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  • 6 Nov 2016 | Target Mains: Weekly Essay Challenge

    Justice is not in Law, Justice is in all about how we treat each other

    Instructions: Write the following essay in 1000-1200 words.

    Some pointers on how to address the essay are given here by K Siddhartha.

    Download FREE Target Mains compilation – Click here to know how

  • Alankrita Pandey: Once caught in depression cleared UPSC in her first attempt with Rank 85

     

    source

    Background: In January 2014, Alankrita decided to start preparing for UPSC exam. However, in mid-2014, she had to go through a personal crisis. This brought her to the level of using anti-depressants, anger management sessions and counseling by friends and family.

    She planned to write prelims in January 2014 and started reading some basic books but due to her aggravated situation, could not even write the exam. These circumstances went on till October and finally it controlled. By this time, she had decided to focus only on her career. The crisis gave her a clear sense of purpose.

    The life changing moment was not when the results came out, but the day when she stuck a paper on a wall in her room saying- “I want a 2-digit AIR in CSE-2015.”

    Her journey: She then began the hard work of day in-day out studies. She planned her preparation first at macro level and then at micro level. Example, she planned completing full mains syllabus by May 15, then reducing it to topic wise scheduling and then hour wise every day.

    Her motivation: There used to be moments of doubt, depression and stress quite often. To tackle it, she used to run in the mornings, meditate and exercise. Sometimes when she would lose patience to go on, she wrote on a paper as to why she started all this and this would provide her the motivation to move forward with more enthusiasm. Whenever she felt lethargic, she would see the newspaper and problems faced by various sections of society and think as to how she could be of some help. This gave her a sense of urgency to get into that position.

    Strategy for preparation: Newspaper played the most important role in her preparation. One must not ignore it at any cost. Apart from this, 50-60% of her preparation was from internet. One more thing that she thinks helped her was studying very selectively but studying strong. She would read a single book 4-5 times rather than reading 4-5 books for one subject. Since the process of this examination itself is year-long, one must study something keeping it in mind that it might be asked a year later in their interview. One should be able to retain the points in long term memory and that can only be done once you have understood and analyzed the issues properly.

    Mains strategy: Answer writing based on current events, peer evaluation process, mind maps during revision, strategy articles of toppers were initiatives that were immensely relevant and helpful.

    Her motto: ‘Your thoughts become things. Make them good.’ The power of positive thinking cannot be emphasized enough. She believes it to be her most important asset throughout the preparation. She always saw a silver lining in every challenging situation, right from the unfavorable start to her preparation or managing financial difficulties.

    Message to aspirants: Attitude is more important than aptitude.

    [Click 2 Download] “The Art of Tikdams” is now available for all IAS Prelims 2017 aspirants

  • Now Available for FREE Download: The Art Of Tikdams

    Attention: IAS Prelims 2017 Seekers

    This is an Advanced level compilation on choicest IAS Prelims questions, penned down by Vipin Garg (AIR 20, CSE 2015).

    These 20 pages contain elaborate expositions on the application of what we at Civilsdaily refer to as “Tikdams”.

    With 19 questions & unique explanations using the 3 types of Tikdam approaches, we present to you this unprecedented piece of literature in the history of IAS Prelims Approach Methodology.

    Make no mistake, this is a GOLDMINE of practical wisdom.

    Click here to download your FREE copy

    PS: If this compilation helped you get a fresh perspective at IAS Prelims, share this forward. Your friends will appreciate you lightening their preparation anxiety, as we are sure you would too.

     

  • Thanks

    thank you civilsdaily -brameshkngl@gmail.com

  • 5 Nov 2016 | GS4 | You have just taken over as the head of office in an administrative department. In the office there are 8 people working for the past 20 years as daily wagers who are not regular government employees.

    GS4 (Case study)

    You have just taken over as the head of office in an administrative department. In the office there are 8 people working for the past 20 years as daily wagers who are not regular government employees.
    One-year back, the ministry of personnel had issued clear guidelines that such people cannot be employed further. Following this, your boss had reported that no such workers are currently working in his charge, which includes your office, even though such people were continuing to work.
    Your own ministry has now asked for a list of such people, for a one-time relaxation of recruitment rules to be requested to ministry of personnel.
    This puts you in a fix, as your boss has reported nil, while the ministry wants such people so that they can be benefited.

    a. What are the options available to you?
    b. Evaluate each of these options and choose the option you would adopt, giving reasons.

    GS4 question powered by mitrasias.com

  • 5 Nov 2016 | GS3 | The Civil Aviation Ministry recently launched its Regional Connectivity Scheme called UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik). Discuss the main features of the scheme. What are the challenges that lie ahead for India to connect a large number of unconnected places and people with airways.

    GS3 (Science and Technology)

    The Civil Aviation Ministry recently launched its Regional Connectivity Scheme called UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik). Discuss the main features of the scheme. What are the challenges that lie ahead for India to connect a large number of unconnected places and people with airways.

  • 5 Nov 2016 | GS2 | Discuss the effect of reservation for women in Panchayati raj bodies in the process of women’s political empowerment. Critically analyse if women’s reservation is a sufficient condition for politically empowering women.

    GS2 (Polity and Governance)

    Discuss the effect of reservation for women in Panchayati raj bodies in the process of women’s political empowerment. Critically analyse if women’s reservation is a sufficient condition for politically empowering women.

  • 5 Nov 2016 | GS1 | What are the environmental changes that have occurred due to depletion of ozone layer. Analyse if the recent decision of phasing down the use of HFCs will reverse the process of this change and help to achieve the targets of keeping world temperature within limits.

    GS1 (Geography)

    What are the environmental changes that have occurred due to depletion of ozone layer. Analyse if the recent decision of phasing down the use of HFCs will reverse the process of this change and help to achieve the targets of keeping world temperature within limits.

  • 5 Nov 2016 | Prelims Daily: CA Questions with Tikdams & Tidbits

    Dear students,

    When you submit your answer, if possible, give some reasoning & more info. along with the ABACAA format. Elaborate on what you know. This helps the whole community to know more and learn more!

    Q.1) Which of the following is/are recognised as the classical languages in India?

    1.Odia (Oriya)

    2.Kannada

    3.Telugu

    Choose the correct alternative using the codes given below:

    a) 1 and 3 only

    b) 2 only

    c) 2 and 3 only

    d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    Q.2) Consider the following statements about the decisions of the GST Council meeting held this week

    1.There will be a multiple slab rate structure, with rates ranging from 0% to 28%

    2.Existing cesses will continue to exist, independently of the GST

    Select the correct option

    a) 1 Only

    b) 2 Only

    c) Both 1 and 2

    d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    Q.3) There has been an unprecedented interest in studying the asteroids because

    1.They are believed to hold clue to the origin of the solar system and the origin of life on earth.

    2.Some of them might provide potential sites for mining valuable minerals.

    Which of the above statements is/are correct?

    a) 1 only

    b) 2 only

    c) Both 1 and 2

    d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    Q.4) Consider the following statements regarding the Paris Agreement

    1.The agreement is a arms deal between India and France to purchase 36 Rafale aircraft

    2.It is an agreement which seeks to keep the rise in global average temperatures below 1 C

    Select the correct option

    a) 1 Only

    b) 2 Only

    c) Both 1 and 2

    d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    Q.5) ‘Gig economy’ is a term which appears frequently in the news. Which of the following is an incorrect explanation of the term

    a) An economic system in which temporary positions are common and companies hire for short-term work

    b) It describes a single project or task for which a worker is hired, often through a digital marketplace, to work on demand

    c) They refer to a type of short-term job, and some workers pursue gigs as a self-employment option

    d) It refers to the hiring of illegal migrants

    IMPORTANT STUFF: 

    1. These questions are mostly derived from our daily newscards. Reading daily news from Civilsdaily’s App (click here) or website + solving these questions will help you reinforce the basics.

    2. For a comprehensive preparation of IAS Prelims 2017 – consider joining one of the three Prelims Modules by CD – prelims.civilsdaily.com

    3. Solutions will be uploaded at 8 p.m. Click here for solutions.

    4. For attempting previous Prelims Daily Questions – Click here

    5. How to apply Tikdams? Read this, this and this

  • Economics | Budget Deficits Explained

    As the word suggests, it refers to the amount by which Spending exceeds Income.
    There are 3 types of Budget Deficits –
    1. Revenue Deficit(RD), 2. Fiscal Deficit (FD) and 3. Primary Deficit(PD).
    These cannot be understood without a basic knowledge of the Budget. In a separate note, we will see their relationship with other terms like Balance of Payment ( BoP ), Current Account Deficit (CAD), etc and understand the concept of twin deficits. However in this note, we restrict our conversation to Union Budget.

    I. Union Budget

    The Union Budget is divided into 2 Budgets
    1. Revenue Budget (RD)
    2. Capital Budget (CB)
    Why is it split this way?
    To understand this, let’s assume a hypothetical situation where
    A. Your monthly take-home salary is 50K. Your monthly consumption is 10K (includes basic necessities like groceries, water, electricity, etc.).
    B. At the same time, you decided to buy a house for 100K, sold shares worth 50K and took a loan of 10K.
    Now, lets examine the components of A –
    1. It has income that’s more or less fixed every month(your salary), you do not draw down on your assets to earn this money i.e. Household revenue receipt.
    2.  It contains expenditures that are recurring i.e. they happen every month and you have very little control over them (changes in your lifestyle will impact them). Moreover no assets/capital is created by these expenditures i.e. Household Revenue Expenditure.
    Together, they constitute your household revenue budget.
    Let’s examine components of B  now–
    1. This income from loan is a liability as you have to return it. It’s not something you have earned. It’s borrowing, it’s a debt. Moreover, its not fixed as you won’t be taking a loan every month. It’s a one time receipt. Since it creates debt, it is debt creating capital receipt.
    2. Shares you sold gave you 50K. You have lost your asset now. It’s also one time payment as you can’t sell same shares again( you have already sold your stocks). It does not create debt i.e. non debt creating capital receipt. Together, they constitute household capital receipt.
    3. B also has expenditure that leads to asset creation ( you can sell your house to recover money, you can give it on rent and earn regular income) i.e. Household capital expenditure.  Part B constitutes household Capital Budget
     ‘Analyzing your monthly finances in the above manner makes it very clear as to how much money you owe, what assets you bought and sold and what’s your regular expenditure. Any other classification would miss all these important components. Extrapolating this to the Budget –
    A represents Revenue Budget and B represents Capital Budget.
    Formally defining,
    RB consists of Revenue Receipts(RR) and Revenue Expenditure(RE) met from these RR. Where
    RR = Income that neither creates liability( borrowing) nor reduces asset( divestment, auction of natural resources),
It includes Tax + Non Tax Revenues( Service charges, dividends from PSUs, interest govt. receives, Grants in aid etc)
    RE = All expenditure that doesn’t lead to capital/asset creation.
    CB consists Capital Receipts(CR) and Capital Expenditure (CE). Further CR has 4 components(becomes important for prelims).
    CR = CRa + CRb + CRc + CRd where,
CRa = Proceeds from Disinvestments say of PSUs.
CRb = Recovery of past loans.
CRc = Sale of assets/capital by the Govt for eg. Coal Blocks, 2G,3G, etc.
CRd = Loans raised by Government (on which it has to pay interest)
    Similarly, CE consist of capital expenditure on acquisition of assets/capital like
    CE = CEa + CEb + CEc where,
CEa = Loans given to States and UTs
CEb = Repayment of Past Loans
CEc = Investment in infrastructure
    It would help you to keep in mind the components of the CR and CP.
    Now that the above terminology is clear, let’s move and define the Deficits.

    II. Deficits

    1. Revenue Deficit(RD) refers to the excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts
    RD = Revenue Expenditure(RE) – Revenue Receipts(RR)
    Pretty simple and straightforward. What does it signify?
    It signifies if the day to day expenditure of the govt can be met by its day to day income.
    This is a very important deficit. It talks about component A. What happens if my monthly take home salary is 50K and my consumption is 60K? You can see that I’ll have to take loans to meet my monthly expenditures. But how will I repay the loans???
    Same is for the economy. A healthy economy shouldn’t be taking loans to meet its day to day expenses or it might end up falling in the debt trap.
    This deficit was so important that the FRBM Act. 2003 laid down rules to bring this deficit to absolute 0 by 2008-09.
    1. Fiscal Deficit(FD) is the difference between the total expenditure and [revenue receipts plus non-debt capital receipts]
     FD = Total Expenditure(TE) – (RR + CRa+CRb+CRc)
    Sounds complicated! Well not exactly. Lets go back to our example.
    Total Expenditure ( TE ) for that month is-
    10k (monthly consumption i.e. RE)+100k(purchase of a house i.e. CE) = 110k.
    Total Receipt (TR ) is-
    50k (salary i.e. RR) + 50k ( share sale i.e. non debt capital receipt) + 10k ( loan i.e. Debt creating Capital receipt).
    Put everything in formula-
    FD= TE – ( RR + Non debt CR )
    FD= 110k- ( 50k + 50k )
    FD= 10k
    If you look carefully this figure represents the loan you took to buy your home!
    Similarly, at the Budget level, it indicates the amount the Govt has to borrow to meet its annual targets.
    1. Primary Deficit(PD) is measured by fiscal deficit less interest payments.
    Primary Deficit (PD) = FD – Payment of Interests from previous loans
    PD has special significance.
    1. It shows what the Fiscal Deficit would’ve been for this particular year if no interests were to be paid. It ignores the loans taken by the previous Govts. in previous financial years.
    2. It talks about the health of our economy. Lets understand how
    Lets consider few cases.
    1. PD = 0.
    It implies FD = Payment of Interests from previous loans.
    This implies that the present government has recognized the need to tighten its belt, is now balancing its budget and FD is due to mess created by previous governments who borrowed irresponsibly.
    2. PD = FD
    It implies that Payment of Interests from previous loans are 0. Meaning we are taking loans to meet other targets and not payment of past loans. This implies previous governments acted very responsibly and balanced their budgets.
    There is another kind of Deficit – Effective Revenue Deficit(ERD)
    This was introduced in 2012 – 2013. This deficit tries to take into account the asset creation that happens at the state level.
    ERD = RD – (grants for creation of capital assets)
    We included all loans given to the states as one single category, revenue expenditure, without classifying which ones are being used for asset creation i.e. Capital Expenditure and which ones to meet other expenses i.e. Revenue Expenditure.
    Those which are used for asset creation at the state level are subtracted from the revenue deficit to arrive at Effective Revenue Deficit.
    Sources-
    http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2015-16/keybud/keybud2015.pdf

     

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