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8/12/2019 How to Prepare Current Affairs From Newspapers in Less Than One Hour for UPSC IAS IPS CSAT Exam Print

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[Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from Newspapers in Less thanone hour for UPSC IAS IPS CSAT Exam

This article is in response to many panic mails that I receive, help! It takes morethan 4 hour s just to read The Hindu .

1. Why is it important to read t he newspaper?2. Cant I just use Chr onicle, Civil Service Times or Pratiyogita Darpan?3. What a re profile-based interv iew questions?

Location-based questionsAcademic b ackground based questions.

HobbyFirefighting

4. Which newspapers sho uld I read5. Should I read m ore than one newspaper?6. What a re the importan t items in a newspaper?

Administrati on/ Polity National NewsInternational NewsEconomy

FrontPag eColum ns / EditorialsWhat to prepare from Columns/ Editorials?Sports / music / life-style/ Bollywood

7. How to read the newspaper in less than 1 hour?The beginningThe front-page and second pageThird, fourth and fifth pageThe 6 to 9 PagePage 10-11 (Columns and Editorials)Page 12-13 (International)Page 14 (TV, Astrology, Cartoon strips)Page 15-16 (Business and economy)Page 17 -20 (Bollywood, Lifestyle, Sports)

8. The Review

Whether you are preparing for UPSC, GPSC, KPSC, MPPSC, MPSC, UPPSC,IBPS, CAT or any other exam that involves interview and heavy competition, youhave to read newspapers.

Why is it important to read the newspaper?

Because in the government job exams, at all three stages (preliminary, Mains
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and interview) . They ask questions related to current affairs.To write a decent essay, you need facts and viewpoints. For this you needFodder, and newspapers are best sources for the fodder material.

Cant I just use Chronicle, Civil Service Times orPratiyogita Darpan?

Such magazines only serve as supplement and not as substitute of thenewspapers.Why? Because the magazines have the page limit, they cannot give justice toevery single topic, even if they wish to. (and because on every second page,theyve to put big advertisement of coaching classes, to cover the cost.)Same goes for the readymade blogs/ websites dealing with current-affairs,theyre only supplements but not the substitutes of a newspaper.Secondly, such magazines or websites for competitive exams do not help youin the profile-based interview questions or role-playing questions.

What are profile-based interview questions?

In the UPSC IAS, IPS or CAT/IIM, Bank or any other job interviews, they ask you questions based on your profile.Your profile is made up of: Your Location + Academic Background +hobbies and Extra-curricular activities.

Location-based questions

Socio, political, administrative and economic problems of your city, districtand state.And (Sometimes) the role-playing questions about how will you tackle them,if youre an inspector, tehsildaar, Collector, DSP, Secretary, etc.

Academic background based questions.

For example, if you are an MBBS or Pharmacist, the current affairs relate toTB/HIV/Malaria/Delhi Superbug related research, etc.If youre a B.A (English): Whats the latest trend in English literature? Whatwas the controversy in the Jaipur literature festival? And so on.

Hobby

Tennis, Cricket, Chess, Computer: then you are supposed to know the currentaffairs related to that field.

Firefighting

Most of the people, whether UPSC, State PSC aspirants or MBA aspirants:they dont prepare for profile-based questions or current affairs until the 11 th


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hour. (i.e. When the interview or group-discussion (GD) is barely 20-30 daysaway).Then They start google searching for GK related to their profile.In such a short time, you cannot cover all satisfactorily. Therefore, dailyreading of newspaper is essential.

Which newspapers should I read

Even if youre going to write your Mains exam in Hindi/ Gujarati/ Tamil /Telugu medium, still you should refer to English newspapers because thelocal newspapers only serve the masala news of politics, cricket andBollywood.

Should I read more than one newspaper?

It depends on your time and energy, otherwise one newspaper is enough.You might have seen some coaching Sirs advising that you must-read Hinduand Economic Times (ET). I think, this is an overkill. You dont have to

become a share market expert. If there is some really good columnist in ET(for example, example Bibek Debroy), then following him is excellent, butyou dont have to go through two or three Whole newspaper per day.

What are the important items in a newspaper?

First go through the old question papers of UPSC (at least last three years), that

should give you a rough idea on what questions are asked directly or indirectly fromnewspaper. And then read the newspaper keeping that in mind.

Administration/ Polity

1. Press conference of government, where they announce various policies,administrative reforms etc. (Im talking about the press conference of unionand State government, not the press conference of Congress and BJP.)

2. Various bills, minutes of Cabinet meetings.

3. The big full-page advertisements given by ruling party, about their achievements. (This usually comes before the election and on the birthanniversary of Nehru Gandhi Family). It is important because, they list out thevarious developmental schemes and provisions in it. Most important part iswho runs the scheme? for example NREGA thing for under the jurisdictionof rural development Ministry (and not under Labour Ministry)

4. Election related items: what will the initiatives taken by the electioncommission? Any problems or controversies.

5. You have to prepare these for both Union as well as your own state

Government. (Your state-Government schemes and Administrative reformsfor the profile Based Questions)

What is not important?


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1. Press conferences of political parties and civil society.2. No need to do Ph.D on every scam. All you have to do is brief highlight of

what was the scam, how was it committed, what is the presence status ininvestigation or court and how to prevent it in future. You dont have to go inminute details like on 23 rd October 2007, Mr XYZ the accountant of store-dept in Commonwealth games misreported a 50 rupees ball for Rs.5000.Learn to skip the garbage sentences while you are reading a news item.

3. Same goes for elections: The XYZ by-elections were conducted on 23thOctober 2004 in which Mrs. XYZ wife of ABC belong with JYZ Political

party defeated

National News

Maoists kidnap a collector = name of the collector is not important. But nowexperts and politicians say we need a comprehensive hostage-crisis guidelineafter this incidence= important.Railway accidents, how many killed =not important. Reason for the railaccident and suggestions to prevent future accidents = important.SP says BSP took 50 crores or vice versa = not important.How many killed in floods, landslides or tsunamis on which date= notimportant. But the reason behind those geographical phenomenons =important.ISRO sends an artificial satellite = important. How much does it weigh? = notimportant.When and How many men did leopards kill in Maharashtra = not important.

Why is leopard killing men in Maharashtra= important. What is Governmentdoing to stop the leopard? = important.

International News

1. Bilateral visits of prime ministers and presidents. What treaties or trade pactsdid they sign?

2. What is going on in UN, IMF, World Bank?3. Elections in the big nations : USA, Russia, China, France, UK.

4. Political or military coup (usually in South America and Africa.)5. Any major event: the democratic uprising in Middle East, Israel palestine, USvs China / Russia missile defence, NATO-Afghanistan and so on.

6. Meetings of organisations such as ASEAN, G20 etc , and particularly whatIndia did in such conferences and meetings.

7. Climate change, environment related news.8. Science and Tech related items for example CERN, Chinas space program,

missle tests by N.Korea, Irans nuke program and so on.

What is not important?

1. Lady Gaga or Justine Timberlakes world tours.2. How many people are killed in a car bomb blast in Pakistan or Afghanistan?3. XYZ researchers found out that eating tomato daily helps preventing tooth


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ache = not important.4. Anything small-time, that does not affect future of the World. For example

sex-scandles of Italian PM or marital wooes of Sarkozy.

More on How to prepare India and World topic for General Studies (Mains) Paper II, is explained in a separate article. Click Me to read it.

Economy 1. Press conference or press note by Government, SEBI, RBI, Planning

Commission etc.2. ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM etc. (they usually complaint or suggest about

Government policies that affect the business houses.)3. Columns and Editorials related to Economy.4. IIP, GDP, WPI, CPI etc. Not the numbers but the reasons behind that

number and the future because of that number.

5. International: ASEAN, World Bank, EU etc.6. Those preparing for Bank exams, should also note down the names of Chaimen of various companies and banks.

What is not important in Economy

1. Daily Ups and downs of sharemarket.2. Numbers. Because Economy is not about number but the meaning, history

and future related to that number.a. For example, if IIP was 0.13 on Jan-2012. That itself is not important.

Whether it was 0.13 or 0.128? that is not important. b. Important Questions are : is this IIP good or bad? And why is it good or

bad? Whatll be its impact on future of Indian economy and Government/ RBI policies?

FrontPage

1. There is a narrow column on the left hand side of the front page, most of thetime, the yearbook related information, government schemes etc. appear here.

2. The main news item on the frontpage: it is usually not-very-important.Reason most of the time it is the political news. For example, Bihar Mahadalit Land Racket. If you are a candidate from Bihar, you should read it,for the others, it is not worth it.

Columns / Editorials

Question: What is a column / Editorial?

These are big paragraphs like articles in the centre pages of a newspaper.Generally each article has photo of the author and usually the author gives a20 years old photo when he/she was in college. If you ever happen to seethem in actual TV Debate, it turns out theyre quite older than what they look
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in the newspapers.Editorial is written by the editor himself. For example Shekhar Gupta for IndianExpress on Saturday. While Columns are written by experts (includingself-proclaimed experts) on a particular topic of politics, economy,international events.

What to prepare from Columns/ Editorials?

Usually columns are made up of 7-8 paragraphs. But not every sentence andline is important; there are just 3-4 gemstones in it, which you can use in your mains / essay / interview answers. So just note them down.

Some people use highlighters to mark important lines and then filethose newspaper cuttings. So do whichever method suits you (notingdown or filing the cuttings).

But Not every column is worth your time and energy. For example inIndianexpress, there is one guy writes about Nepals political turomil every

week. But in Nepal, the Prime ministers are changed every week and this guyhappens to give ball by ball commentery of everything. Its not worth theCost-benefit ratio. So skip him.Similarly there is one Yogindar Alagh in Indianexpress, who pretends to writeon rural Development but just I did this and that when I was aminister =Not important.Maintain the balance: some column writers have a habit of being totallycynical and anti-Government. For example Tavleen Singh of Indianexpress,while I do admire her for having the guts to openly write against Sonia,

Mohan and Rahul, but in your answers, You must not admire or criticize a particular individual (minister / politician) in the mains / interview. And dont prepare a line that is too leftist or too rightists.And if you criticise the Government, then you should also offer the reformsuggestions.

Sports / music / life-style/ Bollywood

Lifestyle = painting, pottery, music, fashion events etc. most of which cannot be afforded by middle class people.The last 3-4 pages of English newspaper are devoted to this. if your hobby istennis or chess, then you must follow the related sport-news.For others, I say just skip it. Anything historic about Sports will get publishedin the competitive magazines and or the free blogs/ current-affairs relatedwebsites anyways. So daily following these sports-pages = not worth the timeand energy.Bollywood and cricket related news = not important in any case. Unlesssomething related to administration or polity for example should BCCI be

brought under RTI? And the copyright act vs Bollywood.

How to read the newspaper in less than 1 hour?

Needs certain tools.


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1. A study-desk or Table2. A Red colored 0.7mm ballpoint pen and or a red sketch pen.

3. Loose papers, folders, notebooks4. And last but not the least a newspaper.

The beginning

Keep the red pen handy.Im taking Gujarat Edition of Indian express as reference; just follow the same

procedure for your City /States edition of Indianexpress/ Hindu.

The front-page and second page

Circle down on important lines from the news (which news, that is already explainedabove).

Third, fourth and fifth page

Is usually Gujarat / Ahmedabad news for example

20 people died in car accident in rajkotxyz girl eloped with a neighbour A cop was found taking bribesStone-pelting and rioting in XYZ part of Ahmedabad after a cricket match.Keshubhai Patel said XYZ against Narendra Modi.Sanjay Joshis men have put posters against Modi in Ahmedabad.

^none of above, is important.

Then what is important?

Navjivan Trust of Abad says no to Gujarati version of Lets kill Gandhiwritten by Tushar Gandhi.Gujarat Maritime Board and pollution board gives clearance to ship-breaking

of Exxon Valdez, but NGO lobby says it contains dangerous chemicals.(Names are not important, but the important part is the big environmentalissue vs. livelihood of ship-breakers in AlangGujarat State Government launches Girl Child education and Schoolenrollment drive.Ahmedabad Municipal corp will give Rs.250/- to all Government schoolstudents who live more than 3 kms from the school, apart from the mid-daymeal, Bicycle distribution and Vidhyalaxmi scheme.

We are done with 5 pages

The 6 to 9 Page

These are devoted to national news
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Only concentrate on important exam oriented news. Underline the importantlines using your red pen.

Page 10-11 (Columns and Editorials)

Highlight the gemstones and move on.

Page 12-13 (International)

Highlight the important news lines and move on.

Page 14 (TV, Astrology, Cartoon strips)

Highlight the important news lines for example the timing of Balika Vadhu.Haha just kidding, skip this page.

Page 15-16 (Business and economy)

Most important. Scan through every item, including small box news. Highlightthe gemstones, if there are any important diagrams, cut and file them.

Page 17-20 (Bollywood, Lifestyle, Sports)

Skip it.

We are done highlighting the important newslines. Now it is time for review.

The Review

Go through those red lines and either write them in the relevant notebook / cutand file it.Your can either keep five separate full-scape notebooks. OR you can writethese in loose papers and then file it in five separate folders.The advantage of loose papers = you can add more pages between, when thefollow up news comes. For example in case of QFIs. Same is not possible in anotebook.

Folder / Notebook

Sorting

Administration All the polity, administration, Development related items should be either written or pasted here.

Economics Same exercise

Your profile

One file or notebook, make three sub-parts in it. First part- writeor paste the state/city related news. Second part- about your academic backgroundThird part- news related to hobbies.


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S&T All the science-tech, environment, climate change related stuff.

International Same exercise

^ you dont have to write the entire sentences highlighted in red-pen but just thekeywords or phrases thatd help you recall the entire issue.In the beginning, thisd be time-consuming mental torturing exercise.But with time, youll develop the expertize of weeding out the unimportant news andnote down the gemstones.

Ive seen Maestros who write the summary note of entire The Hindunewspaper on just one side of an A4 sized paper, without missing even a singleimportant item. They dont read every line of a newspaper, their eyes aretrained to scan through the lines and hand automatically highlights thekeywords. Its an art and can be mastered only by practice Daily writing habitalso improves your handwriting speed, which is again important for the Mains

exam.Like a professional athlete This must be your daily regime as long as youre acontender. Just because prelims are over or just because mains are over,doesnt mean you stop this. Youve to do this on daily basis.IF youre unable to get Hindu in your city, you can read it using google reader:Click me to learn the trick

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