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Subject: Trivia

  • Antim Gyan for IAS Pre Takers

    Hello Everyone,

    How are you doing?

    So now that we are 10 Mini Mocks down and cruising towards the last lap of Full Length Tests (FLTs), I just thought of having a word with you. It was wonderful to see good participation by you and even more wonderful to watch you come up with different answer choices. It germinated points and counter-points and reinforced learning. Now I am sure all of you are clear about who can increase the number of judges in HC and most of you shall even remember the Article number ? Thank you for that!

    One reason why did not wish to postpone this post till the end of FLTs was that now many of you might just lock yourself to the outside world including the web and might become sporadic or disinterested in reading any more posts till Prelims.

    So here is the Antim Gyan:

    #1. For past one year or more, you have put in good effort for CSE. Have faith in what you have done.

    #2. Getting apprehensive as the Prelims approaches is normal and there is absolutely nothing to get tensed about.

    #3. Do not get panic attacks thinking that still so many things need to be revised/tests taken/ new things to be read. Relax. Sab ho jayega if you just plan and do it.

    #5. Read questions carefully, a sadist examiner might not want to highlight or italicise a not in “not correct”.

    #6. And if you did not notice that I just made a mistake in serial number, then read the above point ten times over again.

    #7. You might be better off cutting off your chai-sutta (if you take them that is) engagement for some days now. They just eat away too much time.

    #8. Don’t compromise on sleep and, this might sound a puerile suggestion, but take care of your diet.

    And now a selfish touch to the post.

    I tried to do whatever I could, with whatever resources and time I had, to try to help you in your preparation. And if I could make an iota of difference, I am happy because it means a lot to me. It drives me to work harder and to improve further. Some of you were exasperated with tough tests/questions, my sincere regrets for that. I never made a question tough on purpose but if I found a topic that should be covered for Prelims, I tried to use it in the mocks and in this attempt there might have been certain questions which inadvertently become tough. Whatever may have been your performance in Mocks, you shall certainly reap benefits on the D-Day if you have followed them.

    We all make mistakes and I am no exception. Many a times a wrong option was highlight or I misinterpreted a statement and gave wrong answer choices. But depend on it, I never meant to misguide you. I welcome, rather appreciate criticism, but at one point it did went over me and I just could not refrain myself from commenting on it and I regret it.

    Over a period it is natural that we interact more with people who comment or ask doubts regularly. And then when you are at the backend analysing results you do tend to look out for these names and check their answer sheet and sometimes exclaim, “arey yar isne ye question kaise galat kar diya” or sometimes “ye to PT phodega”. Happened quite a few times. ?

    So that is all from my side for the time and my best wishes with each one of you. See you all at the final FLTs starting 11th July.

    Regards,

    Unbounded Wisdom

  • Use Civilsdaily App for current affairs revision – IAS 2016 & 2017

    You already have the Civilsdaily app, we believe. Over this last one year, you would have read a collective of 5,000+ newscards. Now is the time to go and revisit them month wise/ category wise.

    Civilsdaily App for IAS

    Use this demonstrated 5 step process to revisit your preferred news category month wise.

     

  • Treat yourself at Baskin Robbins – Part 2

    I want to share with you all another episode that happened two months back. I was worried feeling numb you know the problem was i knew what i had to do what i need to do  but i was not able to do anything. I was just blankly staring at walls.

    So to all those Bhatakti aatma  aka wandering souls. I have something to say: stepping into this arena of upsc was your decision am i right?? ..And if you are not able to push yourself to do what it takes to get through this thing ..question yourself if you really wanted to this and if yes is your answer.

    So its time to pamper yourself a little bit give some time to yourself. Remember those days when you really did not wish to go to school especially kinder garden time and how your parents used to pamper you ..my appa knew what could infuse in me  the zeal that refreshment so he used to let me scribble in walls when i was fussy about going to school.. me and my crayons created wonder i was happy..and then appa used to ask me that do you want to school go now

    ..He made my mood all right all set so that i go to school without dragging…He knew school is necessary for me to learn a new alphabet  he also knew that i was least interested to go but he made arrangement in such a way that i was ready for school.

    Key of this story was you need to pamper yourself if you are bored ..there are things which are necessary which you can not escape and you have to do it…in simple terms a kit kat break is all you need give time to things which will let your tensions you worries go away you will feel refresh

    Then tell me if you can’t make yourself happy while reading things how would you be able to tackle other things ..life is beyond books too remember my words 😉 this thing is just a phase which you need to live its not struggle its purely passion which you are pursuing..everyone should hold some onus to themselves

    Like if you see my diary pages you would get an idea let the doodle do the  talking part..i am sending another page which i always refer and give an option to myself what to do before i say i don’t want to study. I know you all have your idea of happiness…do give it time and then see books. Do something that gives you butterfly jitters or something that make your brain cell works efficiently …

    IMG_20160707_201511

    I don’t know what future holds for me but i am living each day whether it was first time knowing about buddha circuit or about law commission recommendation. I am always filled with ooooooo excitement talking to myself that is it so ? How come i was not aware of it ?. Bring that oomph in you boredom will fade.you will do wonder i am just poking you all by sharing my side of story.

    IMG_20160707_201614

    PS: This can irk will give an impression that i am non serious candidate but its okay i don’t want to be called serious. Like i said i fell in love with its syllabus so i am into it its became passion like in IR we say natural allies  so it’s sort of like that for me and it works but i do take care of my little brain  aka self interest .

    PPS: thanks a lot to people who loved my handwriting and my story Sending a snapshot of diary to CD was just a random thing that happened .

    PPPS: All the best for prelims 🙂 Had more to say but it’s enough for now me too need to go back to books it was a break time thing and i felt so happy sharing it with you all

    This post was an email from a reader. Has been kept anonymous for her comfort but we hope this brings some peace to all of you who have had some bad days. If you wish to write to us about your good/ bad days – email us at hello[at]civilsdaily.com

  • Ask a Question, Answer a Question – Round 3

    We have had two rounds of AQAQ before. We are thrilled to see you guys coming up with mnemonics and answering questions in a balanced ways.

    1. AQAQ Round 1
    2. AQAQ Round 2

    This time we are making it even more interesting. Over this last one year – most of you would have joined one or the other test series. Be it insights, visionias, vajiram and yes of course our own CD Mocks!

    Do one of the following:

    1) Share a question which you find most rewarding/ tricky or simply important and why!

    2) On someone else’s shared question – suggest one more trivia or explanation which adds to that question 

    We are sure you would have been maintaining stock of important questions and this exercise would only help you revisit the important ones and get more information from the audience on them.

    What say?

    By the way – The Mock#10 is running on the portal. Those of you who have attempted it can discuss the attempts here.

    The Full Length Mocks will start on the 11th of July. Do join us in helping you prepare for the last mile. A lot of you have already signed up. Your FREE Civilsdigest copy is available on the “Document” section of the portal.

    Here’s the link to join the FULL LENGTH Mocks.

    PS: Those reading this blog on the app, you won’t be able to comment from there so please open this blog’s link from a mobile/ laptop browser.

  • Seventh Pay Commission: Insights into the developments

    The Cabinet recently accepted the recommendations of 7th Pay commission. Let’s look into the hikes and sighs of what this brings forth. We will start with the basics of a pay commission and then will top it up with analysis, issues and challenges ahead.

    What is a pay commission?

    • The Pay Commission is an administrative system/mechanism that the government of India set up in 1956 to determine the salaries of government employees. The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modifications
    • The First Pay Commission was established in 1956, and since then, every decade has seen the birth of a commission that decides the wages of government employees for a particular time-frame.
    • The second Pay Commission was set up in August 1957, third Pay Commission in April 1970.
    • The recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission covered the period between 1986 and 1996. The Fifth Pay Commission covered the period between 1996 and 2006.
    • The Union Cabinet approved the setting up of the 6th Pay Commission in July 2006.

    Information about 7th Pay commission

    Seventh pay commission was formed by previous UPA Government. The commission, headed by Justice A K Mathur was formed in February 2014. The other members of the commission are Vivek Rae, a retired IAS officer, and Rathin Roy, an economist. Meena Agarwal is Secretary of the Commission. The committee’s recommendations are scheduled to take effect from 1 January, 2016. Nearly 48 lakh central government employees and 55 lakh pensioners will be benefited by the pay commission.

    Key Recommendations of the 7th Pay commission

    • 55 percent overall hike in salaries, allowances and pension involving an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore or nearly 0.7 percent of the GDP.
    • Average salary hike includes 14.27 percent increase in basic pay, the lowest in 70 years. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 percent hike which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.
    • Recommendations to be implemented from January 1, 2016
    • Minimum pay fixed at Rs 18,000 per month; maximum pay at Rs 2.25 lakh
    • The rate of annual increment retained at 3 percent
    • 24 percent hike in pensions
    • The Commission recommends abolishing 52 allowances; another 36 allowances subsumed in existing allowances or in newly proposed allowances
    • Recommendations will impact 47 lakh serving govt employees, 52 lakh pensioners, including defence personnel
    • One Rank One Pension proposed for civilian government employees on line of OROP for armed forces
    • Ceiling of gratuity enhanced from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh; ceiling on gratuity to be raised by 25 percent whenever DA rises by 50 percent
    • Cabinet Secretary to get Rs 2.5 lakh as against Rs 90,000 per month pay band currently
    • Financial impact of implementing recommendations in toto will be Rs 1.02 lakh crore – Rs 73,650 crore to be borne by Central Budget and Rs 28,450 crore by Railway Budget
    • Total impact of Commission’s recommendation to raise the ratio of expenditure on salary and wages to GDP by 0.65 percentage points to 0.7 percent
    • Military Service Pay (MSP), which is a compensation for the various aspects of military service, will be admissible to the defence forces personnel only
    • MSP for service officers more than doubled to Rs 15,500 per month from Rs 6,000 currently; for nursing officers to Rs 10,800 from Rs 4,200; for JCO/ORs to Rs 5,200 from Rs 2,000 and for non-combatants to Rs 3,600 from Rs 1,000
    • Short service commissioned officers will be allowed to exit the armed forces at any point in time between 7 to 10 years of service.

    Analysis

    Significance of the 7th Pay commissions recommendations

    1) Boost in demand

    When over one crore government employees and pensioners will receive over a 23-per cent hike in salaries and pensions, it will boost the overall demand scenario in the economy, leading to more expenditure, thus benefitting the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

    2) Increase in Government Revenue

    Both central and state government revenues are expected to get a boost from the implementation of this award, as a sizeable amount of the outgo in the form of pay will get ploughed back to government coffers in the form of income tax. Besides, with more money in their hands, people are going to spend and this increased consumption will directly add to the excise/VAT collections of central and state governments.

    3) A savior amid global market turmoil

    The seventh pay commission has rendered a much-needed relief to the market, concerned over a spate of issues from Britain’s verdict to leave the European Union, the prospects of US Federal raising interest rates, to concerns over FII outflows due to RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan’s disinterest for the second term.

    4) Increase in saving

    The consumption boost to the economy is estimated to be approximately Rs 61,260 crore (0.39 per cent of GDP) and increased household savings are estimated to be another Rs 40,840 crore (0.26 per cent of GDP). This will add to the savings-to-GDP ratio which, after reaching the peak of 36.8 per cent in 2007-08, declined to 30.1 per cent in 2012-13. This is also important from the point of view of the widening gap between savings-to-GDP and investment-to-GDP ratio which was reflected in the higher current account deficit.

    Challenges

    1) Fiscal deficit may widen

    While the Budget for 2016-17 did not provide an explicit provision for implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, the government had said the once-in-a-decade pay hike for government employees has been built in as interim allocation for different ministries.

    The government’s kitty is likely to have an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore, or nearly 0.7 per cent of GDP, which may make it troublesome for the government to meet its fiscal deficit target for the current financial year.

     

    2) Inflation risk

    RBI has repeatedly commented that it sees an upside risk to Consumer Price Inflation index (CPI) inflation on the back of 7th pay commission. Now that the reward is out, all eyes will stare at RBI as to how much spike it estimates on the CPI in its monetary policy review scheduled to be out on August 09

    Do you have more to add? Chat it out in the comment box

  • [Solved] Open discussion for Prelims Mocks #10

    Update:

    The solutions for this mock are now available in a downloadable pdf. Download

    What’s this?

    Discussion blog page for those who just attempted prelims mock #10. Discussion is open for any question which you had a doubt about, brainstorming on ways to arrive at a particular answer, any other interesting tit bit that you may share etc.

    Where are the prelims mocks held?

    Go to the link and start attempting the mocks. Click here. 25 questions each.

    When will the detailed explanations be uploaded?

    Every weekend (on sunday). Look out for this blog again and you will find a google drive link from where you can download the explanation pdfs.

  • Sprint this month and Clear Prelims

    In an article one month back I wrote how to approach prelims 2016 where I underlined the importance of solving test papers, previous years questions and making educated informed calculated guesses. We followed that up with test series by UW and analysis of last 6 years polity and economy papers.

    By now, it would be amply clear to all of you that solving the test papers, making intelligent guesses is utmost important to crack prelims examination. You have only one month left now and you have to do what all I prescribed (yes I am a doctor) in the earlier article.

    Most imp. period of your preparation – winners will march ahead

    Many of you would already be feeling defeated and dejected. Negative thoughts – I won’t be able to clear the prelims- come to mind very frequently these days. But remember that this is not the time to feel dejected. This is the most important period of your preparation. In next one month, ranks will shift dramatically. Those who would succumb to pressure will be left behind while those who utilize this time in best possible manner will March ahead.

    Sprint now and win the Prelims marathon

    It’s sprint from now on. Marathon race of prelims has reached the last lane. Now you have to run and run very fast. Every minute is important from now on. Times of parties have long gone now. You can’t afford to waste a minute any more. Your success and failure would depend on the wise utilization of the time you have. You have to have faith in yourself that you can do it. And you will have to do it.

    Discipline is the key

    Make a timetable now. Get organized. Get focused. If you had joined any whatsapp group for current affairs or doubt clearance, this is the best time to leave those groups.

    Get maximum out of everyday – Don’t have any distractions

    To get maximum out of everyday, become very disciplined and follow your time table religiously. Bore yourself to success by following that time table for next 30 days. Do four siting of two and half hours each. And these sittings means reading from the books and notes while your phone is switched off. There should not be any distraction just like in exam. You have to focus for 2 hours in exam, here we take s buffer if half an hour. And just like that, you would clock 10 hours a day every day.

    Revise current affairs backwards

    Start revising your current affairs from June month backwards. Revise your old test papers with special focus on questions you marked incorrect. Double mark those which you mark incorrect once again or just write them down in your notebook. Go back to your standard books and revise that topic again.

    Solve past ten years question papers in next 10 days

    If you haven’t solved last 10 years question papers, solve them in next 10 days. There is simply no excuse if you are unable to answer direct repeat or indirect repeat from the same topic.

    Don’t leave any topic untouched – must correct every easy question from every topic

    If you haven’t touched any particular topic or subject, cover them in next 7 days. You just can’t leave any subject / topic, be it art and culture or temple architecture or ancient history. You don’t have to go in depth. You don’t have to time to study in depth now. Just have superficial knowledge and make sure you mark easy questions from those topics correctly. For instance, you just can’t afford to not mark this question on definition of ecosystem correctly and you would mark that correctly if you had just skimmed through environment and ecology topics. This hold true for every subject.

    Revise, revise and revise

    Once you have done that, your complete focus should be on revision. Read new things for not more than 2 hours a day. Just try to consolidate everything you have already studied. Trust me all of you have read enough. Just revise and consolidate that.

    Simulate exam every day

    Don’t forget to solve at least 25 questions (solving one full length paper everyday won’t harm either) everyday in exam like conditions. Keep solving them till last week of prelims. Make calculated guesses there. See if they benefit you. Analyse your mistakes, improve upon them and you will be the winner.

    The Final Mocks start on the 11th July. Click here to join

  • Some Days, You Just Have Nothing – Part 2

    It was heartening to see that a few of you could connect with my day’s ramblings. Sometime such connections are nice to find and great to cherish.

    Also – the other reader who shared her drawing was simply amazing. Baskin Robbins anyday 🙂 I loved the story that she had crafted on that page.

    We all tell stories. Stories are an amazing way to create a sense of reality for ourselves so that we aspire towards a goal.

    I felt so pumped to start reading a subject in the morning and marked 5 chapters which I will cover before noon. I told a positive story to myself, “I am going to cover the executive polity today and will look up for polity tit bits by Dr. V and that would make me a supremo in this section.” but but as luck would have it, I drifted off midway and switched off to history.

    My story changed to, “This subject is so boring and I need to be a bit more diverse in my choices to keep things lively.”

    And this flip flop kept happening which made me re-think this whole boring issue in detail.

    The truth is studies do get boring. There is no glamour in rattofying Lakshmikanth line by line and switching from one subject to another is just escaping from reality. We think we are going to ace the book today and we see ourselves closing the cover page halfway through a chapter.

    The gap between our realities and expectations remind me of this 😉

    But back to serious stuff – how do I undo the boring aspect of studies? How do I brainwash myself into staying put with a boring subject? Anyone with any good, practical advices?

  • CivilsDigest Ed#7 released – Test Students get a FREE Copy

    Hello,

    It is usually recommended that you be well versed with the current affairs of upto an year back of your Prelims attempt.

    For those appearing for the IAS 2016 Prelims, we advise that you go through with current affairs from August 2015 – July 2016.

    If you have made your current affairs notes, revisit those bullet points. If you haven’t been regular with current affairs, get the back issues of Civilsdigest magazine from our Instamojo store – Click here. 

    We released the CivilsDigest Ed#7 today

    It covers news from May 20 – June19

    If you have joined our Full Length test series which starts on 11th July, you would have received a FREE download link to this latest issue. Please check your email.

    Link to join the test series. The students who join the Full Length TS in the coming days will get their complimentary magazine within 24 hours.

     

     

  • Treat yourself at Baskin Robbins

    Read someone’s diary entry in your blog. And i turned around pages of my diary what i have for july this time. I want to share it with you I have nothing inspiring say but this exam is best thing that ever happened to me for i fell in love with it. This is not everything to me but it’s something which makes me look past the extraneous detail and perceive clearly.

    It changed the way i look at things. I don’t claim anything big why and what i am doing here I am doing it for myself; i am happy about it it’s not mean thing to say.

    This time or the other time even if  it will be like climbing mountain or sailing over sea I will be accomplishing this thing.

    I am in love with its syllabus and will be loving it always.

    PS may irks many but this was not intended to offend any.

    Diary entry of an IAS aspirant

    This post was an email from a reader. Has been kept anonymous for her comfort but we hope this brings some peace to all of you who have had some bad days. If you wish to write to us about your good/ bad days – email us at hello[at]civilsdaily.com