Aug 21, 2017 PIB

IASbaba PIB Weekly: Press Information Bureau - 13th Aug to 19th Aug , 2017

IASbaba PIB Weekly: Press Information Bureau - 13th Aug to 19th Aug , 2017 ARCHIVES GS-2 The Ganga Gram initiative (Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation) Under this, the villages the villages located along the main stem of river Ganga which have historic, cultural, and religious and/or tourist importance, will be developed as model villages by developing sustainable sanitation infrastructure and cleanliness practices The Ganga Gram initiative would help in the river Ganga rejuvenation process by: Making the village open defecation free Abate direct discharge of untreated liquid wastewater from such villages into river Ganga Facilitate adequate infrastructure for crematoria Develop proper solid waste disposal facilities in order to avoid any pollution to river Ganga Promote better sanitation practices in the villages through IEC activities Must Read: Rivers as a living entity: Implications and Challenges Rivers as a Living being Rivers of India Solve: Question   Launch of GeMSamvad: The GeM -Industry forum (Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation) GeM Samvaad - A participative and collaborative approach with the industry for promoting Indian industry and entrepreneurship As part of this initiative GeM & the Indian industry shall work together to: Create GeM related awareness and onboard industry members from across the country. Create a GeM-Industry Forum for collaboration with the Indian Industry for, seeking inputs on the technical specifications of products and SLAs of services to be procured by the Government agencies, improving the quality of products/services procured especially from the MSMEs, organize annual Public Procurement Convention of all stakeholders and set up GeM Resource Centres at CII Regional Offices   MoU between India and Sweden in the field of Intellectual Property (IPRs) (Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests) Both countries can exchange best practices and work together on training programs and technical exchanges to raise awareness on IPRs and better protect intellectual property rights. Will enable India to exchange experiences in the innovation and IP ecosystems that will substantially benefit entrepreneurs, investors and businesses on both sides. The exchange of best practices between the two countries will lead to improved protection and awareness about India's range of Intellectual creations which are as diverse as its-people. It will be a landmark step forward in India's journey towards becoming a major player in global Innovation and will further the objectives of National IPR Policy, 2016. Features Exchange of best practices, experiences and knowledge on IP awareness among the public, businesses and educational institutions of both countries Collaboration in training programmes, exchange of experts, technical exchanges and outreach activities Exchange and dissemination of best practices, experiences and knowledge on IP with the industry, universities, R & D organisations and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through participation in programs and events in the matter, organized singly or jointly by the Parties Exchange of information and best practices for disposal of applications for patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyrights and Geographical Indications, as also the protection, enforcement and use of IP rights Cooperation in the development of automation and implementation of modernization projects, new documentation and information systems in IP and procedures for management of IP Cooperation to understand how Traditional Knowledge is protected; and the exchange of best practices, including traditional knowledge related databases and awareness raising of existing IP systems Exchange of information and best practices regarding Intellectual Property law infringements in the digital environment, especially regarding Copyright issues Must Read: India and IPR- what now and what next Solve: Question GS-3 Metro Rail Policy (Topic: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.) Aim: To enable realization of growing metro rail aspirations of a large number of cities in a responsible manner PPP component mandatory for availing central assistance for new metro projects – Private investment and other innovative forms of financing of metro projects have been made compulsory to meet the huge resource demand for capital intensive high capacity metro projects. A catchment area of five kms on either side of metro stations – to provide necessary last mile connectivity through feeder services, Non-Motorised Transport infrastructure like walking and cycling pathways and introduction of para-transport facilities Mandates Alternate Analysis, requiring evaluation of other modes of mass transit like BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System), Light Rail Transit, Tramways, Metro Rail and Regional Rail in terms of demand, capacity, cost and ease of implementation Mandatory to set up Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) to prepare Comprehensive Mobility Plans for cities for ensuring complete multi-modal integration for optimal utilization of capacities Mandates Transit Oriented Development (TOD) to promote compact and dense urban development along metro corridors since TOD reduces travel distances besides enabling efficient land use in urban areas States need to adopt innovative mechanisms like Value Capture Financing tools to mobilize resources for financing metro projects by capturing a share of increase in the asset values through ‘Betterment Levy’. States would also be required to enable low cost debt capital through issuance of corporate bonds for metro projects. States can take up metro projects exercising any of the three options for availing central assistance (WITH MANDATORY PRIVATE PARTICIPATION) – PPP with central assistance under the Viability Gap Funding scheme of the Ministry of Finance, Grant by Government of India under which 10% of the project cost will be given as lump sum central assistance 50:50 Equity sharing model between central and state governments The Policy stipulates a shift from the present ‘Financial Internal Rate of Return of 8%’ to ‘Economic Internal Rate of Return of 14%’ for approving metro projects, in line with global practices. FASTags for Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) (Topic: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.) National Highways Authority of India launched two mobile Apps – MyFASTag and FASTag Partner, to facilitate the availability of FASTags for Electronic Toll Collection. A consumer can purchase or recharge FASTags on this App The App also helps to keep track of transactions and provides for online grievance redressal. Will give the much needed push to the ETC project that aims to make travel more convenient, faster and environment friendly for people   Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the World Bank and India (Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment) Project: Ecosystems Service Improvement Project Size of Project: USD 24.64 million (will entirely be financed by the World Bank out of its GEF Trust Fund) Project’s duration: 05 years States involved: Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh through Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education under the National Mission for Green India. Objective of the Project: Strengthen the institutional capacity of the Departments of Forestry and Community Organizations to enhance forest ecosystem services and improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities in Central Indian Highlands. Global Environment Facility (GEF) – Established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems ‘Gaj Yatra’ (Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment) What: A nationwide campaign to protect elephants on the occasion of World Elephant Day. The campaign is planned to cover 12 elephant range states. To prepare a strategy for a more even distribution of the elephant population in all the states of the country To bring to an end the chapter of man-animal conflict - a war must be waged against poachers and hunters who harm elephants and other wildlife To broad-base the movement for conservation of elephants and to involve people from all walks of life in the conservation of elephants and other wildlife World Elephant Day It is an annual global event celebrated across the world on August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of elephants Goal of World Elephant Day - To create awareness about the plight of elephants and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better care and management of captive and wild elephants. To improve enforcement policies to prevent illegal poaching and trade in ivory To conserve elephant habitats and provide better treatment for captive elephants Reintroduce captive elephants into sanctuaries Statistics: African elephants are listed as “vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “endangered” in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. As per the available population estimates, there are about 400,000 African elephants and 40,000 Asian elephants. World Honey Bee Day (Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment) Aim: To create awareness about Beekeeping and uses of its products including Honey Importance: Beekeeping has been useful in pollination of crops, thereby, increasing income of the farmers/beekeepers by way of increasing crop yield and providing honey and other beehive products, viz. royal jelly, bee pollen, propolis, bees wax, etc. that serves a source of livelihood for rural poor. Therefore, honeybees/beekeeping has been recognized as one of the important inputs for sustainable development of agriculture/ horticulture. Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) Functions under the administrative control of Ministry of Tribal Affairs Serving the interests of Tribals, who are engaged in collection of NTFP and making of Tribal Art & Handicraft Products for their livelihood so as to ensure better remunerative price for their products as well as for the socio-economic betterment through Self Help Groups, Empanelled NGOs, State level Tribal Development Corporations, Forest Development Corporations for undertaking marketing development of the tribal products. Playing a lead role in protecting, promoting and multiplication of Honey Bees by Scientific, Non-destructive collection practices, thereby increasing the livelihood of tribal people living in various forest areas of the country, contributing to the growth of Honey Bees population and reducing the mortality rate of Honey Bees drastically About 90% of the Scheduled Tribes of the country live in and around forest areas and the forests provide 60% of the food & medicinal needs of tribals and 40% of their income from Minor Forest Produce (MFP) mostly of which come from Honey. Please Note: The New India Movement 2017-2022 envisages an India free of Poverty, Corruption, Terrorism, Communalism, Casteism and Un-cleanliness - Sankalp Se Siddhi (Attainment through Resolve) All 4480 villages on the bank of River Ganga in 52 districts and 5 states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand & West Bengal) were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under Namami Gange initiative. Government has fixed the ceiling prices of orthopaedic implants used in knee surgeries – to prevent Unethical Profiteering and ensure Affordable and Quality Healthcare for the Last Man World Health Organization (WHO) Estimates – By 2020, osteoarthritis is going to be the fourth largest cause of immobility in the world. India has about 1.2 to 1.5 crore orthopaedic patients who require orthopaedic implant surgery, and most of the diagnosed people requiring knee surgery are not able to afford because of very high cost. 2017 - 75th anniversary of Quit India, 100th anniversary of Champaran Satyagraha, 125th anniversary of Ganesh Utsav. Lokmanya Tilak’s call “Swaraj is my birth right” – 2017 marks the 125th Anniversary of the Ganesh Utsav which led to the rise of community awakening through the celebrations. Lal Bahadur Shastri had given the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan.” The North Koel Reservoir is located in the most backward tribal areas in Palamau and Garhwa districts of Jharkhand The project is situated on North Koel river which is a tributary of Sone river finally joining the river Ganga. The Cabinet approved storage of water in dam restricted at lower level than envisaged earlier to reduce the submergence and to protect Betla National Park and Palamau Tiger Reserve. Navika Sagar Parikrama is a project wherein a team of women officers of the Indian Navy would circumnavigate the globe on an Indian-built sail boat INSV Tarini. This is the first ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The Government of India’s Street Lighting National programme (SLNP) has illuminated 50,000 KM of Indian roads with installation of 30 lakh LED street lights across the country.

Aug 21, 2017 IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs

IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs 21st Aug, 2017

IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs – 21st Aug 2017 Archives ENVIRONMENT  TOPIC: General Studies 2 Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation. General Studies 3 Conservation, Environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment. Ecology versus Development In news: Ecological destruction has always been a serious consequence of humankind’s push for development. Needless to say, the ecology versus development conundrum has been hotly debated. In the post-liberalization era, it is said India lost over 14,000 sq km of pristine forest to industrial and infrastructural projects. Some may say it is a small price to pay to be on the right side of development. More often than not, proponents of development want us to believe that the cost-benefit calculation of environmental devastation is reckoned correctly before such a call is made. But this is seldom the case. Rich wildlife diversity: India is uniquely placed in terms of wildlife diversity. It is considered to be a custodian of many species that are either extinct or found only in very low numbers elsewhere. Besides, having successfully implemented initiatives such as Project Tiger — the biggest such when launched in 1973 — India is looked upon as a global leader in conservation. India has one of the highest densities of carnivores — 58 to every sq km. Arbitrary decisions: Arbitrary decisions are being made, mostly under pressure from unscrupulous politicians and greedy industrialists. Those who have been entrusted with the task of guarding our natural heritage have been surrendering themselves to these powers. Any resistance to this rampant destruction of the environment is often stubbed either by withholding information from those fighting for the cause or by feeding them half-baked information. Transformation and erosion: While the 1970s and 1980s saw the enactment of many progressive pieces of legislation such as the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, the subsequent decades, particularly the 1990s, were a dampener for conservation efforts in the country. The decade that witnessed a dramatic transformation in India’s political and economic situation, also saw an erosion in political support for the environment. During that period, many sanctuaries were dismembered to make way for industry and infrastructure. During the PV Narasimha Rao regime, the focus was completely on economic liberalisation. The ensuing climate of deregulation saw the loosening of environmental safeguards painstakingly built over the preceding two decades. During this period, laws concerning the environment were either manipulated or bypassed with quiescent, if not active political and bureaucratic support. The Indian Board of Wildlife, which was later rechristened as the NBWL, did not meet even once for eight years, between 1989 and 1997. In 2002, through an order, the Supreme Court ruled that all major projects — industrial or infrastructural — should be placed before the standing committee of the NBWL, before clearance was given. But on the ground, having such a checks and balances mechanism did nothing to improve environmental governance in the country. On the contrary, it became a convenient tool in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats in the ministry of environment and forests to issue environmental clearances with impunity. Whenever they faced a stumbling block, they unabashedly diluted the provisions of the law. Collapsing environmental governance: In India, it is rather rare that an industry or project has been turned down for possible environmental impact. The environment ministry turned down none of the 1,086 industrial and thermal power projects submitted between 2006 and 2008.  The MoEF has shed its fig leaf of a protection agenda, and positioned itself as a ministry tasked with the Government’s mission of ‘ease of doing business’, and in a series of measures diluted and dissolved regulatory regimes. Case Study: The 3,000 MW Dibang multipurpose project in Arunachal Pradesh. The dam, which is twice the size of the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, was denied forest clearance twice in 2013. But a year later, it received the green signal not because the project was modified consequently but because the constitution of the Forest Advisory Committee was tweaked suitably. Negligent EIA: Monumental decisions which lay to waste our natural heritage, and destroys lives and livelihoods, are based on shoddy Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). Case Study: The EIA of the much-talked about Ken-Betwa river linking project is a case in point. It is factually inaccurate, inept, mala fide and misleading. The dam of the Ken-Betwa link, powerhouse and a large part of the reservoir will submerge nearly 90 sq km of the Panna National Park, an important tiger reserve. Out of this, over 58 sq km is in the core critical tiger habitat, deemed inviolate and sacrosanct according to the wildlife protection laws in the country. The initial EIA said 32,900 trees would go, and when independent experts pointed out the incongruity, the number was revised to a shocking 13.96 lakh, of which over 11 lakh are within the national park. Conclusion: Thus, in the discourse of development and ecology, it can be said that its development which is being focused upon. The government needs to create a synergy between the two and adopt a balance approach. Steps like revamping process of EIA, strengthening environmental regulatory authorities etc. Should be taken on urgent basis. Connecting the dots: Ecological destruction has always been a serious consequence of humankind’s push for development. While, proponents of development want us to believe that any development initiative is taken only after ensuring environment is protected, this is seldom the case. Discuss. NATIONAL TOPIC: General Studies 1 Social empowerment General Studies 2 Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation. Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes Invisible Expansion of Unfreedom Background: As India completes 70 years of its existence as a free nation-state, two contradictory tendencies mark its collective existence. One is the ambition to make India a global power. This search for power is based on a perception of national greatness as a society, as a culture, and increasingly, also, as a market. But at the same time, clouds of unfreedom hover over our existence as individuals, as consumers and as groups within the would-be great nation-state. Signs of unfreedom: The case of the cow- Those from the Muslim community who earn their livelihood from the meat trade are targets of suspicion and mob attacks with impunity. We seem to ignore that a sacred animal for one community need not be made forcibly sacred for others too. Forced devotion is not freedom. The implicit argument is that being a Hindu majority society, what some Hindus think to be part of Hinduism has to be acceptable as a norm for everyone. We also ignore the fact that trade and livelihood interests of sections of Dalits are also at stake or the fact that the cow might not be a sacred animal for many Dalits and Adivasis — despite their formal adherence to, and inclusion in, the Hindu fold. The case of nationalism- Our newly enforced ideas of patriotism and nationalism imply that it is not enough for a citizen to be a law-abiding person, co-operative and compassionate towards other citizens, ready for occasional service to the collective cause and proud of the national community in an inarticulate and diffuse manner. These are times when people are forced to do what they don't want to when it comes to nationalism. Playing the anthem in cinema halls has become a new test of nationalism; shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai has become a new insurance for personal security from nationalist hoodlums, playing Vande Mataram has become judicially ordained. All this becomes enforceable by private armies of vigilantes. They have all the freedom. Citizens have only duties. The censor board is an important flagbearer of this unfreedom. The argument is that what is not “Indian” culture, should not be allowed on the screen. And this argument believes that sexuality and sensuality are un-Indian. So, no artistic freedom or creative space. Culture trumps freedom. Beyond politically more sensitive and publicised matters, our private persons and public lives and spaces are being gradually subjected to an unwritten censorship. Slowly, the ethic of vegetarianism is being extended to formal and semi-formal occasions. While official patronage to vegetarianism expands, the informal pressure against non-vegetarians is becoming palpable in many residential locations. Instances of powerful communities demanding a ban on the trade of meat for long durations are gaining acceptance. Violent protests have already taken place against women going to pubs. Implicit in such instances are small, disparate cultural norms that are emerging afresh to define what it means to be a good woman. Dress codes are becoming prevalent and glorified. While sexual violence against women is indeed a problem, we are ready with an effective solution — segregation of the two sexes (indeed, in this scheme of things there can only be two sexes), and a strict monitoring of their possible interactions. The Hindu religious motif is so strong in regulating male-female interaction that recently a circular was issued (subsequently withdrawn) by an officer of the government of Daman & Diu ordering all women employees to tie a rakhi to their male colleagues. This diktat ordained a particular relationship between men and women — anything else is not “Indian”. Issues: We do not recognize the expanding realm of fear and unfreedom. Instead of thinking of issues of freedom as a matter of principle, we treat them as matters of prudence. So, we ignore what happens to Muslims, we ignore what happens to Dalits, the worries of film producers and distributors are far from our lives. The freedom of women does not matter to us. We are ready to ignore others’ loss of freedom without realising that the messengers of unfreedom are knocking at our own doors. The other aspect is about agencies of unfreedom. The usual suspects in the business of unfreedom are state and religion. But new social energies are involving themselves with the task of restricting the freedoms of individuals and groups. There is an army of self-appointed vigilantes who would define the limits of our freedom. The state seems happily complicit in allowing them a free run. But more fearsome is the invisible expansion of the realm of unfreedom. Not the state, not religion, nor even the vigilantes. It is simply a cultural norm and the fear of being singled out that reins in freedoms. As a society and as individuals, we are quick to succumb to this fear and to the temptation of being unfree. Connecting the dots: The public needs to take the signs of unfreedom ranging from cow vigilantism, forced nationalism, censorship of movies, enforced rules and dress codes for women etc. Seriously. Discuss. MUST READ Patriot games at Attari-Wagah The Hindu Safeguarding the interests of farmers The Hindu The foreign façade The Hindu Who owns my data? Indian Express Seize the Doklam Indian Express How armed forces can aid defence manufacturing Livemint Finding the right balance on crowdfunding Livemint The Trump conundrum Business Line  

Aug 21, 2017 Daily Prelims CA Quiz

UPSC Quiz- 2017 : IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs Quiz [Day 27]

UPSC Quiz- 2017 : IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs Quiz [Day 27] Archives Q.1) Which of the following are types of Value Capture Finance (VCF)? Land Value Tax Betterment levy Fees for changing land use Select the correct code: 1 and 2 2 and 3 1 and 3 All of the above Q.2) Consider the following statements about National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 It was launched by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) It aims to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles FAME India was launched under NEMMP 2020 Select the correct statements 1 and 2 2 and 3 1 and 3 All of the above Q.3) Rohingyas are Muslim refugees from eastern Sri Lanka settled in Tamil Nadu An anti-communist political group in Syria A political group fighting for autonomy in Catalonia Muslim refugees migrating from Myanmar to India and Bangladesh Q.4) With the 14th Finance Commission allocating Rs 4144.14 crore, the Centre has now asked states to set up a total of 1,800 fast track courts for a period of five years. Fast Track Courts will be dealing with Civil disputes involving land acquisition and property/ rent disputes pending for more than 5 years Civil cases involving senior citizens, women, children, disabled and litigants afflicted with HIV/AIDS and other terminal ailments Both (a) and (b) Neither (a) nor (b) Q.5) The Monroe Doctrine Established American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere Indicated the United States’ desire to support revolts against the British government in Canada Called for the United States’ to join democratic movements stirring in Europe None of the above To Download the Solution - Click here All The Best  IASbaba  

Aug 21, 2017 RSTV Video

RSTV- The Big Picture : LPG Subsidy Cut: Do Subsidies Make Economic Sense?

LPG Subsidy Cut: Do Subsidies Make Economic Sense? Archives TOPIC: General Studies 2 Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes General Studies 3 Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Background Subsidised LPG now costs Rs 477.46 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi. It was priced at Rs 419.18 in June 2016. The rate of non-subsidised LPG, which consumers pay after exhausting their quota of below-market priced bottles, costs Rs 564. Recently, the government decided to hike the LPG price by Rs. 4, implicitly stating that LPG subsidy cannot be continued for perpetuity. If Rs. 4 hike is made every month from 2017 and global crude prices remain constant, the subsidy would be Rs. 10 or down per cylinder. In three years, subsidies have fallen down from Rs. 54000 crore in FY 2014 to Rs. 15000 crore in FY 2017. Efficiency of subsidy Subsidy is an important component in any civilised society. Because citizens are at different levels of well being. Logical case on subsidies can be made on two grounds Private benefit is less than social benefit. The things are subsidised to encourage people to use it. Using LPG has a social benefit as people are moving away from firewood. A case on redistributive grounds. There is a system which is allows certain people to reach a minimum level of dignified living. Using subsidies in such case will promote social growth. Some examples In India, much money is wasted in name of subsidy. It was decided to give food subsidy to those who cannot afford it at market price. But instead it subsidised large scale inefficiency into Food Corporation of India. Pilferage, spoiling of food, excessive labour cost in handling of food was subsidised. Subsidy on irrigation, fertiliser, power for farmers is not showing desired results. All the money is being wasted. If the same amount is being invested in the farm economy, then the farm and economy would gain far more and there would be much better productivity. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme though portrayed as employment scheme is actually a subsidy scheme. When there is no work in certain seasons of the year, the people who deserve to have subsidy are asked to turn up for manual work. This kind of subsidy is required as it allows people to lead a dignified life. There has been increase in number of households using LPG to 23 crores. This proves that LPG subsidy has indeed helped the people rise the social status as well as getting better health. Hence, there are two kinds of subsidies-merited and unmerited. Good quality education subsidy is merited subsidy as it meets requirements of large section of population. Subsidies in health care, especially primary healthcare is towards building healthy society. These subsidies cater to long term benefits of society. There are many which can come under unmerited subsidies- Though there has been increased number of LPG users, the LPG gas subsidy has 85% users in urban areas. Of this, majority are middle class and higher class users. Thus, the idea of bringing subsidies in LPG might not be effective in long term. Some of the subsidy is paid to the fertilisers company to enable the small and marginal farmers purchase fertilisers at subsidised rate. However, these are majorly consumed by large farmers having average 5-10 acres of irrigated land. The dry lands of India which accounts for 60% of total land don’t use fertilisers and subsidy. 90% of procurement of such subsidy is from Punjab, Haryana and coastal Andhra and only 10% by rest of India. Electricity to farms is also subsidised. Now, mostly prosperous farmers possess such pumps in their farms who then avail such benefit. And also in most cases, the electricity is not regular, thereby diluting the purpose of providing subsidy for boosting farm economy. This shows the huge cascade of unmerited, unwanted, unknown, unwritten subsidies adding to the burden.  As a reason of this, there is not enough resources to build anything new or invest in new infrastructure or schemes. The problem with demerit subsidies is that not much thought is put to who actually is going to benefit from it. Today, the demerited subsidies are little more than 5% of GDP, which is a huge number. The LPG subsidy Oil subsidies have been target of respective governments for years. Especially the gas subsidy as it forms a part of domestic cooking option. In domestic cooking option between LPG and firewood, LPG is the most desirable option. Firewood is harmful for the health for the family using it. However, with regards to fossil fuels, India has to import 80% of the hydrocarbon demand. Hence, it is not good idea to use an imported item at a subsidised rate for domestic cooking. Instead, there can be a possible cycle such as using domestic coal to generate power, supply the power effectively to all rural areas and urban household, encourage cooking using electricity. Though it is a long term solution, it is possible and beneficial in future.  This will also mean that domestic coal will be optimally utilised without depending absolutely on imported energy. Also, the gas subsidy amounts are matter of friction. Unless there is open competition in the marketing of LPG gas with private players also competing with PSUs, there is not real knowledge of gas prices available. How the depreciation on cylinders is calculated will change the prices of cylinders is not known. Additionally, there is an element of cross subsidy which is charged to commercial LPG consumers. Thus, too many levels of subsidies make it more complicated and inefficient. The real question is should LPG be used as a fuel for this purpose? In cities and town, piped natural gas makes more sense. It doesn’t have subsidy and still the price is low. Also, there should be complete elimination of kerosene for cooking as its primary purpose was only for lighting. Using it for cooking is thorough misallocation of resources and thus shouldn’t be subsidised. For lighting, there should be solar lanterns if unsure that rural areas will not get electric connection soon. Thus there is scope to rationalise subsidies without doing much damage to consumers. Conclusion The way forward lies in efficiently using the government resources, expenditure and effort on purposeful ends. The present problem lies in inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public expenditure. The subsidies given, the tax collected, the way in which public delivery mechanism works as part of it requires thorough analysis. Along with it, there is a need to have a coherence in tasks taken. One year government says in parliament that NREGA is biggest monument to failure in India’s history. Next year, after drought, the government takes credit for increasing outlay in NREGA. Thus, there is no coherence in government’s approach on how and what to spend money on or how and where expenditure can be saved. Thus there requires a holistic assessment of government finances, tax collections. Subsidies can be tackled as part of an overall consolidation and nationalisation of total public finances. Not only subsidies, but also there are exemptions worth rs. 7000 crore which need to be rationalised. This issue shouldn’t be perceived as investment vs. subsidy tussle. That reduction in subsidy will increase investments. Instead, a vision is required to make efficient use of resources with determination of goals and where the money will come from to fulfil them. Connecting the dots: Is a subsidised economy sustainable? Critically analyse Subsidies form a critical part of developing nation. However, they may also strangle growth in long term. Evaluate The habit of subsidies is not beneficial for society as well as economy in long term. Do you agree? substantiate.

Aug 21, 2017 Motivational Articles

MOTIVATION cum REALITY CHECK- Miss It At Your Own Risk!

R-E-W-I-N-D 5…4…3…2…1 and yes! With a click, you downloaded the ILP Plan that IASbaba had uploaded. You created a new folder and planted the plan there. You read all the motivational articles and guidelines and said “Oh yeah” With much excitement, you finally opened the plan and started reading it. After reading for a while you realized that this is THE PLAN for your success in the examination. You were glad. You were totally sure that if you follow this plan as it is, you are sure to be successful in the exam. You opened your notebook and started making notes about the timeline and the syllabus and a column to track your progress. But things were not that easy as it looks from its face value.   F-A-S-T  F-O-R-W-A-R-D You are staring ahead. It has been over 20 days that you have been unable to keep pace with the ILP Plan. You have just not been able to achieve your goals and now are scared that you might not just be able to achieve your goal but you would also fail this examination. You feel sad. All your enthusiasm fades away. That guy you follow on the portal has been scoring more than 90% and able to follow everything with ease put up almost on a daily basis. Earlier you used to compete with him/her. But today, his/her marks irritate you. It discourages you. It makes you believe that you are a loser. Are you losing hope suddenly? Are you not being able to follow the ILP Plan? Do you not feel motivated to complete the portion? A Reality Check!   Let’s get real and talk some sense. We will follow a narrative here. These Q/A are taken from emails and comments we have been receiving. So, thought to make them our base for this article. You- Huh, it is so unreal and impractical plan. How to read and complete such a gigantic syllabus within 10 Days gap? Reading 300 pages seems improbable? Reality Check- So, you have a better plan wherein you can easily and qualitatively complete the syllabus of Prelims and Mains before Prelims? Yes, you heard it right, completing Mains before Prelims. If you aren’t doing it and leaving Mains for post prelims phase, then you are going to lose it. You do not have an iota of knowledge about aspirants clearing this examination and their effort that is put behind achieving the same. You can have your own reasons not to follow something but you cannot invalidate the truth ‘Just because you cannot see the light, it is dark everywhere’ What reasons for them, who are able to follow and are keeping pace with the plan? They are also securing decent marks and learning through every test. You- I am not able to correctly answer more than half of the question in BLOCK related prelims tests which you conduct after every 10 days. I read through mentioned sources, Babapedia, Daily Prelims quiz and VAN. I even go through Hindu Newspaper daily. What more should I do or what more sources should I refer so as to answer nearly all the question in your test and secure top rank . Please advise!!! Reality Check- This is the learning phase. Are you able to point out your mistakes in the tests? Those silly mistakes due to which you made nearly 30 wrong guesses? Isn’t it part of the learning process? Or you want a strategy even for this? Why did we mention to make separate note book for each subject and note down concepts that you learn after tests? It will help you grasp those concepts in a better manner when you write all those new concepts and make note of them. And then revise them now and then. There is no short cut here. It is all about being smart in your approach and being objective to amend your mistakes. If you are bound to the vicious cycle of committing the same mistake then may GOD help you! (Because you are not bothered to abide by the repeated guidelines) You- I found many questions not covered in Babapedia or Quiz or VAN. This is not a good strategy to give questions out of syllabus of the block or things not covered in the sources we are told to follow. It is in a sense demotivating. Please clarify how to get those right or what to do? Reality Check- Can you question UPSC in the same manner? It is actually demotivating for us to know that you are still not able to understand IASbaba or UPSC or have faith in your mentor’s way Why we designed ILP? Why are you here? To crack UPSC! And how to do this if you are not ready to learn the way UPSC wants you to be? We set few questions out of syllabus to maintain that uncertainty for which actual exam is known for. You cannot attempt all 100 questions correctly. We want to guide you in a true sense and that is why keeping some element of uncertainty attached to every test. Don’t you think, you should learn to tackle this while preparing? Let’s be more practical by taking examples We covered Black Carbon in Babapedia- Correct! But the question in the test was about Climate Forcing Agent- Black Carbon is also a Climate Forcing Agent Quite sure, that many of you must have covered it yourself or by following the article given in the link. Why didn't we cover concepts given in Babapedia for Black Carbon in the Test? Because you are here to learn and have broad coverage of concepts not to be spoon-fed and then fooled by generating false satisfaction by letting you score high in tests. Our intention is to let you cover all important concepts either through Babapedia or Tests so that nothing is unfamiliar to you. You should take it as learning and consolidate your knowledge before the real battle. If you are not learning then scoring 90 or more out 100 here won’t guarantee success in UPSC Prelims or Mains. And if you are learning and consolidating your knowledge as well as amending all mistakes here, then scoring 40 per cent now and improving upon the same can guarantee success in UPSC Prelims or Mains. For a sincere aspirant following ILP: He/She can easily manage to score more than 80 % in every test and learn that 20 % as take away information from the tests. (Zeroing silly mistakes and avoiding blind guesses)   You- Why cannot you simplify everything to be prepared day wise rather than giving topics to be covered within a gap of 10 days. I don’t understand what to read today and how to divide it? Reality Check- If you cannot simplify such a simplified plan then we can never be of any help for you. An aspirant X is different from aspirant Y. X may have different potential and priority than Y. X may cover more in a day than Y and vice versa. Why cannot you make it flexible for you? You have plenty of things to do and we cannot throw something like do this or that at this point of time knowing everyone has a different schedule for the day. Do not behave like a school going kid. Be sincere; spend some time in internalizing the plan. At the same time, do not make it an excuse to drop you in the vicious cycle of procrastination. You can never come out of it at the later stage with the negative growth of yourself.   Word of Advice   A. For people falling into these two categories People joining now or later/ Joined but never followed With or without ILP- You will prepare for UPSC. If yes, then ILP is giving you a plan, quality content to cover and assess yourself. Start from Day 1 and try to finish off the left out portions B. Case Study by an Ideal Aspirant for an Idle Aspirant Here Ideal (anyone who is sincere) and Idle :P  (Imagine where you fall) Every exam has some theme. So does UPSC! Checklist Go through previous year question papers again and again. Make it a regular strategy! Since I am a fresher so more focus on basics of each block and restricted current affairs as said by Babajee :P Current Affairs- Babapedia- no extra coverage from any other site, rather work more on Think Section and related aspects. Since I have the habit of looking at previous years question papers, I can master to guess in what way UPSC may frame question from a particular issue covered in Babapedia (Same goes to guess how Baba may ask question in the respective test) I won’t be bothered about extra coverage of current affairs out of Babapedia or DNA or Yojana/Kurukshetra or AIR or RSTV as mentioned by Baba to follow. Since any extra coverage will form part of my knowledge builder. For Mains- I will focus on given Blocks and in parallel cover DNA, AIR, RSTV and Yojana/Kurukshetra sincerely. Nothing else as of now. AIR, RSTV and Yojana/Kurukshetra are not on daily basis so it won’t be an issue Revision is the key: I would revise every day. Revision is not to be put for any X time or day. What if I die before my revision day :P . I will revise whatever I learnt the same day. Usually before sleeping. I will keep half an hour or little more for revision before the sleeping time. I would love to check my productivity of thoughts after the day’s hard work. If I am able to recollect those the very same day or not? If not, needs to revisit my strategy. If yes, well and good :)   C. For those who are giving reasons or warnings to upload Value Add Notes (VAN) before the start of the Block! As mentioned and clarified so many times that VAN’s are supposed to build your preparation gaps qualitatively. It is never to be the first reference or source to prepare (not because of less worth but actual way of preparation process) Also, it takes a lot of time to make VAN relevant for you. If we had to copy paste everything and provide, it would have been very easy to follow it up. Trust us; VAN will be more productive once you are done with standard reference of sources. D. For those creating threads after threads in Forum (without reading the rules of Forum) Strictly, we are deleting them at the very first glance even without looking inside. Why? Because we already explained the process and you are the one not following it! We even told to simply put an email if you have an urgent query related to Plan or anything but all in vain. You shouldn’t complain if your threads are being deleted. You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself! How many of you are consistent or having the same zeal of Day-1 when you came on this platform? How many of you are actually utilizing the full essence of this platform? Are you writing your daily confession for which we had started Daily Confession Forum? Hardly few of you are doing that. Ironically we have thousands of so called sincere participants here who are trying to compete with others but cannot compete with themselves or want self-assessment. Daily Confession Forum- Also gives you an opportunity to pen down your thoughts. You can write your day’s schedule in the form of story or passages. It will help you in answer writing also. Don’t you think so? Is it only about writing for Polity or Economics? With every passing day the number of confessions turning out to be as low as 10. WOW. It means only 10 aspirants are not sincere, rest of you are very well placed in following ILP! Isn't it?  ‘Procrastination is like a CREDIT CARD. It is a lot of fun until you get the Bill’ It is never too late Humans have been famous for being prolific procrastinators. It’s easy to make plans and throw dates on your calendar, and yet it’s very easy to also let some deadlines fly by with reckless abandon. Our brains are wired to simply prefer instant rewards over long-term payoffs. Given this tendency, we often have to create strict rules for ourselves to achieve the goals that we have set for our future. But is there a way we can take care of it? Is there a way that you can get back on track with ILP’s study plan? Yes, there is a way but mind you, it is going to take more than just your willpower and your resolve to achieve success in this examination.   Pull out your commitment devices Commitment devices are strategies that help improve your behaviour by either increasing the obstacles or costs of bad behaviours or reducing the effort required for good behaviours. Find ways to automate your behaviour beforehand. No need to rely on your willpower anymore. It may send you off to sleep when you should have been reading about constitutional amendments. Utilize Implementation Intentions An Implementation Intention is when you state your intention to implement a particular behaviour at a specific time in the near future. For example, “I will exercise for at least 15 minutes at [TIME] on [DATE] in [PLACE]. Scheduling things ahead of time can make a difference; implementation intentions can make you 2x to 3x more likely to perform an action in the future. So you know what to do next. Motivation is not the hardest part, Following through is Many times you know that you have to study. Your XYZ friend inspires you to compete with your previous marks. Your mother takes care that you get adequate nutrition. You know that it is time to pick up your ‘Economy’ module and prepare for the test. But you just are not able to. Remember: Motivation is in the mind; follow-through is in the practice. Shut down the talking that goes on in your head. Stop thinking. Make a very specific decision about something you want to do and don’t question it. And when your mind starts to argue with you — and I guarantee it will — ignore it. Yes, you got it – you are smarter than your mind. This GIF should define you! FLY HIGH away from others on the ground.  via GIPHY So how are you feeling now? The only thing that connects us is this platform. Don't let us feel it is a one way talk :)  P.S- We will post a write up for Mains and Essay tomorrow :) 

Aug 21, 2017

MOTIVATION cum REALITY CHECK- Miss It At Your Own Risk!

R-E-W-I-N-D 5…4…3…2…1 and yes! With a click, you downloaded the ILP Plan that IASbaba had uploaded. You created a new folder and planted the plan there. You read all the motivational articles and guidelines and said “Oh yeah” With much excitement, you finally opened the plan and started reading it. After reading for a while you realized that this is THE PLAN for your success in the examination. You were glad. You were totally sure that if you follow this plan as it is, you are sure to be successful in the exam. You opened your notebook and started making notes about the timeline and the syllabus and a column to track your progress. But things were not that easy as it looks from its face value.   F-A-S-T  F-O-R-W-A-R-D You are staring ahead. It has been over 20 days that you have been unable to keep pace with the ILP Plan. You have just not been able to achieve your goals and now are scared that you might not just be able to achieve your goal but you would also fail this examination. You feel sad. All your enthusiasm fades away. That guy you follow on the portal has been scoring more than 90% and able to follow everything with ease put up almost on a daily basis. Earlier you used to compete with him/her. But today, his/her marks irritate you. It discourages you. It makes you believe that you are a loser. Are you losing hope suddenly? Are you not being able to follow the ILP Plan? Do you not feel motivated to complete the portion? A Reality Check!   Let’s get real and talk some sense. We will follow a narrative here. These Q/A are taken from emails and comments we have been receiving. So, thought to make them our base for this article. You- Huh, it is so unreal and impractical plan. How to read and complete such a gigantic syllabus within 10 Days gap? Reading 300 pages seems improbable? Reality Check- So, you have a better plan wherein you can easily and qualitatively complete the syllabus of Prelims and Mains before Prelims? Yes, you heard it right, completing Mains before Prelims. If you aren’t doing it and leaving Mains for post prelims phase, then you are going to lose it. You do not have an iota of knowledge about aspirants clearing this examination and their effort that is put behind achieving the same. You can have your own reasons not to follow something but you cannot invalidate the truth ‘Just because you cannot see the light, it is dark everywhere’ What reasons for them, who are able to follow and are keeping pace with the plan? They are also securing decent marks and learning through every test. You- I am not able to correctly answer more than half of the question in BLOCK related prelims tests which you conduct after every 10 days. I read through mentioned sources, Babapedia, Daily Prelims quiz and VAN. I even go through Hindu Newspaper daily. What more should I do or what more sources should I refer so as to answer nearly all the question in your test and secure top rank . Please advise!!! Reality Check- This is the learning phase. Are you able to point out your mistakes in the tests? Those silly mistakes due to which you made nearly 30 wrong guesses? Isn’t it part of the learning process? Or you want a strategy even for this? Why did we mention to make separate note book for each subject and note down concepts that you learn after tests? It will help you grasp those concepts in a better manner when you write all those new concepts and make note of them. And then revise them now and then. There is no short cut here. It is all about being smart in your approach and being objective to amend your mistakes. If you are bound to the vicious cycle of committing the same mistake then may GOD help you! (Because you are not bothered to abide by the repeated guidelines) You- I found many questions not covered in Babapedia or Quiz or VAN. This is not a good strategy to give questions out of syllabus of the block or things not covered in the sources we are told to follow. It is in a sense demotivating. Please clarify how to get those right or what to do? Reality Check- Can you question UPSC in the same manner? It is actually demotivating for us to know that you are still not able to understand IASbaba or UPSC or have faith in your mentor’s way Why we designed ILP? Why are you here? To crack UPSC! And how to do this if you are not ready to learn the way UPSC wants you to be? We set few questions out of syllabus to maintain that uncertainty for which actual exam is known for. You cannot attempt all 100 questions correctly. We want to guide you in a true sense and that is why keeping some element of uncertainty attached to every test. Don’t you think, you should learn to tackle this while preparing? Let’s be more practical by taking examples We covered Black Carbon in Babapedia- Correct! But the question in the test was about Climate Forcing Agent- Black Carbon is also a Climate Forcing Agent Quite sure, that many of you must have covered it yourself or by following the article given in the link. Why didn't we cover concepts given in Babapedia for Black Carbon in the Test? Because you are here to learn and have broad coverage of concepts not to be spoon-fed and then fooled by generating false satisfaction by letting you score high in tests. Our intention is to let you cover all important concepts either through Babapedia or Tests so that nothing is unfamiliar to you. You should take it as learning and consolidate your knowledge before the real battle. If you are not learning then scoring 90 or more out 100 here won’t guarantee success in UPSC Prelims or Mains. And if you are learning and consolidating your knowledge as well as amending all mistakes here, then scoring 40 per cent now and improving upon the same can guarantee success in UPSC Prelims or Mains. For a sincere aspirant following ILP: He/She can easily manage to score more than 80 % in every test and learn that 20 % as take away information from the tests. (Zeroing silly mistakes and avoiding blind guesses)   You- Why cannot you simplify everything to be prepared day wise rather than giving topics to be covered within a gap of 10 days. I don’t understand what to read today and how to divide it? Reality Check- If you cannot simplify such a simplified plan then we can never be of any help for you. An aspirant X is different from aspirant Y. X may have different potential and priority than Y. X may cover more in a day than Y and vice versa. Why cannot you make it flexible for you? You have plenty of things to do and we cannot throw something like do this or that at this point of time knowing everyone has a different schedule for the day. Do not behave like a school going kid. Be sincere; spend some time in internalizing the plan. At the same time, do not make it an excuse to drop you in the vicious cycle of procrastination. You can never come out of it at the later stage with the negative growth of yourself.   Word of Advice   A. For people falling into these two categories People joining now or later/ Joined but never followed With or without ILP- You will prepare for UPSC. If yes, then ILP is giving you a plan, quality content to cover and assess yourself. Start from Day 1 and try to finish off the left out portions B. Case Study by an Ideal Aspirant for an Idle Aspirant Here Ideal (anyone who is sincere) and Idle :P  (Imagine where you fall) Every exam has some theme. So does UPSC! Checklist Go through previous year question papers again and again. Make it a regular strategy! Since I am a fresher so more focus on basics of each block and restricted current affairs as said by Babajee :P Current Affairs- Babapedia- no extra coverage from any other site, rather work more on Think Section and related aspects. Since I have the habit of looking at previous years question papers, I can master to guess in what way UPSC may frame question from a particular issue covered in Babapedia (Same goes to guess how Baba may ask question in the respective test) I won’t be bothered about extra coverage of current affairs out of Babapedia or DNA or Yojana/Kurukshetra or AIR or RSTV as mentioned by Baba to follow. Since any extra coverage will form part of my knowledge builder. For Mains- I will focus on given Blocks and in parallel cover DNA, AIR, RSTV and Yojana/Kurukshetra sincerely. Nothing else as of now. AIR, RSTV and Yojana/Kurukshetra are not on daily basis so it won’t be an issue Revision is the key: I would revise every day. Revision is not to be put for any X time or day. What if I die before my revision day :P . I will revise whatever I learnt the same day. Usually before sleeping. I will keep half an hour or little more for revision before the sleeping time. I would love to check my productivity of thoughts after the day’s hard work. If I am able to recollect those the very same day or not? If not, needs to revisit my strategy. If yes, well and good :)   C. For those who are giving reasons or warnings to upload Value Add Notes (VAN) before the start of the Block! As mentioned and clarified so many times that VAN’s are supposed to build your preparation gaps qualitatively. It is never to be the first reference or source to prepare (not because of less worth but actual way of preparation process) Also, it takes a lot of time to make VAN relevant for you. If we had to copy paste everything and provide, it would have been very easy to follow it up. Trust us; VAN will be more productive once you are done with standard reference of sources. D. For those creating threads after threads in Forum (without reading the rules of Forum) Strictly, we are deleting them at the very first glance even without looking inside. Why? Because we already explained the process and you are the one not following it! We even told to simply put an email if you have an urgent query related to Plan or anything but all in vain. You shouldn’t complain if your threads are being deleted. You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself! How many of you are consistent or having the same zeal of Day-1 when you came on this platform? How many of you are actually utilizing the full essence of this platform? Are you writing your daily confession for which we had started Daily Confession Forum? Hardly few of you are doing that. Ironically we have thousands of so called sincere participants here who are trying to compete with others but cannot compete with themselves or want self-assessment. Daily Confession Forum- Also gives you an opportunity to pen down your thoughts. You can write your day’s schedule in the form of story or passages. It will help you in answer writing also. Don’t you think so? Is it only about writing for Polity or Economics? With every passing day the number of confessions turning out to be as low as 10. WOW. It means only 10 aspirants are not sincere, rest of you are very well placed in following ILP! Isn't it?  ‘Procrastination is like a CREDIT CARD. It is a lot of fun until you get the Bill’ It is never too late Humans have been famous for being prolific procrastinators. It’s easy to make plans and throw dates on your calendar, and yet it’s very easy to also let some deadlines fly by with reckless abandon. Our brains are wired to simply prefer instant rewards over long-term payoffs. Given this tendency, we often have to create strict rules for ourselves to achieve the goals that we have set for our future. But is there a way we can take care of it? Is there a way that you can get back on track with ILP’s study plan? Yes, there is a way but mind you, it is going to take more than just your willpower and your resolve to achieve success in this examination.   Pull out your commitment devices Commitment devices are strategies that help improve your behaviour by either increasing the obstacles or costs of bad behaviours or reducing the effort required for good behaviours. Find ways to automate your behaviour beforehand. No need to rely on your willpower anymore. It may send you off to sleep when you should have been reading about constitutional amendments. Utilize Implementation Intentions An Implementation Intention is when you state your intention to implement a particular behaviour at a specific time in the near future. For example, “I will exercise for at least 15 minutes at [TIME] on [DATE] in [PLACE]. Scheduling things ahead of time can make a difference; implementation intentions can make you 2x to 3x more likely to perform an action in the future. So you know what to do next. Motivation is not the hardest part, Following through is Many times you know that you have to study. Your XYZ friend inspires you to compete with your previous marks. Your mother takes care that you get adequate nutrition. You know that it is time to pick up your ‘Economy’ module and prepare for the test. But you just are not able to. Remember: Motivation is in the mind; follow-through is in the practice. Shut down the talking that goes on in your head. Stop thinking. Make a very specific decision about something you want to do and don’t question it. And when your mind starts to argue with you — and I guarantee it will — ignore it. Yes, you got it – you are smarter than your mind. This GIF should define you! FLY HIGH away from others on the ground.  So how are you feeling now? The only thing that connects us is this platform. Don't let us feel it is a one way talk :)  P.S- We will post a write up for Mains and Essay tomorrow :) 

Aug 20, 2017 Topper's From IASbaba

Rank 6, DINESH KUMAR, UPSC CSE 2016 TOPPER'S STRATEGY, 467 MARKS in General Studies, First Attempt, Highly Inspirational-IASbaba's ILP Student (Miss This Article at Your Own Peril)

Rank- 6, DINESH KUMAR CSE 2016 who was our ILP-2016 student proudly shares his experience with IASbaba. When we met DINESH KUMAR, he had a brilliant story to tell! Nothing more than an amazing source of experience.  Coming from a very humble background reaching to such height of success is nothing less than a miracle. Meeting his family was equally wonderful and the values of family reflected in the manner Dinesh invited us and shared his experience. People complain about lack of resources and dearth of quality guidance in the journey of UPSC preparation, Dinesh's story is something to be cherished. What a humble and inspiring personality he is!! Indeed we need such hard working and down to earth people in our Administration. We are proud of you and happy to be associated with you. Examples like him give us strength and motivation to strive forward to achieve what we started our journey for – to provide quality education to aspirants in the remotest corner of India. She has also justified our moto i.e. “One stop destination for UPSC”. Watch IASbaba in Discussion with Dinesh, Rank 6 in UPSC CSE 2016   Dinesh sharing his experience and role of Integrated Learning Programme (ILP) in his success! Love the process than the Outcome. Hi Guys, This is Dinesh Kumar, Secured All India Rank 6 in this Year CSE 2016.  To be honest, even while I am writing this, it still feels like a dream, each and every second I pray to GOD, to not turn this into a dream.  I still remember on the eventful day of May 31st, when I was waiting for the results I was considering all the possibilities (In the top 90, In the list and Out of list) with equal probability. Hence my only wish to GOD was, Please get me into the list. I can still recall, that when I opened the list along with my friends, I started searching my name from the bottom of the list (I don't have the courage to use Crtl + F) only when I thought I did not make it to the list (as i was trying to see ranks below 50), my friends screamed RANK 6. We all started shouting loud, hugging each other like people gone mad. It was a moment when a long cherished dream looked coming to life all of a sudden. The result took so long to sink in, in fact even now I sometimes feel is it true ? After the initial excitement I looked at  my best friend and we both said "Now it is the time to serve". I don't want to put the feelings in words because I strongly feel no matter what, Words cannot do justice to that moment. I am telling you all these because, I just want to convey by my example that even the topper of UPSC is no different from others, even he was not certain about his selection, carries the same emotions and feelings, faces turmoils both emotionally,physically & financially, has ups & downs, faces self doubt at times but guys this is all very normal in UPSC's marathon preparation. I was also studying like you in the Basements of Old Rajinder Nagar or anywhere, and staying in highly inflated Flats of Delhi. In fact I can recollect, that when I was reading the success stories of many toppers, I always thought, will I be able to write my success story?. This can also be the same going through your minds now, but believe me and more so in yourself, you have all the capability, potential and ability to crack this exam and come out with flying colors. Below is my strategy for various subjects, and make few changes to your preparation if you think it is useful. Attached below are the screenshots of my Mains and Prelims scores.  Back Ground: I am a Mechanical graduate from National Institute of Technology, Warangal. Later I worked as a Site Engineer in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd for One Year, then I formally resigned to my job to focus on the preparation. I started full fledged preparation in July 2015, I took my coaching from Vajiram and Ravi(For my GS and Optional) and was able to clear this exam in my First Attempt. Disclaimer : I want to take this opportunity to mention to which Coaching institutes I am related with Vajiram and Ravi for my GS and Optional Coaching I took GS test series from Vajiram and Ravi, I also followed the regular posted on the website of IAS Baba I took my Optional Test series from Vajiram and Ravi and GS Score I participated in Interview Guidance Programme of GS Score, GS Mentors, KSG and Samkalp and IAS Baba. And I am frequent visitor to sites like IAS Baba and other online sources. I followed Mrunal for Couple of subjects & also newspaper analysis by one of our teachers (Rambabu Sir ) Apart from this I am not related to any of the Coaching insitutes, which many are claiming so. Please spread the word. Few Points to keep in mind: Believe in the process than in the outcome. Bhagavat Gita Says:  Do not let the fruit be the purpose of your actions, and therefore you won’t be attached to not doing your duty. In other words, enjoy the pleasure of journey more than just the destination (trust me guys, this is something that I am not just saying to write a flowery article but i felt this every single day) I remember the day when I said to my father before starting my preparation, that even if I don't become an IAS/IPS, I will be a much better person with greater amount of knowledge and confidence and more so a responsible citizen. Hence exam pressure was not on me during my preparation, I started loving the process because there is so much to learn in this exam. This did not demotivate me during my preparation. (This can be a solution on how to solve the demotivation we may go through) You can do this: I strongly believe that each and everyone of us can clear this exam. To be frank, my General Knowledge was so poor, that I did not know the capital cities of France and Italy at one point of my time. If I can make it to the list definitely you can. Hence Self confidence and believing yourself is very important in this exam. You should know your Weakness and strengths:  This exam is relative hence you need to play according to your strengths. Essay was not my strength and added to it I did a mistake of not practicing it much.  If you observe I got very less marks in my Essay Paper, but even before the result was out, I was expecting around 120-130 because I wrote a very very general Essay and did not take risk to score high 140's. All I wanted was that my Essay should not pull my rank down. Hence knowing your weaknesses and working on it is very important in this exam. You need to make sure that your weakness wont cost you much. Make Note of everything:  All of us forget, because we are human beings, there is no wrong in it. But you should overcome this, because you have to write exam after so much time and you need to remember what you read today, till the examination. Hence I used to maintain a notes according to the each and every word of syllabus (As said by Gaurav Agrawal Sir), write what ever you study and make it a point to revise. I am attaching the notes of one of the section we have in Syllabus :   Economic Sectors Start Reading between the Lines to Study Faster:  Many a times we study many irrelevant topics or articles, to overcome this we need to have syllabus strongly in our mind to differentiate which all are important to save time. For example, take any text book like Bipan Chandra, you would be having one or two important points in the whole page, rest is just  supporting part to develop the context, hence while reading you should directly pick that important point and leave the rest. This way you can read fast. And believe me this can be easily developed with practice. But you should be conscious enough while reading on how to cut some time. Innovate and Replicate:  You need to make innovations in your answer writing to get that additional mark which differentiates you among others. To do this you should start picking up some Flowcharts, diagrams, graphs etc in the government reports or in your textbooks. Maintain a data base of all these and try to replicate this in the Mains examination. Go one Extra mile  This I did more so for my optional,  You study one extra scholar for every topic and one extra point for each scholar to make your answer standout. It would not take much time to do this, you just need to Google and study about them for 30 Minutes. Books/Sources:  Modern History : Spectrum and for Mains I studied Bipan Chandra too. Ancient History and Culture : Tamil Nadu Textbooks, NCERT's, Nitin Singhania, CCRT and NIOS Indian Polity : Laxmikanth Economy : Entirely relied on Mrunal and The Hindu. Apart from these you need to study Economic Survey and Budget Geography : Mrunal and NCERT Environment : Shankar IAS and Vajiram and Ravi Yellow Book World History : Vajiram and Ravi Yellow Book and Vision IAS material (Vision I studies after Mains) Governance: ARC reports, News Papers,,vajiram class notes (class dictations) Ethics : Vajiram and Ravi Yellow Book , Justice Videos in Youtube,vajiram class notes (class dictations) Social Issues : Vajiram and Ravi Yellow Book and News papers Post Independence: Bipan chandra (Read only selected topics, entire book is not in syllabus) Disaster Management : 2nd ARC Security : Tata McGraw Hill and Vajiram and Ravi Yellow Book International Relations : Entirely Curent Affairs - Get a basic idea on how relations developed from any notes Science and Technology : I did not study any specific book, I just followed current affairs. IASBABA value Addition notes provided during my ILP(I was one of the member of their ILP programme) was very useful in getting few additional points and to have a quick revision. For prelims, I followed Online quiz initiatives of IAS BABA and other online initiatives  everyday. Apart from it as a part of ILP I also wrote the tests conducted by IASBABA and studied according to the plan given by them. And for all the topics, Vajiram and Ravi class Notes formed by basic foundation. Optional Sources : (Political Science and International Relations): Shubhra Madam Notes to get clarity and basics right. Paper I Political Ideologies by Andrew Heywood Political Theory by OP Gauba (Selected Topics like Political Theory, Meaning and Approaches) Political Theory by Rajeev Bhargava (Topics like Justice, Equality, Sovereignty, Democracy and Power are good) Western Political Though by Sushila Ramaswamy. Indian Political Thought by VR Mehta. I studies Indian BL Fadia for Section B(Paper I), I did not found useful. Rather than it I would suggest you to read ARC reports and Punchhi and Sarkaria Commission reports. Dont miss on easy topics like Planning and Economic Development, Land reforms, Agraraian relations. They are scoring and very easy. I refered Social movements was BL Fadia, (Only this topic can be referred from it) I also studied IGNOU books for all these topics, they are very helpful in making your concepts very clear. Paper II Comparitive Politics : IGNOU and some Online Browsing. For this topic it is very important to understand how Political Science develped over the years. Hence it is important to get the link between CP and Political theory(Approaches) topic Approaches : Baylis and Steve Smith Rest of the topics I covered from Global Politics by Andrew Heywood.(Every topic is important and cover it from page to page) IGNOU is good source for topics like Determinants of Foreign policy, institutions of policy making and role of diaspora etc (These are small topics and scoring) I also studied Oxford Indian Foreign Policy - But I did not find useful, you can use these scholar names. Rather than it I would suggest to watch RSTV debates. Followed Distinguished lectures of the Ministry of External Affairs. Do follow it, one of the best source to get good points. This was just a brief writeup, and very soon I would share all my notes and my Answer scripts and an elaborated strategy on how to write some good answers in GS and Optional.  I will make it As soon As Possible. Hope this Helps to some extent. Please feel free to contact me. (My email id :upscdoubts@gmail.com). Last but not the least, since Prelims is over, don't think more about cutoff's rather start preparing for Mains, because every day is important from now on. Keep Working hard till your goal is attained. And remember that UPSC is not an end for us, Life is much greater than UPSC. Enjoy the process, it will automatically take care of the outcome. There are many aspirants who could not clear it in their initial attempts, but they clinged on - they kept their routine on, kept giving their best & results did come their way gradually. UPSC has unpredictability, it is a great equalizer just keep giving your best. TRY TO WIN EVERY SINGLE DAY at a time. Remember !!! --Monotony is the true beauty of UPSC All the Best Friends.

Aug 20, 2017 Topper's From IASbaba

Rank 121 UPSC CSE 2016 HITIKA VASAL, UPSC/IAS TOPPER'S STRATEGY-Do's and Don'ts!

Name: Hitika Vasal Rank: 121 Optional: Sociology Marks Essay:154 GS 1: 108 GS 2: 104 GS 3: 108 GS 4: 111 Sociology 1 : 127 Sociology 2 : 157 Interview :165 THE UPSC JOURNEY: I am one of those who had always dreamt of this ever since I was a kid and hence I choose to pursue sociology for both my graduate and postgraduate. However, It was only after my post graduation that I got serious about pursuing my dream. It was in October 2014, that I started seriously thinking about UPSC but was totally clueless as to how I was going to do it. Like a sheep following the herd, landed myself in Rajinder Nagar and joined one of the coaching institute for general studies. Started following what everyone else was doing without using my own mind.  This was the time when I was just blindly following everything people said buy Bipin Chandra because MR X said so or Buy Spectrum because MR Y said so. In between all this hustle bustle and confusions rocking my mind everyday, I Decided to give my first attempt in 2015 and failed to qualify for prelims. This served as a shock, I had never thought of any other career option all my life and all that fear of “What if I fail” “where will I work “ “ This has been my only dream “, et al This failure stuck me hard and I pledged to give my best in 2016. After 2015 result that shook me I was determined to do the unconventional, that was to move out of Rajinder Nagar and come back to my hometown (as I felt it was more peaceful). A lot of my friends felt that this was a wrong decision to take because being so far from Delhi I would miss out on a lot. Here,I would like to say a special thanks to IAS BABA team, who have made sure that an aspirant from any corner of the country can prepare at the comforts of their homes, (That has also been the motto of IASBABA Team, to make sure that all aspirants at any given place have equal access to knowledge). I religiously followed 60 Days for Prelims, TLP for Mains Answer Writing. The other initiative I would like to specially mention is Current Affairs (issue based). It helped me in getting different perspectives of an issue.   I really can't thank your team enough.  Some dos and don’ts: Limited sources: I always kept my sources limited, whether be it books or online sources such as IASBaba, I never wasted time going through different sources. For me the key was Read>Revise>Tests>Revise. When you stick yourself with limited sources, you are able to revise better. This also saved time as I would highlight in my book and mark what was important for prelims point of view and what could be used in mains (Saved me from making notes too). However, there are people who like to read from different sources to grasp a topic better . See what suits you and follow that. Make a timetable and stick to it: I made a timetable for both prelims, mains and interview and made sure that I finish the topics in the given time period, if at any point I failed to do so i made sure to devote extra time to complete the topics that were left. Integrate your preparation: Try to make sure that you actively engage with the subject so that it stays with you for longer, in case you have a problem understanding or learning something try referring to you tube videos for the same. Make sure that the topic is understood well, this will help you both for prelims and mains. Tests: Tests are an integral part of preparation for two main reasons: Firstly, it helps you to stick to the given timetable and thus reduces the scope for procrastination (specially if you are a person like me who is preparing in the comforts of your house). Secondly, It helps you to realize your weak and strong areas so that you can work on both accordingly. However, never underestimate yourself due to your scores (I was always doing that ) These scores might have no resemblance with your real scores. Just keep giving the tests, try learning from them but do not take the scores too seriously. You don’t have to study 15 hours and there is no need to isolate yourself: The maximum I have studied is 10 hours (maybe just for a day or two: P). Ithink consistency matters more. Also it takes time to be able to start studying for that long, slowly you will get used to it and will start enjoying the process. I also used to reward myself after finishing each subject with a holiday: P(this helps you to remain sane) Surround yourself with people who trust you and have faith in your abilities: This path is really bumpy and No you don’t want people who make you feel weak or incapable, this is then time you need to be positive and have faith in yourself. Always remember “IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, WHO WILL?“. Be confident about yourself and if there are any people who are undermining you, just avoid their company. Do not be scared of Failure: If you have chosen this journey, be strong enough to face hurdles and obstacles (as many have already said: that this is not only a test of knowledge but also your attitude towards life). Know how important this is for you: Don’t give this exam because your friends are giving it or your parents are coaxing you to do so, give it because you want to. Once you have deep desire for this, Success will follow. Some Minor Tips: In my first attempt, I tried to attempt only those questions about which I was 100% sure, ended up doing only 60 questions. However, when I returned home to check the answers I was shocked to know that many were wrong. (Moral : a little risk is cardinal ) Secondly, after your prelims do not waste more than two three days. No matter what the result is you need to keep going forward. Write answers in whatever form (be it points or paragraphs,) I am a humanities student and hence I am habituated to write in paragraphs, I was warned by many that this can be suicidal but I was firm on writing in the manner that I was comfortable. So I suggest you all to write in the form that you are comfortable. I am not writing any booklist here because many toppers have already written about it, but if there is any thing any one wants to know about be it sociology or anything else that you feel I can help, I would be more than happy to do so. BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU, TRUST YOURSELF. Believe that you can do it and you surely shall do it. Regards Hitika 

Aug 20, 2017 Topper's From IASbaba

IASbaba's Toppers Strategy Rank 141 NITESH PANDEY, Clears UPSC IAS in his Last Attempt!

Hello Friends Its a great feeling to share when one of our students cracks UPSC with such a good rank. Nitesh was a very sincere follower of our platform and had been very consistently following TLP and other initiatives. And what better if one achieves a great rank in his last attempt. This proves that consistency and patience play a vital role in ones success. Read it from the man himself! My name is Nitesh Pandey. I have done my Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras and completed it in 2008.  I have been working in the private sector in solar power for the past few years. Being from the family of an IAS officer, it's been my childhood dream to be a civil servant. I have been trying to crack civil services for past few years. Finally in my last attempt, I have secured a rank of 141. This was the first attempt in which I gave interview. My optional is psychology. It has been a long, grueling journey with lots of hard work, pain, failures and finally success and joy. Mistakes made in earlier attempt I tried to cover too many things for various topics. The preparation was inefficient and little bit disorganized. This took a toll on my revision and somewhere in order to cover so much, I missed most crucial aspects of an issue, what some call as "bulls eye". I didn't give adequate attention to answer writing. Essay was a weak area. It requires practise which I didn't do. Things which I did differently in this attempt I had focussed on making concise notes especially for very important topics, even if this was not possible I would at least mark important words or phrases(bulls eye). It is important that in each answer we do mention the core of the question and for that being thorough with the "bulls eye" of each topic is important. I had written lots of answers by joining test series and writing on iasbaba. An important aspect of my strategy for answer writing and covering current affairs has been relying on multiple sources. As a result, there is constant revision and also one comes to know and feel what is the most important topic as these get repeated in multiple sources. However, this is only advisable if one has enough time or has some base because of previous attempts. I had practised over ten essays before mains. Role of iasbaba IASbaba is a complete package. I had referred to its daily news analysis and gist of pib and Rajya Sabha videos extensively. This helped in covering the most important topics of current affairs more comprehensively. For writing practise, the Think Learn and Perform (TLP) proved to be a great boon. It consists of quality questions and regularly practising them and then peer review helped me in improving my answer writing skills. Further even when I was not able to answer the questions, I would at least refer to the mock solutions given by iasbaba. These solutions would give a 360 degree view of the question and this would help me in refining my knowledge base. In the mains GS papers this year, few questions had direct linkage to TLP questions. For prelims, I religiously followed 60 day plan and daily quizzes given by iasbaba and this helped in systematically revising the syllabus. Here again, many questions asked in prelims were linked to iasbaba questions. Though I didn't join the ILP programmed but I did refer to economics notes given under ILP (I borrowed it from a friend of mine) and I must say the quality of material was superb. Everything required in order to cover a topic was there in the notes and it was presented in very interactive factor making the material very interesting. The ILP would especially be helpful for aspirants who have just started preparing for the exam, as everything required for GS is provided in it and that too in a very easy, simple understandable manner. Writing from my experience I can say that, in initial years covering such a vast syllabus of GS from a variety of sources can prove to be a big challenge as it can be overwhelming, confusing and disorganized and still all the handwork may turn not yield desired results. ILP saves time, energy and for those preparing from small towns, it provides quality material in a cost effective manner which can be accessed from the comfort of one's home. Some words of advice The process of preparation for civil services can be very long, difficult, painful for many. So before entering the journey, please be prepared to do real hard work, have lots of courage, perseverance and patience. One should be totally dedicated to the goal and it is also necessary the aspirants carry out smart, organized studies. These days so much material is available on the internet and in the Delhi and so many suggestions of "how to succeed in IAS" that it becomes incumbent on the aspirants to be very discerning, intelligent about what to do. They should remember there is no "one size fits all" strategy and each aspirant should evolve their own way of doing things. Thanks Nitesh Pandey AIR 141

Aug 20, 2017 Topper's From IASbaba

Rank 126 UPSC CSE 2016 Mani Agrawal, UPSC/IAS TOPPER'S STRATEGY-Importance of TLP Mains Answer Writing!

Hello all! My name is Mani Agarwal. I am from Agra. I did BSc Honours Mathematics from Hindu College, Delhi University and MSc Mathematics from IIT Bombay. I cleared UPSC exam in 2nd attempt with optional subject Mathematics. In my 1st attempt, I reached till interview stage but missed the final list by 40 odd marks. I always thought to give my first attempt with full preparation with a goal of clearing the exam in first attempt. Irrespective of success, I think this should be the mindset of all aspirants. Although this doesn’t ensure rank, it makes one’s preparation rock solid. And this helps in future attempt. I think that worked for me a lot. If we have an attitude that there are more attempts to clear than our preparation becomes half-hearted. My knowledge about this exam started when I was in school my mamaji used to say to my mother that she should make me an IAS. So technically it was IAS and not UPSC that I came to know about first as happens with mot aspirants.  This idea grew during graduation when I met many people in DU who were preparing. Eventually I made my mind and committed myself to this journey. It was not a real social incident that encouraged me for this service. But yes, during preparation I understood the value of this service. I began my preparation in BSc Honours 2nd year by reading The Hindu. Till then I was not aware of this newspaper and how one should go about it. I gave myself time to read it, enjoy it and also digest it. Earlier it was very difficult to read the full newspaper and I used to feel sleepy but I made it a regular practice to read it. I didn’t make any notes at that time. I talked to some seniors in my PG who were preparing and came to know about the importance of optional. As I was good in Maths, there was never any question/doubt about which optional I will take. Some people told me that Maths is not scoring and it can doom you, I trusted my intuition. But yes, I understood in 2nd year that BSc will not be enough to get me through. I need to have Masters in Maths. So, essentially my graduation was spent in excelling in college and preparing my foundation for a good post –graduation. I didn’t start studying for any GS/Essay in graduation. Rather from my 3rd onwards I started for IIT-JAM (Joint Admission for Mathematics). When I reached IIT, my mind was clear. I have to solidify all my concepts in maths with a higher level reading of The Hindu. This included reading Hindu and also preparing some notes about what I understood. I read previous years papers extensively, literally googling where those questions were framed from. This was exhausting and time consuming but I didn’t give up. Rather I gave up my 1st summer vacations and stayed in hostel to read Hindu and preparing my own notes. It was there I had a discussion with one lady who was in IFS. She gave me excellent guidance about preparing notes. I transformed my preparation form hard to soft copies. It was easy to maintain, add, delete, modify on laptop. I ensured that I didn’t compromise on my life in IIT and fully enjoyed each moment, participated in dance festivals, debates, class trips because I was regular in reading newspapers, preparing for IIT exams and making notes. When I came out of IIT in May 2014, I was 100% sure that I don’t have to take coaching. My foundation and “understanding” of UPSC exam was clearer. I was able to find how ques might be framed from any news. I decided to stay at home and prepare. I decided to give 2015 attempt with full preparation. It was now that I started reading books for the exam and making my own notes, both hand written and typed. I kept in mind that I am preparing for mains. Maths preparation was also kick-started. I fixed my after dinner time for maths. I made notes for prelims side by side; about news that were not extensive but could me asked in MCQs. For others, it was Mains notes that could help. I completed the syllabus by reading and preparing notes for the first time by December 2014. It was then that multiple revisions started. Side by side maths was going. By first prelims was in August 2015. I started to read only Prelims in May 2015. Mains preparation was reduced if not completely side-lined (because of current affairs). I used to solve many MCQs from online websites. I joined one small test series of 10 full tests in June 2015. CSAT preparation was also started from May only. Since I was good in maths it was not a big deal. After giving prelims, I was pretty sure (although nervous) that I will clear it and started Mains preparation. I was casually googling for questions for GS preparation that I saw IASBABA website. The mere presentation of the website: spacious, de-stressing font and lighter presentation made me think about my 1st mains being less haunting. It was no turning back. I read the info and came to know about TLP- Programme. I didn’t know then that this programme will be my SOLE GUARDIAN for mains. I started writing answers from next day. i thought that I will continue writing and let’s see if somebody evaluates my answers. Normally on online platforms it is very difficult/ not possible to fix accountability as they are free of cost and you don’t know people personally, it is your time and your practice that is at stake. But IAS BABA was different. I still remember my answer was evaluated the very 1st day! Of course I needed to improve but someone telling that created a lot of enthusiasm and positivity. I wrote answers for 5 questions in TLP program each day and everyday there were evaluators who were reading my answers, sometimes all 5 and sometimes at least 3 if not all. But then there were other aspirants who checked my answers and gave their comments. It was this consistency in IAS BABA team that I never gave up mains answer writing till November end. It helped me groom my writing skills. I kept a 35 minute timeline for answering these 5 questions to create exam feel each day. I didn’t join any test series for my optional and had to pay for it. I gave the mains and cleared it but couldn’t get the final rank. It was my optional that doomed me. I scored a mere 208/500. But as far as IASBABA was concerned, the practice did its work, I scored around 360 in GS. I decided to give second attempt. With people going for some very costly test series I was pretty sure that my trust in IASBABA will pay off. I stuck to IASBABA, this time for both prelims and mains.  Since I had to catch with my current affairs within less time, the summary versions of Yojana/Kurukshetra Magazines by IASBABA were very helpful. They started an amazing 60 day prelims plan which I regularly practiced. I didn’t join any other test series for prelims. Then it was TLP again and the team was again at its very best at evaluating mine and other aspirants’ answers. I was very positive about IASBABA from the very start and didn’t go for any other platform. But this time I joined a test series for maths by IMS. The hard work paid off and I cleared Mains. For interviews, I took part in interview discussion initiative by IASBABA for keeping in touch with the kind of theoretical questions that can be asked. Also, joined interview guidance program by Samkalp (2 mocks) along with 1 mock each from Chanakya IAS Academy and Vajiram and Ravi. As I now see my mark-sheet, I realise the important role of IASBABA in making me score high in GS in Mains. It is one thing that you are very particular about answer writing but it another to have a belief that your answer will be evaluated and you can improve. Without evaluation one seems to lose enthusiasm to write each day. It was this enthusiasm that kept the fire burning in me and I hope in all the future aspirants. I heard some negative opinions about Mathematics as an optional subject for UPSC. I think that we should listen to other people but decide on our own as to what suits us. Despite being a low scorer in my 1st attempt I didn’t lose faith in my subject and I realised my mistake of being over confident in being a post graduate in Mathematics. We should prepare a subject if we enjoy it (if we take a new subject altogether) or if we have a strong hold on it (as in my case) but should never be over confident about it. For people in maths, I want to tell that don’t break the chain of regular practice even when you are studying when Prelims exam is near. Reduce the time given to maths but don’t give it altogether. UPSC exam is one which checks not just your knowledge but also your approach towards life and its problems.  It tests you on your patience, mood swings, courage and persistence. Also, anyone can crack this exam with proper planning and suitable timetables. Regularity and consistency with support systems like IASBABA is a necessary recipe for acing this exam. I wish all the aspirants very best for the upcoming Prelims 2017. With less than a fortnight left, brush up the facts, solve MCQs and pray for positivity in thinking from Almighty. Don’t overthink and overanalyse. Keep calm and excel. Regards, Mani Agarwal AIR 126, UPSC 2016