandal?
...
Q. Why were Kennedy and Lincoln assassinated?
...
Q. President Obama mentions Health-care reforms in his speeches, what do you know about it? Why do the republicans keep opposing it?
...
Q. What health-care reforms do you suggest for India? Should we also implement the reforms Obama is trying in America?
...
Q. How are the election campaigns in America, different from India? Do you think we should 'import' their ways?
...
Q. We've problem of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, same way America has problem of Mexican immigrants. Do you think they've been more successful than us in combating it: Yes/No and why?
...
Q. What's the difference between Labour, Conservatives?
...
Q. If you were a British citizen, Which party would you vote? and why?
...
Q. Ever heard the name Margarete Thatcher?
...
Q. Should India have Two-party system like US or UK ? Justify your answer.
...
Q. For better relations with India, Which party should come in power in UK and US?
...

[Current Affairs] Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) plus interview Questions for UPSC

2012-01-08T22:33:00.000+05:30

Topic important for GS Mains Paper II.

Why celebrate?

To mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community to the development of India.

When celebrate?

7–9 January each year in an Indian city, because Gandhi returned from S.Africa on 9th Jan.
Started from 2003.
Last year (2011), held in New Delhi with theme “Engaging the Global Indian”
This year (2012) 10th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is held in Jaipur, Rajasthan with theme: "Global Indian - Inclusive Growth."

Who's the Chief Guest?

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Kamla Persad Bissessar.

Highlight of Manmohan's speech

Pension and Life Insurance Fund: for overseas Indian workers. The scheme will assist overseas workers to voluntarily save for their return and resettlement and old age.
Voting rights for NRIs: government has issued notifications for registration of overseas electors under the Representation of People Act, 1950
Citizenship Act amended to provide for an Overseas Indian Card which will be given to foreign spouses of such card holders as well.
e-migrate project by Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, that will provide end-to-end computerized solutions for all processes in the emigration system.
Labour Mobility Partnership Agreements :to cover skilled workers, students, academics and professionals. Such Partnership agreements are being negotiated with The Netherlands, France, Australia and the European Union.
Operation Safe Homecoming: to evacuate more than 16,000 people from the strife torn areas of Libya, through special flights, passenger and naval vessels.Similar evacuations were carried out in Egypt and Yemen on a lower scale.
+plus the usual feel good things: our economy is growing and we've challanges and blah blah blah.

UPSC Interview Questions from this topic

Do you know any other Politicians of Indian origin/parents apart from Ms.Bissesar?
Do these NRI really deserve voting rights? argument in favor and against.
What's the difference between NRI and PIO?
What is dual citizenship? Why should we allow Dual citizenship?
What is double taxation?

[Analysis] Essay topic trends in last 19 years (1993-2011) for UPSC civil service IAS exam

2011-12-13T18:36:00.000+05:30

Trouble viewing the charts and tables?
Download the pdf file by clicking me

I’m classifying all the essays asked in last 19 years, into 8 broad topics.
Topic [bracket shows # of questions asked so far]

1.    Economy (India vs Bharat theme) [12]
2.    Education [11]
3.    Culture [18]
4.    International issues [13]
5.    Philosophy [15]
6.    Polity & Administration [27]
7.    Technology [6]
8.    Women empowerment [10]

The Occurrence Table of Essay Topics

Now doing the interpretation based on the year-wise ‘occurrence’ of these essays. See this table


Chart: The occurance table of Essay topics for 1993-2011(if trouble viewing the photo, then download the pdf file)

The Observations & Speculations

Since last 5 years continuously, no essay on technology or women empowerment. (see the continuity of those black dots in the table) As we saw in the mains analysis, the Women empowerment topic seems to be shifted from Essay papers to GS Paper 1.
In the early 90s you were given 6-8 essays and you had to pickup one, they’ve gradually reduced the options to barely 4 essays!
Economy is under dry spell after a long time (2011), otherwise since 2006, there has been 1-2 essays each year.
‘Education’ topic had atmost 2 continuous dry years during the entire 19 years period, otherwise they’ve been asking from it at a regular interval.
Indian culture is second most important topic after polity (total 18 essays)
Just like Education, culture too hasn’t seen lengthy dry years, same is true for Global/international issues.
Philosophical essays were ‘hot’ in the initial years: 1993 to 1996, two essays per year and then abruptly stopped for four years. I guess the paper-setter retired or perhaps UPSC changed their ‘trend’ in those years for some reason.
Polity /Administration has seen dry year only thrice.
Seems UPSC has some personal grudge against science professors, when It comes to framing the essay paper, Only 6 essays so far from S&T in last 19 years! Or perhaps, to balance the advantage enjoyed by Science graduates in GS paper-II and to provide level playing field to non-science graduates, they’ve stopped asking S&T essays since last 5 years.
1993-2006, Women empowerment used to be a recurring essay topic, almost every year.

Now what can be the speculations for 2012??

There will be 4 essays. (or 3?!)
UPSC continues its love for culture, one essay will be asked (since Art n Culture as a topic is not given as much importance in GS paper1)?
UPSC continues to ignore S&T and Women empowerment topic. (as they’re well covered in GS papers)?
You can share your own speculations in the comments below!

The Bar and Pie chart breakups


Bar and Pie chart breakups for Essay topics in last 19 years

Appendix- I (The topicwise Essay list of last 19 years (1993-2011)

Economy (india vs bharat theme)

1.    Protection of ecology and environment is essential for sustained economic development. -2006
2.    Bpo boom in india.   -2007
3.    Globalization would finish small-scale industries in india. -2006
4.    Economic growth without distributive justice is bound to breed violence. -1993
5.    Ecological considerations need not hamper development. -1993
6.    Multinational corporations - saviours or saboteurs -1994
7.    Special economic zone : boon or bane -2008
8.    Resource management in the indian context. -1999
9.    Should a moratorium be imposed on all fresh mining in tribal areas of the country? -2010
10.    Are our traditional handicrafts doomed to a slow death? -2009
11.    The focus of health care is increasingly getting skewed towards the ‘haves’ of our society. -2009
12.    Urbanization is a blessing in disguise. -1997

Education

1.    Modern technological education and human values. -2002
2.    Credit - based higher education system - status , opportunities and challenges -2011
3.    "Education for all" campaign in india: myth or reality. -2006
4.    Privatization of higher education in india. -2002
5.    Irrelevance of the classroom. -2001
6.    Value-based science and education. -1999
7.    Is an egalitarian society possible by educating the masses ? -2008
8.    Independent thinking should be encouraged right form the childhood. -2007
9.    Restructuring of indian education system. -1995
10.    Literacy is growing very fast, but there is no corresponding growth in education. -1996
11.    What is real education? -2005

Indian culture

1.    Indian culture today: a myth or a reality? -2000
2.    Modernism and our traditional socio-ethical values. -2000
3.    Youth culture today. -1999
4.    Mass media and cultural invasion. -1999
5.    The composite culture of india. -1998
6.    The indian society at the crossroads. -1994
7.    Does indian cinema shape our popular culture or merely reflect it -2011
8.    Geography may remain the same ; history need not. -2010
9.    From traditional indian philanthropy to the gates-buffet model-a natural progression or a paradigm shift? -2010
10.    Modernisation and westernisation are not identical concepts. -1994
11.    New cults and godmen: a threat to traditional religion -1996
12.    How has satellite television brought about cultural change in indian mindsets. -2007
13.    ‘ globlisation’ vs. ‘ nationalism’ -2009
14.    National identity and patriotism -2008
15.    Responsibility of media in a democracy. -2002
16.    Why should we be proud of being indians? -2000
17.    True religion cannot be misused. -1997
18.    Globalizations and its impact on indian culture. -2004

International issues

1.    India's role in promoting asean co-operation. -2004
2.    The masks of new imperialism. -2003
3.    As civilization advances culture declines. -2003
4.    The implications of globalization for india. -2000
5.    My vision of an ideal world order. -2001
6.    India's contribution to world wisdom. -1998
7.    The world of the twenty-first century. -1998
8.    Preparedness of our society for india’s global leadership role. -2010
9.    The global order: political and economic -1993
10.    Importance of indo-u.s. nuclear agreement -2006
11.    Good fences make good neighbors -2009
12.    Terrorism and world peace -2005
13.    Restructuring of uno reflect present realities -1996

Philosophy

1.    Discipline means success , anarchy means ruin -2008
2.    Attitude makes, habit makes character and character makes a man. -2007
3.    There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. -2003
4.    Search for truth can only be a spiritual problem. -2002
5.    Spirituality and scientific temper. -2003
6.    Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of civilisation. -1995
7.    Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. -1995
8.    Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, oldage a regret -1994
9.    Useless life is an early death. -1994
10.    He would reigns within himself and folds his passions and desires and fears is more than a king. -1993
11.    Compassion is the basic of all morality would -1993
12.    If youth knew, if age could. -2002
13.    The paths of glory lead but to the grave. -2002
14.    The pursuit of excellence. -2001
15.    Truth is lived, not taught -1996

Polity, administration

1.    Creation of smaller states and the consequent administrative , economic and developmental implication -2011
2.    Evaluation of panchayati raj system in india from the point of view of eradication of power to people. -2007
3.    Justice must reach the poor -2005
4.    Water resources should be under the control of the central government. -2004
5.    The misinterpretation and misuse of freedom in india. -1998
6.    The language problem in india: its past, present and prospects. -1998
7.    Reservation, politics and empowerment. -1999
8.    When money speaks, the truth is silent. -1995
9.    How should a civil servant conduct himself? -2003
10.    Politics without ethics is a disaster. -1995
11.    Judicial activism. -1997
12.    The vip cult is a bane of indian democracy -1996
13.    Need for transparency in public administration -1996
14.    Whither indian democracy? -1995
15.    Politics, bureaucracy and business - fatal triangle. -1994
16.    How far has democracy in india delivered the goods? -2003
17.    What we have not learnt during fifty years of independence. -1997
18.    My vision of india in 2001 a.d. -1993
19.    In the indian context , both human intelligence and technical intelligence are crucial in combating terrorism -2011
20.    Is autonomy the best answer to combat balkanization? -2007
21.    The country's need for a better disaster management system. -2000
22.    Are we a ‘soft ’ state ? -2009
23.    Role of media in good governance -2008
24.    Judicial activism and indian democracy. -2004
25.    What have we gained from our democratic set-up? -2001
26.    Urbanisation and its hazards -2008
27.    Food security for sustainable national development -2005

Technology

1.    Computer: the harbinger of silent revolution. -1993
2.    The march of science and the erosion of human values. -2001
3.    The modern doctor and his patients. -1997
4.    Increasing computerization would lead to the creation of a dehumanized society. -2006
5.    The cyberworld: its charms and challenges. -2000
6.    The lure of space. -2004

Women empowerment

1.    Men have failed: let women take over. -1993
2.    Women's reservation bill would usher in empowerment for women in india. -2006
3.    The hand that rocks the cradle -2005
4.    If women ruled the world -2005
5.    Whither women's emancipation? -2004
6.    Empowerment alone cannot help our women. -2001
7.    Women empowerment: challenges and prospects. -1999
8.    Woman is god's best creation. -1998
9.    Greater political power alone will not improve women's plight. -1997
10.    The new emerging women power: the ground realities. -1995

Appendix II (Yearwise Essay Papers for UPSC mains 1993-2011)

2011	1. Creation of smaller states and the consequent administrative , economic and developmental implication 2. Does Indian Cinema shape our popular culture or merely reflect it 3. Credit – based higher education system – status , opportunities and challenges 4. In the Indian context , Both human intelligence and technical intelligence are crucial in combating terrorism
2010	1. Geography may remain the same ; history need not. 2. Should a moratorium be imposed on all fresh mining in tribal areas of the country? 3. Preparedness of our society for India’s global leadership role. 4. From traditional Indian philanthropy to the Gates-Buffet model-a natural progression or a paradigm shift?
2009	1. Are our traditional handicrafts doomed to a slow death? 2. Are we a ‘Soft ’ state ? 3. “The focus of health care is increasingly getting skewed towards the ‘haves’ of our society”. 4. “ Good Fences make good neighbors” 5. ‘ Globlisation’ vs. ‘ Nationalism’
2008	1. Role of Media in good governance 2. National Identity and Patritism 3. Special Economic Zone : Boon or Bane 4. Descipline means success , anarchy means ruin 5. Urbanisation and Its Hazards 6. Is an Egalitarian society possible by educating the masses ?
2007	1. Independent thinking should be encouraged right form the childhood. 2. Evaluation of Panchayati Raj System in India from the point of view of eradication of power to people. 3. Attitude makes, habit makes character and character makes a man. 4. Is Autonomy the best answer to combat balkanization? 5. How has satellite television brought about cultural change in Indian mindsets. 6. BPO boom in India.
2006	1. Women's Reservation Bill Would Usher in Empowerment for Women in India. 2. Protection of Ecology and Environment is Essential for Sustained Economic Development. 3. Importance of Indo-U.S. Nuclear Agreement 4. "Education for All" Campaign in India: Myth or Reality. 5. Globalization Would Finish Small-Scale Industries in India. 6. Increasing Computerization Would lead to the Creation of a Dehumanized Society.
2005	1. Justice must reach the poor 2. The hand that rocks the cradle 3. If women ruled the world 4. What is real education? 5. Terrorism and world peace 6. Food security for sustainable national development
2004	1. India's Role in Promoting ASEAN Co-operation. 2. Judicial Activism and Indian Democracy. 3. Whither Women's Emancipation? 4. Globalizations and Its Impact on Indian Culture. 5. The Lure of Space. 6. Water Resources Should Be Under the Control of the Central Government.
2003	1. The Masks of New Imperialism. 2. How far has democracy in India delivered the goods? 3. How should a civil servant conduct himself? 4. As civilization advances culture declines. 5. There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. 6. Spirituality and Scientific temper.
2002	1. Modern technological education and human values. 2. Search for truth can only be a spiritual problem. 3. If youth knew, if age could. 4. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 5. Privatization of higher education in India. 6. Responsibility of media in a democracy.
2001	1. What have we gained from our democratic set-up? 2. My vision of an ideal world order. 3. The march of science and the erosion of human values. 4. Irrelevance of the classroom. 5. The pursuit of excellence. 6. Empowerment alone cannot help our women.
2000	1. Why should we be proud of being Indians? 2. The cyberworld: Its charms and challenges. 3. The country's need for a better disaster management system. 4. Indian culture today: A myth or a reality? 5. The implications of globalization for India. 6. Modernism and our traditional socio-ethical values.
1999	1. Women empowerment: Challenges and prospects. 2. Youth culture today. 3. Mass media and cultural invasion. 4. Resource management in the Indian context. 5. Value-based science and education. 6. Reservation, politics and empowerment.
1998	1. The composite culture of India. 2. Woman is God's best creation. 3.The misinterpretation and misuse of freedom in India. 4. India's contribution to world wisdom. 5. The language problem in India: Its past, present and prospects. 6. The world of the twenty-first century.
1997	1. What we have not learnt during fifty years of Independence. 2. Judicial activism. 3. Greater political power alone will not improve women's plight. 4. True religion cannot be misused. 5. The modern doctor and his patients. 6. Urbanization is a blessing in disguise.
1996	1. Literacy is growing very fast, but there is no corresponding growth in education. 2. Restructuring of UNO reflect present realities 3. New cults and Godmen: a threat to traditional religion 4. The VIP cult is a bane of Indian democracy 5. Need for transparency in public administration 6. Truth is lived, not taught
1995	1. Politics without ethics is a disaster. 2. The new emerging women Power: the ground realities. 3. When money speaks, the truth is silent. 4. Whither Indian democracy? 5. Restructuring of Indian education system. 6. Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of civilisation. 7. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
1994	1. Youth is a blunder, Manhood a struggle, oldage a regret 2. The Indian society at the crossroads. 3. Modernisation and westernisation are not identical concepts. 4. Useless life is an early death. 5. Politics, bureaucracy and business – Fatal Triangle. 6. Multinational corporations – saviours or saboteurs
1993	1. My vision of India in 2001 A.D. 2. The global order: political and economic 3. He would reigns within himself and folds his passions and desires and fears is more than a king. 4. Compassion is the basic of all morality would 5. Men have failed: let women take over. 6. Economic growth without distributive justice is bound to breed violence. 7. Ecological considerations need not hamper development. 8. Computer: the harbinger of silent revolution.

[Economy] Foreign direct investment limits in various sectors of India (FDI caps)

2011-12-09T11:46:00.001+05:30

Foreign direct investment limits (FDI)in various sectors of India

Caution:

1. Some of the data might be outdated.
2. List is not exhaustive

0% FDI is permitted in

Agriculture (except Tea)
Housing and real estate [except NRI]
Lottery, Gambling

26% FDI is permitted in

Defence
Insurance
Newspaper and media
Petroleum refining

49% FDI is permitted in

Banking
Cable network
DTH
Infrastructure investment
Telecom

51% FDI is permitted in

Single Brand Retail
Petro-pipelines

74% FDI is permitted in

Atomic minerals
Science Magazines /Journals
Petro marketing
Coal and Lignite mines
Telecom

100% FDI is permitted in

Advertizement
Airports
Cold-storage
BPO/Call centres
E-commerce
Energy (except atomic)
export trading house
Films
Hotel, tourism
Metro train
Mines (gold, silver)
Petroleum exploration
Pharmaceuticals
Pollution control
Postal service
Roads, highways, ports.
Township
Wholesale trading

[Economy] On What basis 49-51% are calculated in FDI?

2011-12-09T11:38:00.000+05:30

Basheer asked,

what is this 51% and 100%...on what basis those percentages are allowed for fdi....i mean if 51% in multibrand is allowed thn how can they maintain tht 51 %.

Situation #1

Anil Kapoor is running a mall in Mumbai (or a big retail-mall chain, having presence in all big cities) and his total investment is 49 crores.
Then Tom Cruise cannot invest more than 51 crores in this mall.

Situation #2

Tom Cruise dreams to open a retail mall chain in India, he calculates it'd require total investment of 100 crores.
Even if he has 5000 crores, he can only put 51 crores from his side and he'll have to find one or more Indian players to invest the remaining 49 crores, else his dream will become a 'Mission impossible' (Ghost protocol)

Situation #3

Anil Kapoor has a public listed company doing the retail business (i.e. they've shares in sharemarket)
In this case Anil might issue extra shares on preferential basis to Mr.Cruise upto the limit of 51% in total investment
On these shares, the dividend cannot be more than the limits given by Finance ministry.

Percentage Calculation

49-51 sharing percentage is calculated on total investment, which can be anything.

Total investment 204 crore(100%)=Anil's 100 cr.(49%)+Tom's 104 cr.(51%)
Total 1020 (100%)=500 (49%)+520 (51%)

[Economy] Cash and Carry wholesale trade meaning

2011-12-08T19:24:00.001+05:30

The term "Cash and Carry wholesale trade" has been appearing a lot in newspaper columns nowadays, because of that 'FDI in retail' issue.

Traditional wholesale trade

An electronics store owner, Jethalal Champaklal Ghada, requests 20 LCD TVs from Sony wholesaler.
Wholesaler arranges for the truck, sends the LCDs.
Jethalal need not pay the entire cost-price of 20 LCDs at once.
He'd keep paying it either in installments or entire sum before next-Diwali or next month or only when those LCDs are sold to a newly opening hotel. (i.e. deals made on credit)

Another example of traditional wholesale:-
sometimes you see a guy with a notebook, making rounds at your local kiranastore or dairy parlor. He'd note down the 'order' from that store owner and after some time, he'd come back in loading-rickshaw full of biscuit, softdrink and wafer packs. And the money is settled on monthly basis.

Cash and Carry wholesale trade

It is different from the traditional wholesale deals in following manner:

Here Jethalal himself goes to that Wholesaler's warehouse (or sends his henchmen Nattu kaka or Bagheshwar).
He pays entire cost of all 20 LCDs, at once. (Cash/Cheque/DD etc.)
He arranges for the truck-transport by himself and takes it back to his shop. (Carry)

Cash n Carry wholesale in India

(here goes copy paste job from Financialexpress)

In many big cities there are "Best Price Modern Wholesale stores" by Walmart Bharti venture, as 100% FDI is already allowed in wholesale.
They stock about 6,000 items, including a wide range of fresh, frozen and chilled foods, fruits and vegetables, dry groceries, personal and home care, hotel and restaurant supplies, clothing, office supplies and other general merchandise items.
These items are available at competitive wholesale prices, allowing retailers and business owners to lower their cost of operations.
Over 90% of these goods and services are sourced locally, thereby helping keep costs to a minimum, adding to the growth of the local economy and creating job opportunities.

[Economy] A story of Forex, currency conversion, rupee depreciation, inflation, subsidies etc.

2011-12-06T01:14:00.001+05:30

Again in the fond memories of Dev Anand.
I’m writing this story so that the newcomers can get some idea about Forex, currency conversion, rupee depreciation, inflation, subsidies etc. (caution : full of technically not-so-correct examples, just to give you a broad idea of what ails Indian economy) Ok here it goes…..

Investor: Faith won and lost

Enter an American Mr.James. Thanks to American recession, he decides to invest outside USA, and comes to India with a bag full of green dollars, after he was assured by RBI and Commerce Secretary that environment in India is very conductive for business. Please come, give us your dollars, we convert it into rupees.
He (full of confidence) converts his dollars, at the rate of 1$=Rs.40
Now James searches for land to open office or factory somewhere near a big city in India. But price of land is so high thanks to the black money, it doesn’t make any sense buying a property.
He says ok, let me just ‘rent’ some readymade building and I’ll starting a small-scale i-phone production company.

But the electricity shuts down at random, for hours and days.
James: ok, I’ll buy a diesel generator like every other industrialist in this area.

Again price of Diesel also increasing, Profit margin shrinking.
Adding insult to the injury, his workers have gone on strike. Workers are demanding pay-rise because of the ever increasing prices of milk and petrol and James unable to settle the dispute so a lengthy (and expensive) legal battle is drawn. Meanwhile the factory remains closed for weeks and months together.

James: let me start a coffee house to pay lawyers' fees.

But the price of raw material (milk,sugar,gas) also increasing.
Add the bribe he has to pay to local goons, policemen, and municipality corporators. If he raises the selling price of each cup, there will be drastic reduction in customers. Again Hardly any profit margin left.
Moreover frequently one political outfit or another, calls for a ‘strike/bandh’ for creation of separate state or to protest against inflation or corruption or lokpal or just because someone slapped their political leader.
James dares to open his shop on such 'Bandh day' and he is beaten up severely by the political goons, his coffeeshop is ransacked while police watches silently.

His calls his buddy Allen in America, cautions him not to invest in India.

Currency Speculations @ Forex Market

At the local beer-bar in California, Allen overhears some conversation between drunkards that soon IMF and world bank will give big financial aid to the ailing Greek and Portugal, and their economies will be back on right track. If one invests money at this point, in stock market or real-estate in those countries, he could get a handsome return of 40-50% a year.

Allen recalls a Bollywood movie he saw on youtube with English subtitles, the handicapped old-man in that movie had given a profound and universally applicable Management advice: “Lohaa garam hai maar do hathoda”
Allen immediately runs to Forex market, with his bag full of dollars to get them converted into Euro.

Crude Oil Bill

Curiously, Chairman of IOC (Indian oil corp.) is also waiting there @Forex market, with a suitcase full of rupees. He is in desperate need of dollar$ for King of Saudi doesn’t accept payment in Rupees for the crude oil sold.

IOC Chairman: dude got any dollars? Come on man. I need them, please.
Allen: How much?
IOC Chairman: You know the routine rate. 1$ for 40 rupees.
Allen: Hell NO!!! I ain’t selling. My best friend told me not to.
IOC Chairman: ok ok how about 45 rupees for a dollar.
Allen: Nope
IOC Chairman: 50
Allen:Nope
IOC Chairman: 52
Allen: ok, You got a deal.

The Solutions

Back in India

(upon knowing that at Forex market, Rupee is selling down at 1$=52Rs)
RBI Chief: what in the god’s name is happening? 52 rupees for a dollar? How are we supposed to import crude-oil at this expensive rate?

Finance Minister (FM): hey look at the bright side, although our imports become costlier but now our exports will earn more money. It is Good for call-centres and textile exporters. And then they use that money for buying items in Indian market = it will create more demand= more jobs=boost in economy!!! Trickle down theory!!!

RBI: Wait a minute! Nobody is going to buy nothing under this high-inflation. So Whatever extra-profit the call centre owner makes thanks to this rupee devaluation, he’ll lock it in bank’s fixed deposit or pension funds and he’ll wait and watch for the prices to go down before making any big purchase. This trickle down theory isn’t that linear and straight forward as you’re thinking. Back to the point, We need dollars to finance the crude oil import..

Finance Minister: No problem. You’ve got more than 200 billion dollars Forex-reserve in your custody. Release them in the market.

RBI Chief: Never. I’m saving it for the rainy day. God forbid if situation gets even worse, we’d have our pockets totally empty. What if a war breaks out with Pakistan or China, how will we purchase extra-oil for our fighter-jets and combat-tanks during that crisis, if our Forex reserve is wasted like this?

Finance Minister: Damn it, if prices of petrol and diesel are increased because of this rupee depreciation, the truck-transportation cost will increase and so will the prices of milk,eggs,fruits and vegetables. Spider-man's Uncle Ben before his untimely death, had said “With great power comes great responsibilities and for great Pawar comes great slappings” Please man, do something, we need green dollars to finance the oil bills. I’ve UP election to win.

RBI Chief: how about you stop MNREGA? That will stop a lot of corruption, black money generation and the resultant inflation and price rise.

FM: You’re kidding, right? How am I supposed to win UP elections without MNREGA? Centrally sponsored welfare scheme is the only Brand-USP of our party!
RBI: Ok how about disinvestment? Sell a part of your shares from SAIL, Coal India and other public sector undertakings.
FM: Yes we can do that but wait Madam-ji & NAC said the disinvestment money is to go in National renewal fund from which it’ll be spent for more schemes like MNREGA.
RBI: ok lets recover the 2G and CWG corruption money from Raja and Kalmadi then use it to finance the oil-bill.
FM: lolz, come on man, be serious. Hey wait…. how about you print 10 suitcases of rupees in your printing press. Then I goto Forex market and get them converted into dollars.
RBI: Yes that could work. Only problem is that the guy how buys these suitcases from you in exchange of dollars…. He might come back, buy all the onions and potatos from our market using same printed rupees and takes them to his home-country. That would lead to even further inflation for there will be lesser produce left in our market.
FM: no no UP election…no more inflation.
RBI: Look I understand your constrains but I can’t release dollars from my reserve. But How about you arrange for dollars .....you know something like via FDI? How about 51% FDI in retail, that ought to attract a lot foreign players with bags full of dollars, they’ll get desperate to convert it into rupees.
Finance Minister: hmm…interesting.

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Related to this:

FDI in retail: The pro-con analysis

update 10 January 2012:

Story of Forex Part II Click me

[Economy] The FDI in Retail business pro-cons Single brand vs Multibrand Retail

2011-12-05T22:43:00.001+05:30

In the fond memories of Dev Anand,

What’s the difference between Single brand vs Multibrand retail?

Single Brand retail

· Nike Company opens outlets in A’bad, Banglore, Delhi and Mumbai selling nothing but Nike Shoes, Nike wrist-watches and Nike t-shirts only.
· This is single brand retail.
· FDI in Single-Brand Retailing was permitted in 2006, to the extent of 51%.
· These were mostly outlets for sportswear, luxury goods, apparel, fashion clothing, jewellery, hand bags, life-style products.
· But neither the Political parties nor Local Kiranawala raised any voice against this,why? Because these are ‘high-end’ luxury items for brand conscious upper middle class and rich class people. It doesn’t hurt population at large. It was not like people would stop purchasing from local garment store to get Nike or Adidas.

Multi-brand retail

· Big Bazaar opens mall in above cities: selling t-shirts of multiple-brands such as Reebok, Nike, Adidas, Allen Solley, Van Huesen, Peter England etc. +and+ they also sell unbranded t-shirts (you know those buy one get three t-shirts free from unknown companies.)
· So this is multi-brand retail: when an outlet sells a product (tshirt, tie, shoes anything) of more than one brand.


Retail means when product is sold to the ultimate consumer (common man)

Argument against FDI

Anti #1: will lead to mass-unemployment

1. Retail sector in India is the second largest employer after agriculture. Almost 33 million people involved here.
2. Now the problem part: “Disguised unemployment”. Father and two Sons running a farm, producing 200 kgs of wheat. You take out any two members, the production still remains 200 kgs. Same problem goes with family owned-operated retail stores, the intermediaries and middle agents.

3. What should be done? Obviously one of the two sons ought to get himself in other sector (service, construction, manufacturing, industry, etc) But there is lack of opportunities, the manufacturing sector is not growing at the pace. So the argument=: Displaced retail-operators will not be absorbed in other sectors. This FDI will lead to unemployment.
Although this “unemployment” argument is flawed because
1. Walmart cannot open malls in every nook and corner of India. Their electricity, staff and security costs will surpass their profit margins.
2. Customers can’t goto Walmart on daily basis for ‘attractive discounts’ because the petrol cost (and time wasted in traffic) will negate the discount on small purchase. So they’ll be using local small-retailer for daily requirements of bread, milk, newspaper etc.
3. Did STD booth-operators become unemployed after advent of mobile phones with zero roaming charges and free incoming? Nope, they diversified and started running Xerox and cybercafés.
4. Did local Udipi owner ran out of business because of McDonald / KFC? Ofcourse not.

Anti #2: Predatory pricing

· Walmart or any other MNC retail mall, for the first 3-4 years they’ll give heavy discounts and seductive offers, even if they make loss in the deal. Result : all the customers in a particular city are hooked to walmart only.
· The smalltime retail players cannot run business giving such heavy discounts, they close down. Once all competition is eliminated with this ‘predatory pricing’ Walmart will slowly stop giving discounts and recover their losses by increasing the MRP.
· Since these big MNCs have deep pockets, they can affort this sort of loss. But in the long term, they recover everything.
· Same way Once the small time retailers are out of business, Wal-Mart will start exploiting farmers, paying them extremely low money for their produce, because now Wal-Mart is the sole retailer in the city.

counter arguments: ‘Predatory pricing’
1. Customer thinks of Traffic, time and petrol cost involved before visiting Walmart everynow and then. Not like someone would go 10 kilometers, just because the mall is giving Rs.3 discount on apple juice.
2. There is a Competition Commission of India to look into this matter. (earlier MRTP, Monopoly and restrictive trade practices act)
· (sidenote) Another example of Predatory pricing is our airline industry. One of the prime reasons why they’re making losses.

Anti#3: India will become dumping ground for Chinese products

· Dumping means, suppose a ballpen is sold for Rs.10 in China but they intentionally export it to India at the price of Rs.5, in order to ruin the business of local Indian pen-producers and to capture the Indian stationary market.
· China is notorious for this dumping tactic, earlier we had to impose Anti-dumping duty on their rubber products and tires.
· Some believe that entry of Foreign retailers will facilitate the Chinese scheme of dumping our market with their cheap products.

Arguments in favor of FDI in retail

Pro#1: No more wastage of agro-produce

· India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables,
· If we are the 2^nd biggest producers of fruits and vegetables, why are we not a ‘big name / exporter’ in world market? And more importantly, if we are second largest producer, then why is so much inflation in food items?
· Because Post-harvest more than Rs. 1 trillion worth farm produce, especially of fruits, vegetables and other perishables, is wasted due of lack of storage and transport facilities.
· More than 50% of this can be saved, if we’ve proper cold-storage facilities.
· Government is not doing much about this (duh they are unable to save even the wheat in PDS, let alone cold-storage) and the private Indian players donot have much money to invest in this cold-storage chain or those expensive big transport-trucks of America that we see in Discovery channel.
· So if FDI in retail is allowed, the MNCs would invest in cold-storage chains and those big transport trucks. Means lower wasted of produce. More supply of fruits and vegetables. According to supply-demand rule the prices will go down.
· Right now, 100% FDI Is allowed in Cold-storage chain, but foreign players are not coming there because they’re not allowed to sell it in retail malls. There is not much profit margin in operating a cold-storage alone. It’d take years to recover the investment. Only if MNCs are allowed to sell the produce as well in their retail malls, they’ll feel interested in investing in this cold-storage game.
· Similarly FDI in Wholesale trading was allowed upto 100% since 1997.

Pro#2: Farmer gets more money for his produce

· Indian Farmer doesn’t have cold-storage or transport facility, if he grew 200 kilos of carrots, he has no option but to sell it as soon as possible before it get spoiled. The middle agent buy this produce for as low as 2-4 rupees per kilo, but by the time it reaches market, the price jumps to 25-30 rupees per kilo. WHY?

Indian Truck Transport: Overloading and Bribes

· There is no organized truck- transport service, the truck operators are running in extremely competitive environment so they’ve to overload their trucks. Once this overloaded truck goes through checkpoint, policeman will demand bribe for flouting the road permit provisions.
· Since the truck is overloaded, engine efficiency is reduced. He has to get his truck repaired frequently.
· The road quality and traffic Management is bad, more diesel is consumed.
· Trucker will add all these costs (bribe, repair, extra diesel) in his service charge.
· Truck reaches the city, your local vegetable-vendor pays to offload the carrots but he gotta maintain his own profit-margin as well, (+ the bribe he has to pay to local policeman, municipality inspector etc) so the carrots that were lifted for 2 rupees, ultimately get sold for 25 rupees a kilo after cutting everyone’s Commission.

When an organized MNC retailer gets in picture, he has his own extremely efficient and streamlined transport service. So there is no overloading of trucks, there is very systematic packing of goods. His truck maintenance cost is thus very low and there is low wastage during transport.
Second, He doesn’t have to pay so many bribes at every level, because
1. There is no overloading of trucks, papers are in order. Less chances for policemen etc to blackmail him into paying bribe.
2. He got deep pockets, he gives big annual donations for ‘election funds’ to the ruling party and Diwali gifts to the concerned district officers. That’s why small time petty officials such as police, municipality, food n sanitation inspector can’t dare to bother him every now and then, as they do to small time retailers.
So MNC retailer’s cost price is quite low compared to small-time retailers. Hence he can afford to give attractive discounts to customers as well.
Same reason why many political parties dislike MNCs in Retail, you can extract more election-funds from 1000 small time players compared to from one big player. Big player is less susceptible to arm-twisting compared to a small player.

No more intermediaries / Middle men in the chain= Lesser levels of Commissions

· Right now Intermediaries [middle agents] dominate the value chain. They often their pricing lacks transparency. They often run secret cartels, so even in open auctions, farmers don’t get good price for their produce.
· Wholesale regulated markets, governed by State APMC Acts, have developed a monopolistic and non-transparent character.
· These elected cooperative marketing societies and Mandis are more or less same BJP vs Congress fight for domination in university elections, there is hardly anything positive reform done for the students.
· According to some reports, Indian farmers realize only 1/3^rd of the total price paid by the final consumer, as against 2/3^rd by farmers in nations with a higher share of organized retail.
· A study commissioned by the World Bank : Why India doesn’t earn much money from exporting its Fruits and vegetable (even though we’re second largest producer) = Same reason, Non-competitiveness. Bad supply lines.
· A price that the farmer receives for a typical horticulture product is only 12–15 per cent of the price the consumer pays at a retail outlet.

Small and Medium scale industries

· Example small time cushions, toys, shoes, plastic wares maker. They don’t see much business because they don’t have the avenues to sell their products. Big mall with big floor space, provides them opportunity to market their products and get customer’s attention.

Assured quality, no adulteration

· Tune into Aaj Tak newschannel during afternoon, it is always somewhere in Uttar Pradesh, they caught adulterated Milk, Milk products or soft drinks produced using banned chemicals.
· More than 40% of the medicines sold in rural and semi-urban areas of India are of fake brands.
· For an MNC retailer you can atleast feel confident that it won’t be the case.

More competition = Better prices and products

· Remember once upon a time, Mobile calls used to cost 7 Rupees per minute and “incoming” wasn’t free. Why? Because there was low level of competition. Barely 2-3 players in the market. FDI can be a powerful catalyst to spur competition.

Trickle down Theory

· To open a big mall, walmart has to purchase land and construct a big building= lot of laborers, masons, plumbers, electricians employed.
· Same way farmers are getting more money so all these people have more money in their hands and they use it to purchase bikes, mobiles etc. so more demand and more employment.
· This is trickle down theory. Marxist and Vinod Dua (NDTV) disputes this theory.

Fear exaggerated

· Fears of large adverse effects on existing retailers are grossly exaggerated especially since modern domestic retailing has begun in any case via desi retailers such as Big Bazzar and Reliance. (10^th plan document)

Suggestions for safeguards

1. Entry of foreign players must be gradual with social safeguards so that the effects of labour dislocation can be analysed and policy fine tuned.
2. Foreign players should initially be allowed only in metros cities only.
3. Gradual opening of the retail sector over a period of 3-5 years to give domestic industry enough time to adjust to the changes.
4. More stringent Compulsory corporate social responsibility requirement (e.g. Ask them to open 1 school and 1 clinic in every city where they’re operating etc.)
5. Regular monitoring of mall-inventories to see that India is not used as dumping ground for Chinese products.

Some reports for mythbusting

***Ok now this is copy paste job***

ICRIER STUDIES ON: (i) FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN RETAIL SECTOR-INDIA (2005) and (ii) ‘IMPACT OF ORGANIZED RETAILING ON THE UNORGANIZED SECTOR’-2008Based on their study

#1 : Not as much job loss as feared

1. Unorganized retailers in the vicinity of organized retailers experienced a decline in their volume of business and profit in the initial years after the entry of large organized retailers.
2. The adverse impact on sales and profit, however, weakens over time. There was no evidence of a decline in overall employment in the unorganized sector as a result of the entry of organized retailers.
3. The rate of closure of unorganized retail shops in gross terms was found to be 4.2 per cent per annum, which is much lower than the international rate of closure of small businesses. The rate of closure on account of competition from organized retail was found to still lower, at 1.7 per cent per annum.
4. There was competitive response from traditional retailers through improved business practices and technology upgradation.

#2 good for consumers

While customers from all income groups saved through organized retail purchases, the lower income consumers saved more. Thus, organized retail is relatively more beneficial to the less well-off consumers.

#3 Intermediate players

There was no evidence of an adverse impact by organized retail on intermediaries. There is, however, some adverse impact on turnover and profit of intermediaries dealing in products such as, fruit, vegetables, and apparel. Over two-thirds of the intermediaries planned to expand their businesses, in response to increased business opportunities opened by the expansion of retail.

#4 More money to farmers

Farmers were found to benefit significantly from the option of direct sales to organized retailers. The average price realization for cauliflower farmers selling directly to organized retail was about 25 per cent higher than their proceeds from sale to regulated government mandis. Theprofit realization for farmers selling directly to organized retailers was about 60 per cent higher than that received from selling in the mandis. The difference was even larger when the amount charged by the commission agent (usually 10 per cent of sale price) in the mandi is taken into account.

Scenario in other third world countries

· FDI is permitted in the retail sector in Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Thailand without limits on equity participation (that is 100% FDI allowed)
· Thailand: Since 1997, 100% FDI. Positive result: Thailand has now become an important shopping and tourist destination.

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Two RTI replies about CSAT 2011 (Prelim) Exam

2011-11-30T20:04:00.001+05:30

Courtesy the email from "He Who Doesn't Want to be Named"Two RTI replies about CSAT 2011 (Prelims) Exam

[Official Cut-off] Finally UPSC declared Prelims 2010 marks via RTI application

2011-11-24T09:20:00.001+05:30

All thanks to this email from "He who doesn't want to be named": Scanned copy of UPSC's RTI reply for cut-off marks and individual score in 2010's prelim exam (click me).

According to official RTI reply of Joint Directer UPSC, the cut-off for Prelims-2010 is as following

Gen=248
OBC=240
SC=231
ST=225
Ph-I=227
Ph-II=211
Ph-III=182

This is a UPSC never told prelim marks to anyone.
Anyways if you're curious about your CSAT-2011 pperformance, perhaps you too, could try your luck but not so soon, because according to some people, UPSC will tell your prelims-2011 marks only after the entire selection process is complete in 2012 (after-interview).

[Topic-wise Analysis] GS Mains Paper 1 (2011)

2011-11-18T00:16:00.000+05:30

Yes the yearly ritual of a self-proclaimed expert.

GS Mains Paper 1 (2011)

Topicwise Marks distribution

It is absolutely necessary to compare 2011 with 2010. Here is markwise breakup.
Can't see the images? Click me to get the pdf version

So I’m counting absolute values of each question.

Topic	2010	2011
Polity	46	106
History	36	35
Yearbook stuff	73	106
Geography	114	46
Economy	33	17
Culture	24	20
Science & Tech	6	20
Person in news	16	14

This will not addup to exact 300 marks for each year, because there is ‘write any 5 out of 6’. So I’ve added value of each and every question.
You can frame interesting Data interpretation questions for Bank PO and B-school exams from these charts.
Anyways here are some interesting observations from my side:
1. Polity and Geography have interchanged their importance!
2. History is ‘consistently’ given medium importance.
3. Culture and people in news: Consistent in their low importance.
4. Yearbook stuff steady and noticeable increase
5. Economy shows decrease only because paper-II marks are not counted, otherwise economy also runs in 106 league with Yearbook and polity. Same way for Science and Tech, we are looking only at paper-I’s data.
Now look at questions- topicwise

Polity

Write any three, 250 words each. (20x3=60 marks)
1. Part IV-A is codification of Indian way of life
2. Executive clemency is not a privilege.
3. PoPNDT Act Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act Salient features and its amendment in 2003
Let’s see
1. Few years back, there was a trend in Essay papers: Atleast one topic related to women empowerment or women issues but since last two years we haven’t seen it in Essay, so I think they’ve shifted it to GS papers. In 2009 , they asked about Domestic Violence prevention act. When it comes to women empowerment, the general questions most would speculate are 1. The reservation bill 2. The SHGs, but it’s Pre-natal Diag. test act. They’ve asked to write 250 words about ‘features’ and 2003 amendment, now that’s hard to do unless you actually know it. You might write philosophical or statistical filler stuff related to sex ratio and contribution of women in Vedic age etc and but that doesn’t translate much into marks. Question is about what were provisions, what was the amendment, implications.
2. Executive clemency: current affairs hot issue given the Rajiv Gandhi Assassins, Punjab ex-CM’s killers, and Omar Abdulla’s tweets. If you couldn’t handle this question properly, you’ve must blame yourself.
3. I find the Nutrition transition in India -basically the Development administration and yearbook stuff question. Not exactly a polity question except the remote connections with DPSP.
4. All these years, the first question of the GS paper 1 used to be from History portion but this time it started with Polity.

Polity: 12 markers

1. Green Benches in Higher judiciary. (both polity + current affairs)
No excuse. You were supposed to be well versed in this. This topic is making rounds in Current affairs since last two years.
2. Difference between Departmental standing Committee and parliament forums.
Any Public Administration candidate is supposed to remember Departmental standing committees like the back of his hand. Besides this topic is hot due to 2G scam.
3. Problems specific to denotified and nomadic tribes of India
I find this question more to polity than to geography (they had asked this in geography section). But still No excuse for polity questions. This is one of those ‘rare questions’ directly from the book.. Page 149 of Wizard’s Indian polity (6 ^th edition). That was only for information - I’m not saying go and buy the book. If you start buying books with that criteria, you’ll run out of money and cupboard space.

Recommend Polity book (both for prelims and mains):

Indian Polity by M.Laxmikanth.

Polity: 5 marker

1. Bihar special courts act
2. E-governance initiatives of UPSC. (lolz better late than never. How many of us have lost sleep over ‘whether my prelim form reached UPSC or not?)
UPSC as a topic is a combo of administration (yearbook stuff) and polity. I’m keeping it in polity
Total: 60+36+10=106

History

Write any 1 in 250 words (20 marks)
1. RIN mutiny
2. 3 important women’s organizations in 20th century in India.
UPSC asked unusual questions in History, again- (a tradition they started since 2009). RIN mutiny is something the people expect as 2 marker, not 20 marker!
History 5 markers 5x3=15
1. Benoy Badal Dinesh
2. Bharat Naujavan Sabha
3. Babbar Akali moment.
Instead of 2 marker, these are worth 5 marks and no options, all are compulsory. The list of freedom fighter 2/5 markers is endless and luck dependent. You may prepare all of them but yet you might not be able to recall them during the exam. But still Bharat Naujvan Sabha can be handled in any case.

Yearbook stuff & Development administration

20 marker (250 words)

1. National rural livelihood mission vs SGSY
2. Advertising standard council of India, and 2006 notification.
3. Nutrition transition in India: extend, cause and implication

12 marker 150 words

1. Deendayal disabled rehab scheme
Now this is a to-the-point question, you either know the features or you don’t know them. Writing cock n bull stories don’t fetch much marks here.
2. Pro cons of Direct Cash transfers to BPL.
The regular readers of my blog may recall that I had given this question in my mock questions-set on 26^th October 2011
http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com/2011/10/mock-questions-for-gs-mains-and-essay.html
Now I shall say with same enthusiasm of a Delhi coaching class sir that Look my ‘predicted’ question was asked in UPSC so I know the pulse of UPSC, come join my class and buy my postal-mock test series and blindly choose the optional subject which I’m teaching! Ofcourse not. This is a mere coincidence. Anyone who follows newspaper and editorials, should know that conditional cash-transfer topic had been making rounds, since a long time. So you had to prepare it.
Btw, That NAC dude Jean Dreze (whom I fulsomely loath otherwise) had wrote a lengthy editorial in Indian Express about the pro-cons of Direct Cash transfers.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-cash-mantra/788791/0
If you had read it, you can easily write 150 words with decent points. This one of the rare moments, something directly comes from the anti-Congress, anti-Leftist ‘The Indian express’, UPSC babus broke the sacred vow of asking only from the Hindu and Frontline, or perhaps just another coincidence.
3. National program of control of blindness: new initiatives.

5 markers

1. Telecom ministry’s spectrum Management Commission
2. Community led total sanitization program
Total: 60+36+10=106

Geography

Any three for 12 marks 12x3=36
1. Impact of Climate change on water resources of India
No excuse. It was current affairs hot - topic earlier, how our dams were drying out because of low monsoon.
2. Measures taken by Indian Government to combat piracy.
No excuse, it has been current-hot since 2 years. This was fit for paper-II topic rather than paper I. According to notification, paper I topic 4(v) says “internal security and law n order” Piracy has international connections.
3. Counter urbanization measures in metropolitan.

5 markers

1. Phase 4 of tiger monitoring.
This tiger-project is what lawn tennis was for prelims few years ago. When UPSC gets obsessed with something, they don’t ask anything else. Back in early 90s, was Tagore’s nationalism, then came women empowerment essays, for a time being Lawn Tennis had became important question for prelims and now this tiger. Anyways no excuse question.
2. National disaster Management authority’s Executive council : function and composition
No excuse question. Disaster Management is a topic important for both prelims and mains.
Total: 36+10=46
Now this is unusual, last time (2010) they asked 114 marks worth questions from geography and environment. Now barely 46! Why did UPSC do this? Perhaps to give a heart attack to some coaching sirs who keep advocating geography as an optional subject, saying it helps tremendously in prelims and mains. (well it used to!)
After 2010’s paper I had said

“It’s a good time for the Geography coaching classes to brainwash newcomers into believing that Geography as an optional subject tremendously helps in GS that’s why they mustn’t select any other optional subject! And all 700 vacancies of UPSC are going to be filled by Geography optional subject only.”

Now ….This time they’ll brainwash people into believing that Public Administration tremendously helps in GS (all those yearbook and polity questions). Next year 2012, UPSC gives same humiliating treatment to polity as they did to geography this time.

Economy

1. Damodaran Committee of RBI, its recommendations on consumer banks. (12 marks)
To-the-point. You either know it or you don’t know it. Last time it was Wadhawa Committee’s recommendation on PDS. (Is it a trend to ask one Committee’s recommendation ? I leave it to you to guess)
2. Why CSO came up with new consumer price index?
No excuse. (but unfortunately 5 marks only!)
Total 12+5=just 17 marks. Does it mean Economy is irrelevant? Ofcourse not. In GS Paper-II, almost every international affairs question had economy links. Roughly 90 marks worth questions in GS paper II are related to economy. So total 17 from paper 1 and about 90 from paper 2=107. Means economy is as important as polity.

Culture

1. Difference between 2 festivals of Nagaland or Arunanchal Pradesh.
2. Traditional dance theatre forms. (6 given, you had to write on any 5)
3. Different styles of unglazed pottery in India
4. Classical dance forms as per Sangeet Natak Acadamy. (No excuse.)
Total 20 marks.
This time they asked about unglazed pottery, next time perhaps garment weaving styles?
This time they asked about Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh festivals, next time perhaps Chattisgarh and Jharkhand? There is no end to such questions. Before you start investing heavy time and energy into it, You should ask yourself, what is my capacity to handle process, store and recall information?
In 2010, Art-culture-sports were together in paper 1. This time F1 flags (Sports) went to paper II.

Science and Tech related stuff 5 markers

1. Nisarga tech of BARC
2. First aid to fainted person @ bus stop
3. Kaveri K10 aero engine
4. Molecular breast imaging
Curiously in 2010 GS paper there was bus-accident and this time a person faints at bus-stop, Why doesn’t it happen in theatre or airport or railway station, college campus or office? What next? I guess in 2012 someone gets a snake bite @ Bus stop or a chain-snatching or fist-fight or rioting?
Total: 4x5=20 marks.
Technically Science and tech questions belong to paper II. But above questions are in pretext of “Current National Issues and Topics of Social Relevance” topic of paper-I.
According to UPSC notification, page #6:
GS paper I syllabus topic#4 (iv) says medical research and pharmaceuticals. But then paper-II syllabus says biotechnology. These three topics go hand in hand. This bifurcation sounds dillogical.
Earlier, Sports used to be paper-I topic. In 2010 paper, they asked aerostate balloon and common wealth games in paper-I but this time 2011, they asked F1 race flags in paper-II and nothing in the official syllabus of paper, even remotely suggests anything about sports. (unless F1 sporting authority is considered to be an ‘international institution’ like IMF and world bank) Anyways this is nothing compared to what people went through in Pali and Zoology where UPSC (allegedly) asked outside the syllabus.

Person in news 2 markers

Total 14 marks. Anyways lot depends on luck here. Hard to recall them all successfully even after having prepared the notes.
There is no dearth of people in news but there is a lot of dearth in brain’s storage capacity, so you calculate a cost : benefit ratio -the time and energy required to get this 14 marks.

Conclusion

As usual these are my personal conclusions and I’m not looking for any Congress-BJP debate on this.

A Tough paper?

This is nothing new. UPSC is hell-bent to break the backs of Coaching classes, and to prevent the senior players (those who already wrote 2-3 mains) from gaining advantage.
One strong conspiracy theory, which has been making rounds in orkut communities since last three years: “The new UPSC chairman doesn’t like coaching classes or the senior players. He prefers first attempt candidates, he openly admitted it in an interview. All these tough, (or irrelevant or ridiculous) questions in prelims and mains are intentionally setup to keep coaching classes and senior players at bay.”
Same way countless theories about how History /geography ignored to prevent some people from gaining unnecessary advantage.
UPSC doesn’t tell you the prelim marks, their scaling system is hard to decrypt. So It gives birth to many conspiracy theories.
You may or may not subscribe to these theories, based on which boat you’re sailing in.
This theories are open to different interpretation of same statistical data: Back in 2009, the AIR#1 was first timer, but 2010, the AIR#1 was third attempt. Success in IAS exam, is an individual’s achievement. A person with B gender with C optional subjects in D language medium with E number of attempts made it to IAS/IPS/IFS so it’ll work for you if you’ve the same profile? No it may not!
Anyways, back to paper: Many candidates are complaining that paper was tough. As I’ve been saying since the beginning that if something is tough, then it’s tough to many others, not just you. But the condition: you must be a serious player. If you believe that you had prepared seriously, and you couldn’t prepare any better, then there is no need to lose sleep over this tough GS paper because you’re not alone. You’ve played your part, now the God and your luck do their part. Same advice for prelims, interview and any other competitive exam.
And Some seemly irrelevant and tough questions are put only to see how well you perform under pressure, they don’t actually expect you to answer them (or perhaps to check how lucky you’re!)

The manageable questions

I’ll classify the questions in two parts: those which can be handled without any excuse.
Total marks 364. (Yes total marks is 300 but thanks to ‘Write any 5 out of 6’ I’m counting all of them.) So out of 364 marks, almost 100 marks worth polity is ‘no-excuse’.
Same way
for History 25
Geography 34 marks,
Yearbook=40-45
Economy + culture: 5+5=10
Science-tech=15
This is roughly, 230/364=63% of the paper can be handled by a serious player. I’m saying this, not to speculate any cut-off marks but to show that it was not an ‘entirely’ unsolvable tough paper. It was not set by angels of heaven and it didnot fell from sky.

Filler stuff and cock n bull stories

In the earlier article about "Writing Essays", I had cautioned against padding and filler stories. During the mains exam, lot of people start writing filler stuff by speculating the answers. But in 9/10 cases, it’s unfruitful:
Let’s take an example: they asked about Damodaran Committee’s recommendations on consumer banks. Assuming that you had never prepared that topic…
If you start speculating the answer –

hmmm, what’re the problems with consumer banks: oh yes customer grievances. They take a lot of time making the demand-drafts and charge heavily. There are endless waiting queues and no token system. There are frequent verbal-fights in the queue and the security guard or the Staff doesn’t intervene to maintain the line-discipline.

Now you fill up 150 words beating around the bush with mere 3 points:grievance, service delivery and queue/crowd-control. It takes considerable time to reframe these points into UPSC level answer-language. And some of them might not be in the actual recommendations. Besides Damodaran isn’t only about these 3 points, it deals with SHG, Tribal areas, frauds, loans and lot many things. So, Your pedestrian quality filler answer consisting of three puny points, doesn’t fetch much marks here. There is difference between college exam and UPSC exam. Mere filling up the answersheets doesn’t translate into first class marks. There has to be some substance and quality- not just quantity.
Basically, You wasted your time and ink. You should’ve invested it in tweaking the answers, for other questions where you were comfortable.

Lot depends on how you present your answers, you choice of words, the structure of your answers. Having knowledge is one thing, having the ability to present it in a palatable manner, is another thing. Take the this paper-II
Two question , attempt any one.
1. Jasmine revolution
2. 6-pack solution of Eurozone debt crisis vs Stability and growth pact.
Since most people are not well versed in the second topic, obviously they pick up the Jasmine revolution. So, how are you better than 9000 others who’re writing the same question? What separates the toppers from the crowd here is: the answer presentation, structure, command over both knowledge and language.

When you’ve the fear of an ‘imaginary cut-off’ in the head, it prompts you to start a race of attempting each and every question with pedestrian quality answers to cover as much ground as you can. Better First handle all the manageable questions with extreme care and then (if) the time and brain permits, venture into in the filler stories and speculative answers.

Tough paper = not lengthy paper = saves time

Look at the bright side of this tough paper. GS papers are notoriously lengthy. If you know each and every answer, it is extremely difficult to finish the paper in the time-limit. In that sense you should thank UPSC for setting the tough paper. (it’d have burned your heart even more, had there been easy questions and you couldn’t finish the paper!)

Don’t ask me cut off marks

I don’t involve myself in the game of speculating cut-off marks for any competitive exam. So please don’t ask me about the cut-offs or scaling- trend for this mains exam 2011. Let the result come. Your fate was sealed the moment you gave your answersheet to the supervisor. There is nothing you can do about it now. If you ask me to predict things, I’m going to give the usual answer : yes you’ll be selected so start preparing for interview and simultaneously for next prelims.

Prediction for Mains 2012

2+2=4 and 2x2=4 so 3+3=6 and 3x3=6!! Don’t apply that type of logic while picking up optionals or while preparing topics. Just because they did not ask much geography you need not start neglecting it. UPSC keeps changing the importance of a topic. The core areas at the moment are
1. Polity
2. Yearbook / Development administration
3. Economy
4. International relations (with emphasis on economy)
5. Science and tech
In my opinion, your energy and time is better utilized handling these core areas, rather than in trivial 2 or 5 marker culture, freedom fighters and person in news or trying to mug up all the terminologies of all the games just because they asked about F1 race.

Your brain has a limited capacity to process, store and recall information. If there are MCQ (Multi-choice question), you can still can eliminate wrong options even if you can’t recall the exact answer. But in mains, there no MCQs, you’ve to recall it absolutely. You either know Lt.Navdeep Singh or you don’t know him.
“I think I’ve read it somewhere”, doesn’t fetch any marks and neither does a smartass answer “he is lieutenant in the army.”

Don't ask me about the optionals.

Btw, Speaking of optionals: Friends, the rumor-market is busy saying UPSC might remove optionals from 2012, now there is only one way to find out: wait for UPSC’s official notification until December –end 2011. Until then, not much point in investing money buying books or taking coaching for optional subjects. Same reason I’m not going to do analysis of Public Administration (mains 2011) until UPSC notification confirms that they’ll continue optionals in 2012- mains.

Please search before asking, whatever I could possible say about coaching classes, postal courses, optional subjects, strategy etc. is already posted on this site.

[Mock Questions] For GS Mains and Essay

2011-10-26T12:47:00.002+05:30

From my side:

Protectionism / WTO : Which way to fix Economic recession?
Evaluate India's activity as a non-permanent UNSC member.
Critically Examine India's Land swap deal with Bangladesh. Can we replicate that solution for China and Pakistan?
Evaluate the pro-cons of India acquiring mining and farming assets abroad.
What should be India's role in upcoming years for middle east: A silent spectator, catalyst or active participant, mediator or something else? and why?
The recent electricity problems in Maharashtra and other states: is there a flow in Government's energy policy? Suggest solutions.
Evaluate the pro cons of Direct cash transfers vs indirect subsidy.
Air India: Do we really need a 'public sector National airline'?
In the light of recent mining scams, Suggest the course of action for Union and State Governments to fix the problem entirely. Is nationalization an option.
Do we really need NAC? (National advisory council)

from sjan2011, a member of IO forum

1. Cabinet relations (due to war of words between the FM and HM over 2G)

2. Governor - CoM relations. in light of appointment of the Gujarat Lokayukta by the Governor, by bypassing the CoM.

3. civil society and its influence on democracy. Is it possible to 'hijack' a democracy at all - a term frequently used by media?

4. concept of parliamentary sovereignty. can a non-political leader with people's support be supreme?

5. role of CAG. For the first time CAG has been addressing media, publicly calling the govt at an all time low in ethics.
Is it overstepping its mandate? (does the constitution allow room for the CAG to directly comment on policy or governance, beyond its scope of audits?)

6. What are the factors that have made the current CAG come into limelight? (what has changed from before - is it the offbeat leadership of Vinod Rai or is it any other new, emerging factor )

7. Judiciary has set up SITs, special machinery to investigate (and bring back) black money, so much so that even the govt has complained of overreach or stepping into executive domain. Is the judiciary exceeding its constitutional norms?

8. Analyze why the 12 rate hikes have not been effective in reining in inflation. Suggest measures to control the current inflation.

[Never-ending GS Syllabus] and your chances of success in civil service exam

2011-10-22T15:29:00.003+05:30

Written for those who feel stressed about General studies and their chances of success in civil service exam,

We've 5 category of players for each topic- Let us take a topic for example: Geography: earthquake, tsunami and volcano.

JBPS no0b guy /Lord Curzon:

He doesn't know the difference between earthquake, tsunami and volcano. He filled the application form just because his papa (or friend or relative) said and because it costs around 100 rupees only.

His Destiny:

We are not concerned.

Level 0 player:

He buys required books and magazines. He reads them only once, and thinks he's done with the topic.
He spends majority of his time day-dreaming about how he'll kick the bad guys and impress his friends and family after becoming IAS/IPS/IFS.
In his heart, he knows he has to study more, but for some reason he cannot gather enough motivation or desire to read the books.
He believes some divine force will intervene and help him get through the exam.
Last month before exam, he is in deep stress, visits local bookstore to buy some quick-fix current affairs magazines or notes because he cannot go through the whole syllabus from the original book-collection.

Destiny of Level 0 guy:

He may get lucky in a few very easy GK questions in prelims e.g. What is the use of Seismograph?But he's doomed to fail in prelims anyways because we know every question in prelims, will not be that easy.So For most of the questions in exam hall, his facial expression is

"oh yes I think I've read this somewhere but I can't recall it right now!"

Level 1 Player

His book and magazine collection is same as the Level 0 guy.
Only difference is that he revises whatever he reads, so If you ask something from what he has read, he can answer correctly 6 out of 10 times.
He knows what is Seismograph, what is Richter scale, can name a few recent EQ and Volcanos. Knows the difference between dormant and active volcano. Has layman's understanding about how EQ, Tsunami and Volcano happen. Knows what is meant by Pacific Ring of fire and so on.
He has rudimentary idea about the current-affairs related to the topic.
He is not an expert but at the same time, he'll not appear totally dumb during a conversation about Earthquake/Tsunami/Volcano.

His limitation

He sometimes fumbles in 4TF question (4 statements given and he's asked to identify the correct ones), depending on his revision frequency. Because while doing revision he concentrates only on the fact and data part, and doesn't pay close attention to the theory / principles part.
He can only answer Multiple Choice Questions only, if you ask him to write 100 words on the same topic, his pen will stop after 50 words.

Destiny of Level 1:

Chances to succeed in prelims = 50-50
With every revision and practice of demo questions: His Prelim success chance increases exponentially.
Chances to clear mains or final selection=0%

Level 2 Player

He knows everything that Level 1 guy knows plus some extra knowledge : e.g. S and P waves. Has deeper understanding about plate-techtonics and Seismic-zones. Can talk about Cinder-cones, crater-lakes etc with examples. Can answer descriptive questions such as why some parts of India are more prone to Earthquakes than the other parts (in 150 words.)
He revises more often than Level 1 guy, so If you ask something from what he has read, he can answer correctly 9 out of 10 times.He is less likely to be confused in the 4TF questions because he reads more thoroughly and pay attention to description and not just facts.For certain important topics, he may be maintaining his own hand-written notes.

Destiny of Level 2 Player

Chances to succeed in prelims = very good, almost 80% and upwards.
Post-prelims result, There are two types of L2 players:

Type#1: L2 Player without answer-writing practice for mains.

He ends up with

a. low score in mains, hence no interview-call
b. Even If he gets interview-call, he doesn't find his name in final selection list.

It is his reluctance to do writing practice for mains exam- So he may be knowing a lot but he is always unable to express it properly in the given time and word limit. That's why his mains score is low and it ruins his chances of selection.

Type#2: L2 player with answer-writing practice for mains

He gets Final selection in some group A or B service,
But his chances of selection in the top three jobs: IAS/IPS/IFS, are low because he lacks the finesse of Level 3 players while expressing himself so his rank is around 200 or below.

Level 3 Player

Ranjikanth himself. He doesn't mind writing descriptive answers for practice every now and then.For this particular topic "Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanos (ETV)" he knows everything upto Level 2 plus He can cross connect topics and deal with descriptive questions and essays related to it, e.g.

1. ETV's impact on global economy,
2. Human activities as a cause for ETV,
3. Disaster Management in ETV,
4. Feasibility of setting up nuke-powerplants in ETV prone area, and so on.

Level 2 guy can also deal with above topics but sometimes he staggers while putting his ideas because he is a little low either in quality content part or practice part.
Level 3 guy isn't a master of trivial details (dates and numbers) but still well versed in facts, and global-current affairs for the given topic. He can put his ideas eloquently both orally and in writing because

1. He reads from diverse sources and doesn't confine his reading to only one book or a class-note.
2. Since he consults more than one book/source so he comes across more words and sentences, hence he has better command over the language compared to L2 guy. That's the reason why he can express himself better.

Knowledge wise he is just a little above L2 but presentation wise his answer-content is far superior both in terms of quantity and quality compared to L2.

Destiny of L3 Player

Most likely to get an interview call.
Even with bad-luck during interview, he can walk away with a decent group-A service.
With just a little good-luck on his side during interview= smooth selection to IAS/IPS/IFS.

Now to those feeling helpless

For each topic, you draw a line somewhere: e.g. For prelims, I'm going to be prepared for History upto Level 1, and for Polity Level 2.
To clear the prelims, You can afford to remain Level 1 in a many topics, provided that you're Level 2 in a few big topics. Being total ignorant about any topic = digging your own grave.
Being Level 0 guy in any topic= wasting your time. Either you give serious preparation for civil service or do something else. Nobody is going to give you marks for "oh yes I think I've read this somewhere but can't recall it right now"
You don't need to become level 3 in any topic for prelims. Being Level 1 in majority of topics and Level 2 in some topics, is more than sufficient to clear prelims.
You don't need to become Level 3 in each and every topic for GS- mains. But If you want to become IAS/IPS/IFS (Top in the merit list), then You must become Level 3 in a few selected 'hot topics', and level 2 (with answer writing practice) in majority of the remaining topics before mains and interview, else you'll be washed out from the merit list.

For your optional subject,

Given the unpredictable scaling system, it is desirable that you become L3 in each and every topic of the optional subject. That way your interview-call becomes immune to the fluctuations in scaling-system for the given year.

For General Studies (prelims)

Keep in mind that GS is not all about current-affairs.
There are lot of questions from the core (static) part too- like history, polity, science.Same way GS is not all about a single topic (History/Geography)...there are questions from diverse topics.

So, If a particular GS question is tough, then it is tough- not just for you but for a lot of other L1 and L2 players as well. So inability to solve some questions, doesn't mean you'll never clear prelims. But you'll have to get at-least in that "Level 1" category first.

[Polity] The crux of Kesavanand Bharati & Golaknath case

2011-10-21T18:36:00.002+05:30

Sanjay asked,

can u plz tall me the imp cases which we ve to study like kesavananda bharati case etc regarding polity plz also tell the brief sources frm which i can easily understand the cases.i downloaded the above mentioned case bt that was abt 800 pgs verdict in most law language which i found hard to understand.....plz help me in this
thanks

This Golaknath and Kesvanand Bharti has bored me (and many of us) enough- whenever you're reading something in polity, they pop out of nowhere (especially those magz articles and ready made class-notes), so here is the crux of the whole matter. There is no need to mug up the judgement lines verbatim.

here goes the brief list (case name, year and what did the Supreme court ruled in that case and how parliament reacted to it?)

Shankari Prasad /1951
SC said:
yes Government can aquire private property for public cause
yes parliament can amend fundamental rights

Golaknath v Punjab 1967
Supreme court reverts from previous judgment- now Supreme court says

NO parliament cannot amend anything related to fundamental rights.
We (SC) can revoke any laws in conflict with Fund.rights according to art #13

To counter this SC judgement, Parliament passes 24th amendment in '71 saying
yes parliament can amend or take away any Fund.right

Keshvanand Bharti vs Keral /73
Now again SC changes its position.
SC says : yes, parliament can amended fundamental rights but it cannot change the BASIC structure of the Constitution.

*for explanation of basic structure, refer to Laxmikanth's Polity book*
parliament again makes 42nd amendment to counter this- with following two provisions.

1. Constitutional amendment cannot be challenged in courts
2. Parliament can amend anything and everything of the Constitution , even if it is against the fundamental rights.

Minerawa Mills /80
SC rejects above 42nd amendment, because it violated the basic structure of Constitution.

There are some other important cases too: (list is not exhaustive)

Bommai
SC sets guidelines about how and when to impose # 356 (President's rule)
Union Government cannot impose President's rule on any state, according to its whims and fancies.

Indira Sawhney
Creamy layer in OBC

Vishakha
SC set the anti-sexual harassment guidelines

[Q] Possible change in 2012 mains exam? Will there be optional subjects?

2011-10-07T10:43:00.000+05:30

The panic mails, I'm recieving after the article in The Hindu about 'possible change in mains exam from 2012"

My answer:

Since 2007, I've been hearing following rumors. (BUT NONE OF THE FOLLOWING RUMORS ARE IMPLEMENTED BY UPSC)

UPSC is going to scrap down optional subjects
UPSC is going to reduce the upper age limit from 30 to 25
UPSC is going to reduce the attempt limit from 4 to 3.
18 years old teenagers will be allowed to give UPSC exam right after std.12, without requiring college graduation. Selected candidates will be given 3-5 years training like the NDA exam (you get both graduation degree and job)
In the mains exam there will be no optional subjects, only : GS (+Public Administration), Essay.

^These are some of recommendations of various Committees and Commissions appointed by Government and UPSC. But they've not been implemented by UPSC.

For some reason, folks in Delhi keep planting these stories at regular interval. Earlier the rumor-market was hot about age and attempt limit, until some of them finally figured out that since it is a politically sensitive issue, UPSC is unlikely to play with age and attempt limit. So you don't hear that rumor much. But now the market is switched to 'whether there will be optional subjects in 2012 or not?"

You'll find lot of people saying "my insider sources in UPSC tell me this and that" but if there is any real-change in mains exam, it can be confirmed by following two sources only

1. For 2012's exam, the official notification of UPSC will be released somewhere in December 2011 or January 2012. That notification will set the rules of the exam: syllabus and everything, whether there will be optional subjects or not.

2. If UPSC chairman thinks that it important to notify people in advance, he may release a press statement, few months before. (like they did in 2010, to tell people about the upcoming CSAT change in 2011.)

My personal take on this matter is, IF at all there is any change in mains exam, the UPSC will release a press-statement only after this 2011's mains exam is concluded. (Somewhere in November 2011.) Otherwise directly wait for the official notification for 2012's exam (In December 2011 or January 2012).

Unfortunately, UPSC doesn't show haste in confirming or denying the rumors, result-date speculations, or cut-off marks. Don't know reason: whether it is incompetence or pure sadistic pleasure.

Now the questions

Should I goto Delhi for coaching of xyz optional subject or not, given these rumor-mongering?

Well, Delhi coaching is a big investment (above Rs.50,000/-). So before you put your time and money in it, you might want to wait till the official confirmation or rejection comes out about optional subjects.

I bought the books for optional subjects, what now, should I read them or not?

If your optional subject is Public Administration, political science, socio, geography, history etc.- it wouldn't hurt doing a cursory reading of those books. Because in any case whatever you read, will help you somewhere in Essay, GS and interview.

Should I wait for another year, till the optional are out?

Very difficult question. Answer depends on many things such as your age-attempt limit, financial position and backup plans etc.

I'm in high-school or college right now and going to appear in 2015/16....

Then of course you don't need to invest your time and energy in deciding / preparing optional subjects at this moment.
Try to atleast get a first class in the graduation degree.* And simultaneously do light preparation of GS and aptitude.
*In Civil service exam, they don't care about your score in 10/12th standard or college, but in case things go wrong and you want to pursue Post-Graduation or some other job, the first class helps - in the backup plan.

This is my advice to everyone, ALWAYS have a backup plan, before entering in the UPSC arena.

[Economy Q] Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB)

2011-10-06T09:40:00.000+05:30

Another question via email

What is Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB)

You're an exporters, you get this passbook from Government.When you export something : gems, chemicals... anything; they will write it down in your passbook.

Mr. XYZ has exported 1 kilo paperclips and U-pins worth 4000 rupees. So he is entitle to Rs.4 credit. (They've specific rates for each export product, I'm only giving a fictional example)

You can use this Rs. 4 credit in two ways.

When you import something, you've to pay customs Duty. Now you can just show your passbook, and ask them to deduct the credit from it.
Or if you're not planning to import anything, you can ask them to pay that Rs.4 in cash.

This DEPB is a tool under India's EXIM/ Foreign trade policy. ,

[Economy Q] Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme

2011-10-06T09:36:00.001+05:30

Question via email

What is Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme?

First, what are capital goods?

Examples: Textile machines, big agro-harvesting vehicles, expensive lab instruments for medicines, printing press for magz/newspaper, sophisticated computer-server for your call centre etc.
Means Capital goods are the things you need to manufacture your products or give your services.

What is Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme? (EPCG)

Under EPCG scheme, you can import these instruments (capital goods) at only 5% customs duty. But condition is that, within 8 years, you've export manufactured products worth 8 times the duty you saved.

This EPCG is part of India's EXIM policy (Export-import)

Boost to agri-business

If you import some Agriculture related machinery like Big harvesting machines they show on discovery channel, this EPCG period is 12 years instead of 8 years.

Again minute details like 12 years and 13 years are not important, what is important : Government is giving extra benefit to agro-machines under EPCG to make Agro-GDP grow by 4% a year for their 11th Five year plan target.

Can you see how it's all linked?
11 FYP--> Exim Policy --> EPCG tool.

[Strategy & Booklist for new comers] CSAT 2012: General studies and Aptitude

2011-09-30T11:22:00.000+05:30

The one question asked many times by many people

please suggest me books and best publisher to prepare for CSAT both.

Paper-I (General studies)

NCERTs 7 to 10 (No need to purchase, just click me to download them for free) Also download Class-11 and 12 books for geography, history,economy, statistics, and sociology.
Indian Polity (M.Laxmikanth)
General knowledge 2011 (IIPM Press) [It's a very cheap and tiny book, good for revision of GS facts in free time. With a price of about Rs. 30, I think it's the cheapest among all UPSC books]
Any one GS manual : TMH/Spectrum/Unique/Pierson. You don't need to buy fresh and latest edition. Even second hand used book will do. You need it for the science, History and Geography portion. Because NCERTs don't cover all the science facts and principles of day-to-day life. And after each topic, the manual has tonnes of sample questions so it gives you practice as well.

Keep in mind, above list is only the basic-essential items for the core GS. The current affairs is a different game altogether, and so is Bipin Chandra, DD Basu etc.
Preparing GS, is like Kung-fu. Everyone has a different style and strategy. You can still get success, by going through different set of books. This list is for those newcomer who're totally clueless about where and how to get started in this game.

Paper-II (Aptitude)

Aptitude paper is made of 4 parts

#1 Verbal-Non verbal reasoning

Verbal and Non Verbal reasoning (R.S.Agarwal / S.Chand publication)
This is for questions like verbal analogies, sitting arrangements, family relationships, data interpretation etc.

#2 Mathematics

GMAT related internet material doesn't seem to be of much help here, because our Indian aptitude system is very peculiar.
I'm not recommending R.S. Agarwal's Quantitative aptitude anymore. Because that book is all about mechnical mugging and application of formulas, and very boring presentation. It doesn't help to get the foundations clear & strong. After reading 2-3 chapters from that book, most of the people (including me) want to kill themselves and I don't want blood on my hands (j/k).
So, Instead I suggest use "Quantum CAT (Sarvesh Kumar Varma, Arihant Publication)"The book is written for CAT,XAT etc exams, but he has explained the foundations in a very lucid manner keeping the non-engineer,non-mathematical background candidates in mind. So, you don't need to go through NCERT's math books.
In every chapter, he has given introductory exercises for each concept, then Level -1, Level 2, Level 3 difficulty exercises. For UPSC we don't need to go through everything but only the introductory exercises of each chapter (at max, up to Level 1 only) in his book.
Also we don't need to prepare each and every chapter of his book. for example chapters such trignometry, coordinate geometry,quadratic equations and functions can be skipped after cursory glance, as they're not much relevent for CSAT.
But prepare Linear equation, Time n work, Time speed distance,CI-SI installment, Ratio-proportion, Averages, Allegation, Profit-loss, percentages, set theory (Venn diagrams), geometry, permutation-combination-probability thoroughly as majority of maths questions come from these topics.
And calculate the sums by yourself, don't just read the steps given in the answer. You can never learn maths by 'reading'.Again second hand used version will do, no need to buy latest-fresh edition, as maths is static.

#3 English (Reading comprehension, basic grammer)

There is tonnes of free material on internet for this. I don't think there is need to buy any book for it.

#4 Decision Making

No idea. Lot of bogus books by self-proclaimed experts (like myself) in market. So compare them all, keeping the last 2011 paper in mind, before throwing away your money.

Things to avoid

Certain publication houses like Pratiyogita Darpan and Chronicle, routinely roll out 'special issues/ booklets' on economy, polity, history, Geography and then in order to fill up the 150 pages, they keep copy pasting even the irrelevant minute data in it e.g. names of 13th Mughal emperor's wife & sister and monthly GDP predication rates for last 5 years, name of last 10 RBI Governors, Chief justices of Supreme court and so on.
I would suggest limit your reading to specific core books and don't get too obsessed with names, dates and numbers even in the core books.
Pratiyogia Darpan (the regular monthly magazine) also gives material for the State service exam, eg. who won the state assembly election by how many seats and so on. This is not important for UPSC.

The Magazines

Pratiyogita vs CST (Civil service times) vs Chronical vs Wizard
So far as current affairs go, there is not much difference in their coverage. For current affairs : aim for the S&T, bilateral visits, polity and economy without getting obsessed with names,dates and numbers.
CST gives extra coverage to international affairs, colorful maps and photos otherwise their current-affairs stuff is one and same. Last year they gave a huge material on climate change and biodiversity, but hardly anything came from it.
After November, all these magz will start prelim special issues eg. Geography special issue "complete Geography in 15 days" like get rich quick schemes targetted at those non-serious candidates. Don't put your eggs in these baskets. Stick to core books.
No need to purchase or read more than one magazine per month.
My personal opinion is that nowadays Pratiyogita Darpan is good and sufficient, because of its well classified current-affairs content, and they routinely give bank, LIC and CDS papers, so it provides good practice for aptitude as well.
I donot have good experiance about subscription of Chronicle and Wizard, some one in postal or railway department used to steal them and the Publisher would insist that I pay extra 100-200 for getting it via courier or registered post. (that'd almost nullify the discount-benifit of subscribing vs purchasing from bookstall!)

'That' Big list

I'm talking about 'that' book-list made by eminent coaching experts back in 1992, is still floating around, so whenever you search for IAS booklist on google, you end up with that list: Economic and Political Weekly, Frontline, the Economist and books like Mishra Puri, Dutt Sundaram DD Basu, India yearbook, Economical survey and a dozen more. They're good as reference for mains, essay and interview, provided that you've unlimited time and energy. But at this stage (the newcomers for 2012), you don't need them right now.
First get your foundations clear and strong. The factually important stuff from India-yearbook, you'll get it from that General knowledge IIPM book+manuals that I suggested earlier. Same way the factually important stuff from economic survey: you'll get it in newspaper and regular magazine (PD/CST/whatever).
I'm not saying the books in 'That' list are totally irreverent and have no utility in UPSC exam but time is a luxury most of us cannot afford. Do a cost-benefit analysis before embarking upon any book.
If you want to go through DD Basu, that is well and good but I suggest you do read the Laxmikanth first (unless you want to kill yourself while reading DD Basu!)

Internet searching

Some of you, constantly doing google and wikipedia search of GS related items and save web-pages and ebooks, thinking that I'll read it later on.
Well there is no harm but don't overdo it beyond a level.
Donot use internet as a substitute for core books. e.g. Laxmikanth is Laxmikanth, there is no internet site or article or ebook that can help you grasp Indian polity better than him. So go ahead and buy it.
Better revise one core-book 5 times than doing cursory reading of 10 different books one time.
Donot get obsessed with material quantity: You don't need to create a library in your house.

Mock test papers

Now this is just a tactic of the Delhi coaching classes to the increase the sales: mock test series for Rs.2500 and so on for mere 4-5 papers, many online sites also popped up selling mock papers. You don't need it.
Most of their paper-setters think that UPSC= tough question = lets ask very hard and irrelvent questions from trivial current affairs to show off 'yeah we got something'.
Well, UPSC doesn't need some trivial current-affairs facts to ask difficult questions, they know the art of creating tough questions from even the simplest and well known topics like AIDS and Malaria. So I suggest you be good at core areas. Rather than doing shadow boxing with trivial current affairs.( more in next para)
So instead of wasting money on such test-series, solve old papers, the mock questions given in the books, manual etc. For extra practice questions, use following free site: http://www.gktoday.in/ (they give free mock question sets almost every week)

Trivial Facts of current affairs

Sometimes (most of the times in mock papers), you'll come across questions like

1. Hina Rabbani belongs to which political party ?
2. Rajiv /Indira Gandhi institute for XYZ topic, is situated in which city ?
3. What was the Repo rate / WPI or GDP forecast by Monteksingh in the second week of July 2010?

These are trivial facts, generally they don't come in UPSC and even if they're asked, it's not worth all the time and energy required to master such trivial facts. I mean what if they asked about GDP forecast in third week of July 2010? Even Montek Singh himself in his infinite wisdom worth 32 Rupees wouldn't remember that. And What if they gave 4 such trivial statements from current-affairs and asked you to identify the incorrect ones.
So, There is no end to trivial facts in current affairs. Reading once, will not help, you'll need to revise atleast 5-6 times to cram these facts in your head. So know your memory limits, know what is worth the effort and what is not? UPSC generally doesn't ask trivial stuff, but the experts who set the mock tests, believe that UPSC will or should.
You need to be good at current affairs BUT you don't need to be a master of trivial current affairs.National Games 2011 were held at Ranchi. You should remember that. But name of the male/female athlete who won the weightlifting tournament in 65 kg category?--- again trivial, irrelevant and waste of memory. What if he asked about 75 kg category? Assuming there are 20 different games, each with 4 weight and 2 gender categories: it is 160 names just for one event, what about the rest of them: CWG, Asian and Olympics? And that's just be beginning, what about the winners of Sangeet Naatak kala acadamy, Shaanti Swaroop Bhatnagar and 50 odd Padma-Shrees?
So don't get frustrated, if you see such stuff in magazines or newspaper: give a cursory reading only. And Even if you see such questions in older UPSC papers, don't worry. You're not expected to tick all 150 questions in the exam. These questions are planted only to see how you perform under pressure. Nowadays trend is changed so such trivial questions are unlikely to appear in upcoming exams, as we saw in the analysis of 2011's GS prelim paper.

Postal material

I repeat my advice: DONOT waste money on postal correspondence material, whether it is Brilliant Tutorial, Vajiram, Rau, Michel jackson or Mithun Chakraborty. Stick to core books. The postal material is nothing but copy pasted rephrased sentences in bullet format, from the corebooks and yet 10x times expensive than the core books.

On UPSC's question trends, hit the first two links under 'CSAT analysis' in the right hand side corner of my blog.
How to make notes and prepare current affairs in general, see the Tips section in the left hand side corner of my blog.

PS. The technical glitch with Contact-Me link has been fixed.If you've a question, send it via 'contact me', please donot post it as comment below the blogpost, because it's hard to keep track of comment list, both for you and me. And please search before asking questions and be specific in your question.

[Economy Q] Difference between Subprime Crisis and Eurozone Crisis

2011-09-27T11:07:00.000+05:30

Question via email

Difference between Eurozone crisis and Subprime Crisis?

I'm writing for explanation purpose only. Technical details, intentionally skipped.

Subprime Crisis

First you need to understand Mortgage, derivatives and Asset bubble.

Mortage

You give me $10,000 loan and I sign on a paper that if I can't pay back the amount before 2045, you can take over my house. So my house is 'mortgaged'.

Subprime dude

He is the borrower who is less likely to repay a loan. Because his income is low or irregular.

Why would bank want to give loans to sub-prime dudes in the first place?

Because bank can demand more interest rates from such people because of their bad credit history. Subprime is also in the car-loans, credit card etc. Besides when the general manager gives 'impossible targets' to his probationary officer, So what can a man do? Just give loan to every swinging dude around.

Derivative

You’re a big bank, you've given such loans or credit cards to lot of sub-prime dudes and you know it well that they're less likely to pay. So after a while, you decide to cash in your investment before these dudes start defaulting, so you repack those mortgage papers (security) and make a new security paper “anyone who gives me $50,000, I’ll give him mortgage papers of 5 houses” = this is derivative product, because this security paper derives its value from those mortgage papers.

Asset bubble

So now you sold such a derivate product to second guy, he then re-packs it with other things and makes a new derivative product sells it to third guy...chain continues. Here, no new asset (property or something that can generate $$) is created, basically you all are playing games with the same five houses mortgaged, blowing the ballon with new derivates. Thus the asset bubble is created.A point comes when people who took loans or did big shoppings with credit cards : they refuse to pay back and say

take our houses, we don't have the money.

But you can't sell the house, real-estate has collapsed, noone is ready to pay even $5000 for that house, on which you had given $10000 loan. Your asset bubble is burst, and what you've in your hand: that piece of trash paper is a 'toxic asset' or a 'non-performing asset' (NPA). This is sub-prime crisis. And technically it contained, after American treasury bought all such NPAs worth $1 trillion (somewhere in 2009), but the aftershocks are still felt: American economy is not back on track yet, because that $1 trillion bailout money didnot fall from sky, nor does the dollars spend on military expenditure in Iraq or Afghanistan fall from sky.

Eurozone Crisis

Also known as Sovereign debt crisis.What happened here is the Governments of PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) were spending way too much money on subsidies, NREGA stuff and bank bailouts etc. They used to finance their spending by borrowing from the market. These nations earn most of their money from export to America and tourism income from American travelers. But the sub-prime crisis and the recession in 2008-09 meant Americans stopped going on vacations. So the airlines,tourism and export business declined, while the expenditure remained the same. Hence in a way, Eurozone crisis is an aftershock of the Sub-prime earthquake.

Little concept: debt to GDP :

Suppose Debt to GDP is 96% (meaning if the country produced goods and services worth $100 in a year, they already had outstanding loan-repayment worth $96)
High Debt to GDP means investors loose confidence in your country.These PIGS had high Debt to GDP than other nations, hence they are in the crisis.

But why only PIGS: why they ran out of money? (along with Debt to GDP %)

Portugal:93%

Over-spending by Government, inefficient PSUs with too much manpower (just like our Air-India).

Ireland:96%

Their banks were running the same asset bubble game like the Americans. When it collapsed, Government had to bail'em out.

Greece:143%

Overspending on Social schemes, overinflated staff in PSUs. Misreported its official economic statistics, to fool the investors in buying the Government bonds. Caught.

Spain:60%

Socialist Government, so lot subsidy and NREGA stuff.

More on the Eurozone crisis is given on following page
http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com/2011/03/economy-q-greece-crisis-and-sovereign.html

[Essay Tip for Newcomers] What to write & What not to write in Mains IAS exam?

2011-09-21T10:54:00.000+05:30

This is what I learned from my seniors and toppers. There are plenty of articles on internet on how to prepare the essay (=read editorials daily etc.) I'm writing one about how to 'actually' write it inside the exam hall.
In the Essay paper, they give you 4-5 essays and you've to write only one. Time limit -3 hours, Max-marks=200.

In a 2 marker question, UPSC specifically mentions that answer it in 20 words. So with that logic, you're expected to write an essay containing around 2000 words for the 200 marks.

Tip#1: Think for 30-45 minutes before you start the Essay writing

Take this example.
They asked an essay on Gandhi, I start writing it. I write something like

Gandhi was born in Porbandar & then He went to England…africa..come back…freedom struggle..Gandhi-Irwin..2nd round table….partition…etc.

After 1 hour of writing, I realize that I forgot mention about Champaran's Indigo Struggle when Gandhi got actively involved in Indian Freedom struggle for the first time! Now I can't add it. Because there is no space in initial pages. However I can still try to add it in the conclusion like

…in 1947 Gandhi won the fight he started with Champaran…"

But when Examiner doesn't find the mention of Champaran in the initial pages, then he gets an impression you forgot it = less marks. Hence everything has to be written in its place.

That's why you must…..

Think for 30-45 minutes before you start the Essay writing

You've 3 hours to write the essay. Don't immediately start

1st try to recall everything that you can remember / want to say about the essay.
Take a pencil and write them all (in very brief) on the end of the answer sheet
See if there is any chance of adding some diagram or table in it?

Do you remember any?

any famous quotes?
Current events
People
Historical events
Laws / Administrative polices related to it

*Related to that topic, What are the

Positive
Negative sides
obstacles
Reforms you suggest?

Once you're done adding everything that you can think about, regarding the essay- then give those topics, order of preference. 1.2.3.4.
The order is very important, just like in wedding parties you start with Soup…dal-roti and…Ice cream in the end.
The order should be

Introduction
Background / History related
Main concept / theory / what the subject is about
Current scenario related to it.
Good sides
Negative sides / obstacles
Suggested reforms
Conclusion

everything has to be written in its place. Gandhi's Champaran must come in the beginning not in the end.

Tip#2: SOME DON'Ts: What not to write in essay

1. Autocracy is better than democracy. (know that it's the democracy that's allowing you to criticize it) so you should never justify certain solution to India's problems.
2. Excessive criticism of Govt. / administration (I mean the frontline and The Hindu's stand)
3. Seeing negative sides with out suggesting reforms in it.

Tip#3: Provocative Essays:

Sometimes the essay topics are given in such a way, that you want to agree all the way. E.g.

Panchayati raj is wastage of tax payer's money. (yes it seems so, just like NREGA but when you're writing an Essay you need to maintain some balance)
Poor people are their own enemies.

In such cases - just because he gave you statement doesn't mean you've to sing in his tune throughout the paper.DO NOT forget to show the other side of the mirror.
Its Easier to criticize a non working things than to fix it. (Remember this all time during essay.)
Donot give filmy solutions to real life problems. (Munna Bhai MBBS / Slum Dog Millioner.)

Tip#4: Donot get personal

Don't go naming individual politicians - their achievement / scandals (Kalmadi, Raja,Amar Singh etc.)
(except in the foreign policy related essay, where you've to analyse from entire Nehru's Panchsheel era to Vajpayee's Lahore Bus visit and current affairs.) our Foreign policy has changed with every prime minister so their names need to be mentioned.
Never write essay talking like "Congress did this and BJP did that." It's the trait of a common man, not of a future officer.
Give a balanced answer With out getting into hero-worship or mud slinging
If criticizing Govenrment in the essay alone was going to make you IAS officer, then every journalist of Aaj Tak would be an IAS officer.
An officer's trait is to remain 'anonymous', 'faceless' and neutral- meaning your essay should look like it has been written by a graduate.

Same applies for

1. Religion / culture/ language-literature (in philosophical essays)
2. States (in polity / federalism / Development)

I'm not saying you should transform into a sterile person writing the essay with out having any personal view/ opinion or righteous anger but, you mustn't become too much passionate about certain things.
I'm saying all this because you can never be sure about what will be the political / ideological / religious / regional alignment of the examiner.

This suggestion also applies while dealing with Public Administration (optional subject).

Tip#5: Quotes

1. Don't make mistakes in writing who said what. E.g. you quote Abraham Lincon's sentence and write George Washington said it. nothing will make you look more stupid in the eyes of the examiner than that.

2.Quote Exactly as it was said. Mao said "Power flows from the barrel of a gun" so you should not write it as

"barrel of the gun contains power" or
"muzzle of the gun flows the power"

You must quote the quote verbatim. If you're not sure then don't quote it.

Tip#6: Padding & Deviating from the subject

Even in the worst case, you're supposed to write 1200-1500 words for a 200 marks essay.
Padding means, you don't know the exact answer so you just beat around the bushes and write the garbage stuff to fill up the pages, while this tactic does work in the school and college exams but don't try it in the essay paper.
Don't write too many proverbs / quotes/ (invented) case studies/examples per page. It makes the examiner think that you've no input of your own so you're just filling up the pages.

Donot pick up the subject where your idea or thought content is very low.

Ex. you picked up "Do we need nuclear power" - So you start with how thermal power-stations create pollution, there is huge demand and low supply of electricity, nuke power is cheap, and then the dangers such as Japanese Tsunami etc.
After 4 pages, your thoughts and ideas are exhausted-you've nothing more to say and assuming that you write 100 words per page, you realise that only 400 words won't get you any marks ! now you can't scratch those pages and write a new essay on new topic, you've wasted enough time on this one.
So you decide to continue with this nuke-power essay and start rewriting the same stuff you already stated in different ways and then you'll deviate from the main topic- like nuke power is unsafe as we saw in Japan so we need to switch to renewable energy source like Sun, Wind and Water -> then 4 pages on advantages of renewable energy as if this is an essay on "the benefits of Non-renewable energy" and not on nuke power, you write about the pro-cons of hydro-electricity like dams and displacement of people.
Then you realise "omg, displacement of people also applies while making nuke-powerplants like in Maharashtra!" so you come back to the topic -half page written but still you've not filled up enough pages so you start talking about to land-acquisition policy and start writing the pro-cons..another half page on it. Then you think "oh i must talk something about the Indo-US nuke deal" so you go on talking about how we haven't signed the CTBT and yet N.S.G gave us clearance and China-Pakistan couldn't stop it so we are a global power now and we deserve a permanent seat in UNSC! This kind of padding goes on until time is up.
You've messed up the whole thing, you totally deviated from the subject. Your essay doesn't have any flow of thoughts or proper rhythm. The seasoned examiners immediatly sniff out this padding and they don't give much marks for it, your expected score for this kind of garbage writing is less than 50/200, means even with decent score in all other papers, your chances of getting interview call is close to zero. You've jeopardised your chances of selection in IAS, you've digged your own grave. That's why

take great care in picking up the subject
first 30-40 minutes for thorough thinking.
stick to the subject

Same applies while dealing with the big 60 marker question in GS and optional papers. (not 30 minutes of thinking but atleast 5-7 minutes!)

Me and my ruined essay

In 2009's mains attempt, I got only 20/200 marks in the Essay. It was about 'are we a soft state?'. I wrote it only from the foriegn policy and law-n-order point of view, without seeing the cultural -historical contexts. It was a monotonous essay without any spark. Moral of the story: First 30-40 minutes, do try to see different angles of the subject and give a thorough thought before you start writing.

-Some veterans are in opinion that you should pick up the essay on technical subject, example space-technology, advances in medical science, how IT has changed lives and so on. Because only a few people attempt them, and due to technical nature, your ideas are unlikely to be in conflict with the examiner so you'll get more marks. But then again you need enough 'content' to write 1500+ words else the padding route=digging your own grave. And there are enough toppers who wrote the non-technical essay and still got in the top-merit list so as usual for every generalisation made about UPSC, you'll find a counter example!

Predicting Essays for 2011 Mains paper

As usual coaching classes try to anticipate which essays will be asked, and UPSC makes sure they are not asked. So be prepared for everything- don't just rely on selected hot-topics like Lokpal and Civil society.

In old times, it was quite predictable, see the papers from 1997 to 2006: almost every year there is an essay on polity-judiciary, one on women empowerment, one on Science-tech, one on democracy and governance. But nowadays UPSC is rapidly breaking the trends.

Lets look @ the 2010 paper. People predicted: there will be some essay on games, due to CWG or Asiad or even on corruption and good Governance given CWG and 2G scams. But there was nothing.

I'm putting the comparative list of essays asked in last two years (2009 and 2010). Make your own judgement and prediction and prepare accordingly.

Vulnerable groups of society (India vs. Bharat Debate)

Should a moratorium be imposed on all fresh mining in tribal areas of the country? (2010) (can be classified as current affairs due to Mines regulation bill)
Are our traditional handicrafts doomed to a slow death? (2009)
From traditional Indian philanthropy to the Gates-Buffet model-a natural progression or a paradigm shift?-2010
The focus of health care is increasingly getting skewed towards the 'haves' of our society-2009

International relations

Preparedness of our society for India's global leadership role. 2010
Are we a soft state? 2009
Good Fences make good neighbors. 2009

One more bad news: in 1997 to 2006 era, UPSC gave 6 subjects and you had to write one essay, in 2009: five options and in 2010 : only 4 options.

[Economy Q] If dollar weakens, oil price appreciates How? Relation between dollar and oil prices

2011-08-29T11:30:00.000+05:30

Question in email

Plz explain The Relationship Between Oil Prices & Dollar ... If dollar weakens , the oil price appreciates... How??

Lets say today 1$=50 Rs and price of one barrel of oil is 100$.
Means, if you sell 1 barrel of oil, you get 100$ (or 5000 Rs.)
so by selling 1 barrel, you can buy stuff worth 5000 Rs. from Indian market.

But next week, dollar weakens and it stands at 1$=40Rs.
If you still sell your one barrel @100$ then you can buy stuff worth
Rs.4000 only. So what should you do to keep your profit margin same?...Obviously
increase the price of 1 barrel of oil to 125$. (because $125*40=5000 Rs.)

In short, dollar has weakened, means its purchasing power has declined in the international market. Now you can buy less stuff from Chinese, European or Indian market using that 1 dollar compared to earlier times, when Dollar was stronger.

Since you're selling your barrel in the dollar currency, you must increase the price of your oil-barrel to maintain your profit margin and standard of living the same. (else you'll have to cut down on your expenses like the chauffeur for your limo or the number of workers in your oil-well.)

[Economy Q] Base year and Current year price? How to calculate WPI and CPI?

2011-08-29T11:21:00.001+05:30

Question via email,

I've come across these terms numerous times, but couldn't make anything out.
What's all these about Base year prices and Current year prices while calculating economical statistics?

Tell me what is inflation?
It's the increase in the price of a product.

How can you say there is inflation?
Because, earlier in the year 2001, we could buy a litre of petrol for Rs.50, but now it's Rs.70/- per litre. So there is price-rise and hence there is inflation.

Means you need to compare the current price, with some old price to say that the price has increased (or decreased), right ?

Hence, to calculate the inflation (CPI,WPI) we'll need to compare the price of some item for two different years.

Suppose Price of a lifebouy soap was Rs.10 in 2001. And now it has increased to Rs.12 per bar. So what is the % increase?

[(12-10)/10]*100=20% incrase in the price of a soap.

What did we do, in above formula?

We took 2001 is the base year and 2011 is the current year. Then we divided the change in price, with the price of base year and multiplied it with 100 to get the percentage.

If price of a soap was Rs.1 in 1950s (don't get excited because in those days, monthly income of most middle-class people was around 100-300 Rs, so one rupee was a big amount.)

So with 1950 as base year, what'll be the % price increase?
[(12-1)/1]*100=1100% increase in the price of a soap!

But does it make any sense to calculate inflation with such an old base year? Ofcourse not, because lot things have changed after 1950, including the salaries of the middle class people. So you won't get the real picture.

Inflation is a 'hurt-meter'. You cannot fathom how much it hurts now, if you didnot feel less pain earlier. Those who lived in 1950s are all either dead or retired. And the current-working population never actually bought a soap for 1 rupee. So how much is the soap price hurting the current-population, to know that answer, you need to set the hurt-meter to compare the prices of recent memory: oh yeah back in 2004 it was only 10 rupees and now it's 12 so yes I can feel it hurting me.

Morale of the story: We need to have the base-year at some near-past level like 2004-05 to get the real picture of inflation. (Earlier this base year was about 1993-94)

Now lets get a lil technically correct, above post was written to clear the basic concept of base year and current year only, the CPI and WPI are not calculated so straight-forward.

How to calculate the WPI or CPI?

Price of a bike was 30,000 in 2004 and now its close to 55,000/-.
Price of one litre milk was 25 Rs. in 2004 and now it is almost 60/- (After Sharad Pawar advised all the dairies to buy an alarm, which rings at paheli taarikh every month to remind them to increase the price without fail)

So, What hurts to you more, or what hurts the people at large: bike price or milk price? ofcourse the milk price inflation because you need to buy it every day.
So when calculating the inflation, you need to 'weight' the products according to their usage.

The weightage given in WPI

It is something like this
1. Primary Articles (food,fruits etc):22%
2. Fuel, Power, Light & Lubricants :14%
3. Manufactured Products (biscuit,toothpaste):63%

Now survey the prices of all items in the base year and in the current year. Then you plug them in the Lesperes Formula for weighted arithmetic mean. (Formula is not important, but what is important for you to know is, that it is not a simple average but a weighted average)

And you get a number, we call it the WPI index number for the given year or given week or given month.
Suppose after calculation you get a number 110 on 1st August 2011.
For base year we assume that WPI is 100.
So there is 10% inflation.
i.e. [110-100/100]*100

Now on 1st September 2011, you calculate again with new price data and the number is 112. What does that mean? The inflation has increased by 12% compared to compared to base year AND inflation has increased by 1.8% compared to last month. i.e. (112-110)/110*100

[End of the line: Not yet] Attempts over or crossed the age limit

2011-08-21T10:37:00.001+05:30

@To those who didnot make it in this CSAT and have crossed their attempt and or age limit.

There are three all India services: IAS,IPS and IFoS (forest service)
According to All India service Act of 1951, 33.33% of the vacancies in All India services in the given State, are to be filled by promoting the State PSC officers.
In other words,
Suppose Maharashtra has cadre strength of 100 IPS officers. Then 33 are to be filled by promoting DySP (Maharashtra State Police Service)

Same way for Deputy Collectors (State Administrative service) to Collector/District Magistrate (IAS)
Same way Deputy conservator of Forest (DCF, State forest service) to Conservator of Forest (IFoS)

Depending on your luck, seniority within the batch and vacancies (and being in the good book of State Government), you can get into the All India services, via the state service door in 11-15-20 years.

Example, Join State public service as

Inspector -> promotion to DySP (state service) ->Promotion to SP (IPS) or direct recruitment to DySP and then promotion to IPS.
Tehsildaar->Deputy collector(State service)->Collector /District magistrate(IAS) or Direct Deputy collector to IAS.
Assist.Conservator of Forest (ACF)-> Deputy conservator of Forest(DCF)->Conservator of Forest (CF,IFoS)

Some states relax their age limit for State PSCs on the account that they didnot hold recruitment for long time (Gujarat for example)

BTW, I suggest all of you subscribe to UPSCportal.com website, because they regularly notify about various state Government, bank and LIC jobs via email.

[Polity Q] Duration of President's rule: 1 year or 3 years?

2011-08-21T10:36:00.002+05:30

plz let me knw tht under article 356 presidents rule once approved it continues for 6 mnths.bt in one of the other books it shows as 1 year.actly acc to 44th amen act it continues for 1yr.and at the same time do it can be extended for a max perd of 3 years or 1yr.in laxm it is 3 yrs and wen i serchd on net its 1yr.

In normal circumstances, it can be extended only upto 1 year. However parliament can also extend it upto three years provided that

1.National emergency under 352 is also running simultaneously.
2.Election Commission certifies that it is difficult to hold general state legislative assembly elections at the moment.

[Economy Q] If people don't take loan what will banks do?

2011-08-21T10:35:00.002+05:30

Question via email

We've learnt that the main source of income for banks is loans which they give out to borrowers, where the interest rate for the loans is set at a higher rate than the savings bank rate which they provide us with. Let us suppose a situation where, we have our savings deposits intact in our banks, and no people needs to take loans from the bank. How will the bank function at that time?

A Bank's life depends on circulating the money from one hand to another and pocketing the difference of the interest rates between them.
If people stop taking loans then Bank will invest in sharemarket, fund real estate projects, mutual funds, oil bonds etc. or start giving loans to people of other nation or finance projects abroad. If bank doesn't see much profit even in that scenario then they will have to close down the operation.

[Economy Q] List of all articles- scattered around

2011-08-21T10:34:00.003+05:30

i checked out many of ur posts regarding economy 4 newbies....they are scattered & not arranged in one place...I know U have arranged them in Columns like " Economy Concepts made easy" & " Economy 4 GS".... But Still there are many Economy articles in your blog which are not included in these columns, so m vry confused.

Goto following link
http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com/search/label/Economy
Each page will display 5 posts so, Scroll down and keep hitting the "Older Posts" button at the end of the pages, that way you'll get them all.

[Q] Worried about the medical checkup in Civil service exam

2011-08-21T10:34:00.000+05:30

1. What time does they take the medical fitness test ?

Those who clear the mains exam, will be called for interviews @Delhi during around April 2012 and med. checkup will be done at that time.

2. What if I don't clear the test, will I be offered my next preference or will it be end of the road for me and I will have to start off afresh for next year exam ?

If you don't clear the medical test, depending on your merit number, they'll send you to another service e.g.
You gave preference in your mains form: IAS>IPS>IFS
Suppose Your merit number is 31, and there are only 30 seats in IAS. So you should be going to IPS, but if you dont pass the medical test, they'll send you to IFS.

3. Is there any provision of +/- 1% relaxation in medical fitness ?

If you don't pass the med.test for the first time, there is a provision that you can appal for another re-checkup.
Besides, The med.standards of civil services are not that stringent as they're in Army,Navy and Airforce.
You can read about them at

http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com/2010/05/faq-physical-standards-eye-sight-for_11.html#_Toc261341898

[Mock Questions 4 Mains] Public Administration, History, Philosophy and more

2011-08-02T07:56:00.001+05:30

Some random thoughts

India and the world / International relation topic

It is lucidly explained in following pdf files of IGNOU. (do selective study only)

http://www.egyankosh.ac.in/handle/123456789/1052

^It should help you dealing with the question related to older stuff like Nehru's Panchsheel, NAM, Cold war, Phases of Indo-US/China relations etc. (not only in GS-II but also in Essay).

Writing practice

It is very important for mains, In the exam hall, most people barely know the answers of 70% of the GS-mains questions and yet they run out of time, why? because there is difference between MCQ and descriptive paper. So knowing something is important and equally important it is, to have the ability to write it down in the given time limit.
Imagine a couch potato attempting cross country marathon : For first 500 meters, he may do well, but then his legs will give up. In the mains, per day you'll have two descriptive papers, that is 3+3=6 hours of writing.
It'll be a nightmare in the exam-hall, if you don't practice writing answers at home.
You should attempt last 5-10 years' papers at home.

And In case you don't know, the syllabus of Public Administration, sociology,political science etc. is directly lifted from the IGNOU's M.A. courses in the respective subjects. And (atleast in the Public Administration part) most of the time, mains questions mirror the wording and style of the M.A. booklet questions. So, any of you needing the mock question practice, why not do some IGNOU assignments, instead of buying the expensive test-papers from the self-proclaimed coaching experts?

Goto following page, and download the relevant assignment and attempt at home. (ofcourse free)

http://webserver.ignou.ac.in/Assignments/index.htm

Need IGNOU M.A. reference material for free? then goto to
http://www.egyankosh.ac.in/handle/123456789/11

They've also uploaded many lecture videos on youtube as well.

(egyankosh will require registering a free account, before they allow you to download the pdf files)

Result of prelim will come soon, may be in second or third week of August so best of luck and even if you don't make it this time, it'll be worth it to continue your mains-preparation...because that'll help you in next attempt.

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

2011-06-26T12:59:00.002+05:30

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. :)

[Economy Q] Zero Interest Rates in Japan and America

2011-06-25T11:44:00.000+05:30

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

2011-06-25T11:43:00.000+05:30

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.

[Topper writes] Problems of Self study at home

2011-06-17T20:09:00.004+05:30

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

[Economy Q] Investment banking Meaning and functions

2011-06-16T19:02:00.002+05:30

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

2011-06-16T17:27:00.000+05:30

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

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

2011-06-15T09:38:00.008+05:30

[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.

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

2011-06-14T06:26:00.004+05:30

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

[Topicwise Analysis] Aptitude paper II of CSAT 2011

2011-06-13T15:00:00.005+05:30

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

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

2011-06-12T22:57:00.016+05:30

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

[Economy Q] IMF Vs World Bank Difference in functions

2011-06-08T10:09:00.000+05:30

Function of IMF and World Bank in the context of the world economy.

International monetary Fund

IMF gives short-term loans to its members, and helps in recovering from BoP crisis (balance of payment crisis)
In simplest terms, BoP crisis means you don't have enough money/ foreign currency to pay for your imports. So in that case you run to IMF.
When IMF gives loans, they'll ask you to change your policies accordingly. eg. they'll ask you to

let the MNCs enter your market,
reduce the jobs or shutting down the loss making Public sector units etc.
stop giving subsidies to particular section (petrol/fertilizer etc.)

and so on...
IMF gives loans, it expects you to pay full amount back + interest rate.
In IMF there is a thing called Quota i.e.
Every member has to give some money to IMF, (IMF will give it to loan as other members). The rich nations with bigger Quota has more voting rights (USA).
So rich nations can effectively decide how IMF should function.

World Bank

In short, They give soft loans to poor nations for Development purpose and various health-education,poverty removal programs.
Soft loan= minimal interest rates, the EMIs have longer time brackets in between, and they don't expect your to pay back the principle.
They facilitate private players to setup business in poor nations. (via insurance and loans)

Their loan-terms are not as stringent as IMF.
Rest you can google and wiki.

[Economy Q] Monetary and Fiscal Policy Difference and dependence

2011-06-08T09:33:00.000+05:30

Distinguish between Monetary and Fiscal Policy. To what extent is monetary policy independent of fiscal policy in India

Monetary Policy

Who makes it? Ans.RBI.
What is their intention?
Ans.To control the money supply in the banking system and thus control the inflation.
What tools do they use?
Repo,reverse repo, bank rate, SLR etc.
[For details on each click the links]

What happens?
Suppose there is too much inflation (price rise) in the market because people have more ca$h in hand and only few products in market.
So RBI changes those numbers in a way that banks have less money to give as loans to people. Obviously the banks will charge higher interest rates on their loans, this is called tightening of the moneytary policy / Dear money policy.
Reverse of it, is Cheap money policy i.e. when RBI feels that people should get loans @cheap rate so that there is boost in demand.

Fiscal Policy

Who makes it?=Government.
What tools do they use?
1. Taxation
2. Public Expenditure.
What is their intention?
Re-distribution of income,allround Development.
e.g. Government puts 30% corporate tax (taxation), then uses that money to fund NREGA [100 days wage to poors] (public Expenditure).
So part of rich people's income gets redistributed to poor -people.

To what extent is monetary policy independent of fiscal policy in India

As we saw Monetary= RBI, fiscal =Government.

Many times, Government doesn't have enough money to fund its projects*. So they release bonds. RBI sells those bonds on Government's behalf to the banks. Now banks may or may not be interested in purchasing them. So, RBI has a tool called SLR* (Statutary liquidity ratio), which means banks have to compulsory keep x amount of their money in form of Government bonds even if they like it or not.

* See?
Government project= fiscal policy's public Expenditure tool
SLR=Monetary policy's tool (by RBI)
Thus, SLR (part of monetary policy) is not totally independent from fiscal policy.
There is conflict of interest: RBI's role as money supply controller vs RBI's role as Government's debt manager.
Same way, Government wants that farmers should get loans @cheaper rate.
So, RBI makes special consessions to regional rural banks in CRR/Repo etc.

[update] Eligibility conditions for Free IAS coaching at SPIPA

2011-06-03T18:46:00.005+05:30

update with respect to the previous post on Free IAS coaching at SPIPA,Ahmedabad.

Eligibility conditions for admission in SPIPA

Person living in Gujarat since last five years (Before 1st August 2011) OR
Person completed his 10th or 12th in Gujarat (in any medium) OR
Person who has passed Graduation level exam in Gujarat. OR
Person whose mother-tongue is Gujarati

[Ex-servicemen] Attempt limit depends on Category not Ex-serviceman status

2011-06-03T11:38:00.003+05:30

I am in indian navy(armed forces)and i will retire in Feb 2015 . My date of birth is 1982. How many times can i appear in civil services being in service and including this years attempt??

For UPSC civil service exam, being Ex-servicemen gets you only Age relaxation, not attempt relaxation.
Attempt relaxation depends on your category [SC/ST/OBC/PH]

Ex-serviceman : (Age relaxation)

General=30+5
OBC=30+8
SC/ST=30+10

(Count your age on 1st August of the given year)

Defense personnel (i.e. disabled during service)

General=30+3
OBC=30+6
SC/ST=30+8

(Count your age on 1st August of the given year)

Attempt relaxation: depends on category not the military service

Gen=4
OBC=7
SC/ST=unlimited till they reach the upper age limit.
Physically Handicapped=again depends on above category (PH from Gen or OBC=7 attempts, rest get unlimited)

For more,refer the notification's page #32.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1RXD8fh0_LgYTg3NmQ3YzItYjg1Mi00YTlmLThhMmItMDMyZDUyYzYxNzY2&hl=en_US

[CSAT App Q] Attempt is not counted if you don't sit in the prelims

2011-06-02T19:51:00.001+05:30

this year i sent my application of csat. i don't want to give this year. if i will not give this year exam then it will be counted 1 attempt or not ? please guide me early as possible.

Don't worry. if you don't sit in the prelim exam, you attempt is not counted.
Followup Question:

please give me reference of upsc rule

UPSC 2011 notification: read the page #34
copy pasting:

(i) An attempt at a Preliminary Examination shall be deemed to be an attempt at the Examination.
(ii) If a candidate actually appears in any one paper in the Preliminary Examination, he/she shall be deemed to have made an
attempt at the Examination.

"actually appears" means if you don't get inside the exam hall, your attempt is not counted.

[Free IAS Coaching in Gujarat] SPIPA Ahmedabad by Govt. of Gujarat

2011-06-01T21:44:00.003+05:30

SPIPA [Sardar Patel institutute of Public Administration], Opp.ISRO, Satellite, Ahmedabad, is taking admission test for the 2011-12 IAS coaching batch.

It is run by Government of Gujarat, hence bare minimum fees.
(Totally free for SC/ST/OBC including Hostel and food)
Every year around 6-8 candidates from Gujarat from this institute make it to civil service, especially useful for coaching of Gujarati literature optional subject, got a good library and study room.

Eligibility conditions

Person living in Gujarat since last five years (Before 1st August 2011) OR
Person completed his 10th or 12th in Gujarat (in any medium) OR
Person who has passed Graduation level exam in Gujarat. OR
Person whose mother-tongue is Gujarati

Admission exam will be held 17/07/2011, pattern similar to CSAT.

For Application form, and details download following pdf file [right click>Save as]

http://spipa.gujarat.gov.in/images/spipa_civil_ser_tra_pro_2011_12.pdf

Institute's website:
http://spipa.gujarat.gov.in/
or
Refer to Divyabhaskar (Gujarati) newspaper dated 1 June 2011 for the advertizement.

PS:
If you can't clear the admission test, no worries, you can still get admission by clearing the UPSC prelim itself.

[Alert] CSAT halltickets uploaded on UPSC website, take a printout

2011-05-31T18:46:00.002+05:30

All those who've not recieved halltickets / admit cards for CSAT 2011 [just like me] can download their hallticket from following link

http://upsc.gov.in/Query/csp/csp_venue_query.htm#PageTop

[type your application number (offline) or registration number (online applied)] and then take a print out of that page alonghwith two passport size photographs & a Photo ID Proof, it can also be used for appearing in the Examination i.e. on 12th June 2011.

Paper-1 @ 9.30 to 11.30
Paper-2 @ 2.30 to 4.30

Courtesy : dontheone @IOforum