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Get ready for upcoming September Current Affairs Prelims Test on 26th October- sample questions highlighting our methodology
Click here to enroll for the Prime Prelims TS
Dear students,
31st May 2020 is the D-day for all civil service aspirants.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
This quote by Abraham Lincoln sums up how one should prepare for that day. So before entering the battlefield alone should have enough practice. Our Prime Prelims Test series which shall enrich you to acquaint yourself with the pattern of CSE-2020, assess your abilities, rectify your mistakes and make you confident to appear on the examination day.
Our Prime Prelims Test Series follows the same approach as that adopted by UPSC. Our team of experts is quite enriched with the UPSC pattern and focal point of the questions and hence creates more chances for the aspirants to crack civil service examination by appearing our Test Series.
The key philosophy of our prelims TS is Evidence-based question making: The 3600 questions you face in our mocks have their relevance established in UPSC’s trend analysis. We focus on themes that are important as per UPSC so that we maximize your chances of questions overlap with the actual UPSC Prelims.
Nothing speaks more than the facts itself rather than a mere jargon. Here is a list of 5 sample questions from the upcoming test which will help you in identifying the standards and approach we follow. (you can skip this if you want to attempt these directly in the test).
Noone but only you can assess how it will help you in being the top percentile of aspirants. You have to practice ruthlessly and civils Daily provides you with a platform to hone your skills.
Q.1) With reference to International science projects, consider the following:
- Large Hadron Collider (LHC)– The God Particle
- Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) – The World’s Most Advanced Telescope
- International-Thermonuclear-Experimental-Reactor (ITER) – Fusion Energy
- Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) – Antiproton and Ion Research
Which of the above projects have India’s active participation?
a. 1 only
b. 2 and 3 only
c. 1, 3 and 4 only
d. All of them
Q.2) Project ANDREX is in news related to:
a. the finding of biological carbon pump in the Antarctic ocean
b. the discovery and confirmation of methane on the surface of Mars
c. climate change impact in the Arctic ice sheets
d. None of the above
Q.3) Consider the following pairs regarding Water Harvesting Practices:
Practices States
1. Mission Kakatiya Telangana
2. Pani Panchayat Jharkhand
3. Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan Gujarat
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
a. 1 only
b. 2 and 3 only
c. 1 and 3 only
d. All of them
Q.4) The following statements describe which of the given places in the options?
1. It lies on the Coromandel Coast which faces the Bay of Bengal.
2. It is also known as Seven Pagodas.
3. The entire assemblage of monuments of this town collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a. Puri
b. Kakinada
c. Mamallapuram
d. Madurai
Q.5) Consider the following statements with respect to Eastern Economic Forum (EEF)
1. It was established to support the economic development of eastern countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
2. India participated in the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) that was held in Vladivostok, Russia.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?
a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both of them
d. Neither of them
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[Burning Issue] Randomized Controlled Trial and This Year’s Nobel Prize In Economics
Context
- The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to three economists for their pioneering research into the use of experimental approaches to fight global poverty.
- The new Nobel laureates are considered to be instrumental in using randomized controlled trials to test the effectiveness of various policy interventions to alleviate poverty.
Why have Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer won the Nobel Prize?
- The research conducted by this year’s Laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty, the Nobel citation says.
- Their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics.
- In Poor Economics, Banerjee and Duflo bemoaned how the debates on poverty “tend to be fixated on the ‘big questions’: What is the ultimate cause of poverty? How much faith should we place in free markets? Is democracy good for the poor? Does foreign aid have a role to play? And so on”.
- Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer, who have been working together since the mid 1990s, are different in that they do not get stuck with the “big questions”.
- Instead, they break down a problem, study its different aspects, conduct various experiments and, based on such “evidence”, decide what needs to be done.
Randomized Controlled Trial
- A RCT is an experiment that is designed to isolate the influence that a certain intervention or variable has on an outcome or event.
- A social science researcher who wants to find the effect that employing more teachers in schools has on children’s learning outcomes, for instance, can conduct a randomized controlled trial to find the answer.
- The Nobel laureates’ trio applied RCT to the field of economics beginning in the 1990s.
- Kremer first used the technique to study the impact that free meals and books had on learning in Kenyan schools.
- Banerjee and Ms. Duflo later conducted similar experiments in India and further popularized RCTs through their book Poor Economics, published in 2011.
A small testimony
- Esther Duflo, along with Raghav Chattopadhyay, did an outstanding study of India’s decision to reserve some of the leadership of local governments — village panchayats — for women.
- Since the choice of which seats are to be reserved for women is done by lottery in India, since 1993, following a constitutional amendment, this turned out to be a perfect setting for studying how the election of women leaders could affect economic well-being in the locality.
- By studying a massive data set from West Bengal and Rajasthan, they proved that the provision of local public goods, like water supply, improves in statistically significant ways in villages where women are elected to lead.
- Likewise, Michael Kremer’s research, done with Ted Miguel, on what de-worming in schools in Kenya could do for child health and absenteeism of school students was quite remarkable.
- By doing a massive randomised controlled study, they showed that benefits of deworming could be staggering, way beyond the costs of such an intervention.
How does this approach work in practice?
- Breaking down the poverty problem and focussing on the smaller issues such as “how best to fix diarrhoea or dengue” yielded some very surprising results.
- For instance, it is often believed that many poor countries (like India) do not have the resources to adequately provide education, and that this resource crunch is the reason why school-going children do not learn more.
- But their field experiments showed that lack of resources is not the primary problem.
- In fact, studies showed that neither providing more textbooks nor free school meals improved learning outcomes.
- Instead, as was brought out in schools in Mumbai and Vadodara, the biggest problem is that teaching is not sufficiently adapted to the pupils’ needs.
- In other words, providing teaching assistants to the weakest students was a far more effective way of improving education in the short to medium term.
- Similarly, on tackling teacher absenteeism, what worked better was to employ them on short-term contracts (which could be extended if they showed good results) instead of having fewer students per “permanent” teacher, in order to reduce the burden on teachers and incentivise them to teach.
Why is RCT so popular?
- At any point in time, there are multiple factors that work in tandem to influence various social events.
- RCTs allow economists and other social science researchers to isolate the individual impact that a certain factor alone has on the overall event.
- For instance, to measure the impact that hiring more teachers can have on children’s learning, researchers must control for the effect that other factors such as intelligence, nutrition, climate, economic and social status etc., which may also influence learning outcomes to various degrees, have on the final event.
- RCTs promise to overcome this problem through the use of randomly picked samples.
Significance
- Many development economists believe that RCTs can help governments to find, in a thoroughly scientific way, the most potent policy measures that could help end poverty rapidly.
- Research done by Abhijit, Esther and Michael has transformed the way development economics is practised nowadays, not just in United States but the world over.
Criticisms of RCT
- A popular critic of randomized controlled trials is economist Angus Deaton, who won the economics Nobel Prize in 2015.
- He has contended in his works that simply choosing samples for an RCT experiment in a random manner does not really make these samples identical in their many characteristics.
- While two randomly chosen samples might turn out to be similar in some cases, he argued, there are greater chances that most samples are not really similar to each other.
- RCTs are more suited for research in the physical sciences where it may be easier to carry out controlled experiments.
- More fundamentally, RCTs do not guarantee if something that worked in Kerala will work in Bihar, or if something that worked for a small group will also work at scale.
- This Nobel, albeit indirectly, for RCTs will likely stoke this debate again.
References
https://finshots.in/archive/abhijeet-banerjee-nobel-prize/
https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/explained-randomized-controlled-trial-rct/
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Gear up for today’s Environment Mains test | Mains Essential Program 2020
2020 – Mains Essentials Program . Click here to enrol now!
Dear Students,
As aspirants, we all have a tendency to wait for that perfect moment when we would have completed the syllabus and done with all the revisions before we get to attempting answer writing.
The bitter truth is that there is no such perfect moment. It is only delaying your answer writing. You should remember that you will build confidence only by writing more and more answers, not by postponing the date to be more thorough with the .
Some things are best learnt by doing. Take swimming for example. You will only learn when you jump in the pool, not by tutorials or by watching others swim.
A test series gives you the opportunity to test yourself and also helps you in improving your writing.
Our Mains Test Series had the highest hit ratio among all the Test Series. If you followed our platform/study material, you would’ve written above average answers for all questions. Almost 60 percent Questions in UPSC Mains 2019 GS 1,2,3 and 4 came from our test series.
We are excited to launch our Mains essential program for 2020. As usual, we are incorporating a lot of feedback and bringing a better offering.
Here are some sample questions from our Environment sectional mains test
Q.) The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process was brought with an ideal intention but it has lost its importance and practical utility. Critically examine. (10 marks)
Q.) As the Arctic continued to be warm and the temperature difference relative to the equator has reduced, many strange climate anomalies have been witnessed around the world. Examine. (10 Marks)
Q.) National Urban Transport Policy emphasizes on ‘moving people’ instead of ‘moving vehicles’. Discuss critically the success of the various strategies of the government in this regard. (10 marks)
Q.) Expediting the migration to electric mobility(E-vehicles) will not just benefit India environmentally but also economically and socially? Discuss
Q.) What is sustainable development mechanism(SDM)? Compare and contrast it with clean development mechanism? What are the possible challenges and benefits of SDM? discuss. (15 marks)
Program Inclusions
1. Checked Copy Discussion on Phone
We are known to provide individual attention to students. We have further standardized our program. Now students can schedule a call within 2 days of receiving their checked copies by replying back to us with their availability. We have kept it 2 days so your mentors can easily recall your attempt.
This is the biggest reason why you should join our TS. Major issues with your attempt will be highlighted and your improvement will be tracked in subsequent tests.2. Question Formulation
Our questions will now specifically state that
>Whether they are straightforward or thought-provoking/analytical.
>Whether they have subparts.
>Why this question – similar previous year questions, the importance of the theme, etc.
CD Innovation – Rather than the regular uninspiring questions, we have gone the extra mile and crafted unique, intellectually-stimulating questions. These will reward analytical ability and critical thinking. These questions will be marked with a ‘star’.3. Model Answers
> For ‘thought-provoking/analytical‘ type of questions, we’ll provide the best way to approach them.
> Alternate introductions
> Sub-headings and categorization to enhance readability and answer structure.
> Color coding for main arguments, reports, data, scholars, etc.
> OTB – *Out of the box points for additional marks*4. Answer Checking
Answer-copy evaluation in the industry has become stagnant. The focus is restricted to superficial, memory-based lapses rather than on analytical excellence and cross-domain inter-linkages.
Our stress will be on the following –
1. Superior introduction and conclusion.
2. Usage of subject-specific vocabulary.
3. Articulation proficiency.
4. Substantiating evidence like Government and International Reports and Indices.
5. Prominent and contemporary examples.
Thorough answer checking with oversight of rankers like Dr. Vipin Garg(AIR 20), Swapnil Pawar (AIR 525)5. Video Discussion
There will be a video discussion after every test where the mentor will discuss how you can write the best answers to the questions asked in the test. Mentors will also be sharing answer writing strategy with students so that they can gain extra marks in Mains6. One to one mentorship
We believe in constant guidance and support approach and therefore we will provide a dedicated one to one mentorship group for students of the module where they can have peer discussions as well as doubt clearance via mentors.
The group will also have toppers who will personally guide the students. The students can always raise there preparation related query in the group.7. Magazines, listicles and other relevant study material
Supplementary content provided will be helpful in covering multiple related questions.2020 – Mains Essentials Program . Click here to enrol now!