The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) IAS Preliminary Examination 2015 Results are expected to be out soon.
Candidates who have applied for the UPSC IAS Preliminary Examination, can check their exam Results on 13th October 2015 on the official website www.upsc.org.
The Commission conducted IAS Prelims Exam 2015 on August 23, 2015. Once the preliminary results of IAS are declared, aspirants will be required to appear for Mains Exam and Interview.
Ref: DNA Article
If it’s not money and perks then what attracts an aspirant to spend hours and days and weeks and months preparing for arguably the most demanding competition exam of India? Power, Prestige and the Possibility of serving the country.
Let’s meet few of these gents and ladies whose footsteps you seek to follow. We are releasing the first list of what we would call – Badass Bureaucrats!
On a hot summer afternoon, on Madurai’s busy main road, the district collector saw a young man talking on a cellphone while riding a motorbike. Wonder what he did next? He handed the reckless youth a swift punishment: Plant 10 saplings within 24 hours.
Weird right? But that’s how Sagayam works.
‘Lanjam thavirthu nenjam nimirthu’ (Reject bribes, hold your head high), says a board hanging above Sagayam’s chair in his modest office.
U. Sagayam went to Madurai to probe in a multi-crore granite scam. The evidence lied in the graveyard and required exhumation. District Police expressed its inability to carry on the work in the night. What did Sagayam do? Spent the night chatting with localities and journalists at the very same graveyard! Now, that’s badass!
Allegedly, the reason Sagayam chose to stay a full night in burial ground was for the suspicion of the local police supporting the accused as they took the rules to benefit him instead. According to the law, the police cannot perform the post-mortem after sunset.
The first from the Zeme tribe of Nagaland to become an IAS officer, Armstrong Pame earned the sobriquet ‘Miracle Man’ for building a 100 km long road in a remote part of the hilly state of Manipur without government’s help.
How did he fund the road? Here’s where the badassery comes to fore –
“My wife and I donated our one month’s salary, Armstrong paid five months’ of his, and our mother paid our dad’s one month’s pension of Rs 5,000. Our youngest brother, Lungtuabui, recently started working. He donated his entire first month’s pay for the project,” his elder brother mentioned.
Nazrul Islam retired from service on February 28, 2014, after a running battle with Mamata Banerjee for what he claimed was a deprivation of legitimate dues in terms of respect and dignity in service.
He took up on Didi and that by no means is a small feat. He is also claimed to have dragged an MLA to the court of law in one case.
Anything we state here will fall short of his achievements, so let’s direct you to his wiki page for all the glory that he deserves.
But one major achievement, which we have got to share is this:
In 1988, Doval was awarded one of the highest gallantry awards, the Kirti Chakra, becoming the first police officer to receive a medal previously given only as a military honour.
It must go to the credit of the visionary and workaholic Akbaruddin that he made the job of MEA spokesperson the most important public job in the Government of India. In fact, Modi wanted him to become the PMO’s spokesperson as he does not have a media advisor, but he respectfully declined.
Feeling pumped up already?
Start on with your preparation if you haven’t already. The best way to start is by reading this post first – A Beginner’s Guide on How to Clear IAS.
We know that you are quite a busy lot and you have so much to read already, so we will make it quick!
Cool then? Any issues, concerns or suggestions – please list down here and we will personally comment back on most of them.
The Civil Services Main examination is designed to test the academic talent of the aspirant, also his/her ability to present his/ her knowledge in a clear and coherent manner.
The Main Examination is intended to assess the overall intellectual traits and depth of understanding of candidates rather than merely the range of their information and memory.
It is recommended that the aspirant is aware of the broad topics of the syllabus for easy recall while reading up a book or a newspaper.
Civilsdaily.com focuses on Heritage and Culture - Stories @History
Civilsdaily.com focuses on Current Geography News - Stories @Geography
NOTE: The part of Paper 1 which deals with Indian Society, Issues etc. is the most neglected one. By and large, this part is dynamic in nature and can be easily dealt with if you are a regular at News Reading.
We would recommend 2 things:
Anything else that we can help with? Let us know!
Had your share of laugh? Good. Now get down to some real work and read the essential strategies for clearing IAS Pre and Mains, here:
This article has been written with an assumption that the reader is aware of the basics of the IAS Preparation.
This post is dedicated to those IAS Aspirants, who in their early stages of euphoria (much like Faizal Khan) set out to conquer all the National Dailies (Hindu, Indian Express, Business Standard, Mint etal.) only to realise that the 3-5 hours spent on Newspapers daily might not be the optimum strategy to cover the IAS syllabus!
Here are our top 3 recommendations to help you realign your strategy on “How to read newspapers for UPSC”.
Along with your Daily Newspaper, Spend 5 minutes on the Civilsdaily’s Android App. We take good care to publish key point summaries of daily news articles which you can bookmark and take offline for revising again and again.
The What: Specifics of the event/news at hand but from a bird’s eye view. A good newspaper makes sure that the headline informs you of the key takeaway.
For eg: IAEA chief heads to Tehran for nuclear talks: IAEA says the visit will focus on clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme
The Why: Why is this news important? Why did this make into today’s newspaper? What were the events leading upto it?
The phrase “Past and present outstanding issues” should give you some idea of a possible historical trail of these nuclear talks. This should excite your curiosity and this is where you get the understanding of the issue at hand.
For your ease of understanding, at Civilsdaily.com, we collate the milestone events and connect them in a single story, such as this: Iran’s Nuclear Program & Western Sanctions.
The How: This line of reasoning gets you into the technicalities of the news at hand. This is where you get to know about the organisations and the nature of sanctions which are in place.
Try to know all about IAEA, Uranium enrichment facilities, Nuclear Reactors, the safeguards in place etc. Make some key point notes on them because you are going to encounter them again and again in your IAS Prep.
In 2013, the then UPSC chairman D.P. Agrawal was addressing the Kerala State Civil Service Academy and he extolled the importance of Current Affairs.
He said it was impressive how well students scored in their optional papers — where they put in more effort to raise the overall score at the expense of neglecting their reading of general issues in the country and the world over. The candidates should to be well-read, he said adding that learning by rote had entered the interview process as well.
This should act as a clarion call for all the aspirants of IAS 2015, 2016 to buckle up and start preparing the current affairs like a PRO.
Like all good things, newspaper reading takes time and patience but once you bear through the initial few weeks, it will be a very rewarding activity. You will be able to relate static with dynamic, expect developments in a story and develop a sense of relative importance of a news event.
Want to read more?
The Preliminary Examination of Union Public Service Commission for Civil Services Examination is also popularly called CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test. In loose colloquial terms, you would usually search it on as IAS Prelims Syllabus! Technically speaking, CSAT is actually the second paper of General Studies that was introduced in 2011.
It was introduced to end the use of scaling system for varying subjects in the General Studies paper and was a matter of concern for many Civil Services Aspirants.
But this year in 2015, the UPSC has made the CSAT of only qualifying nature and one needs to only get 33% to get through. Which gets us back to the question of Paper 1 which now assumes a paramount importance in the life and times of a civil service aspirant.
Daily news analysis is an integral part of an aspirant’s IAS preparation. A sincere student ends up devoting more than 2 hours everyday to newspapers and still looks out for more help!
We would suggest that you start with Hindu or Indian Express and keep up with the civilsdaily’s android app for key point summaries. That’s one of the most convenient ways of reinforcing newsbytes. We hand pick news from the most relevant sources and even though this may sound like self promotion, we did perform fairly well in this year’s prelims. Go ahead, read this short analysis.
Start with the Indian National Struggle (everything that led up to our Independence) – This should be the easiest part of the history syllabus. Covering Ancient and Medieval India can be trickier and may make you wonder ki kaash Bangladesh ki Civil Services ke liye likh rahe hote. Wouldn’t have this much of a history to mug up on. 1971 mein to start hi hua tha!
We would suggest that you focus mainly on the Indian Art & Culture – and for this, the mother of all resources is the ccrt website. Alternatively, do look at the history section @civilsdaily.com – you would benefit with the infographs and pop quizzes that we curate.
You are broadly supposed to know about the following topics – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
By and large, most of the syllabus is covered by Laxmikanth’s Indian Polity. You are required to read this book cover to cover and many do this for ~10 times. The reason is that you tend to skip/ ignore some parts of the text in the first few readings which might actually be important for the exam and multiple readings make sure that you get a complete dope of the book.
No need to go for anything beyond this book unless of course you are bored and want a different storyline to the same articles and rights! We have been keeping up with the dynamic news on this topic at our Stories @Polity.
Stick to the NCERTs of 11th and 12th. If you still feel overwhelmed, go for the 9th and 10th books as well. But keep a tab on current affairs along with these static books and you should be good. We have been keeping up with the dynamic news on this topic at our Stories @Geography.
Enviro & Biodiversity became important with the merger of IFoS Prelims with CSE Prelims. Since then, aspirants across the country have been looking at the good god above for a one book that can help them sail through.
The closest bets have been – Shankar IAS’ Enviro Book, Current Affairs from Hindu, Express and this UGC course book by Erach Bharucha. You should also read this blog by Satish Reddy (AIR 97) on how to tackle EnB.
You do not really have to go and read the evolution of Planning Commission and other organisations in general to get a hang of what’s buzzing in Indian Economy these days. UPSC wants you to keep a tab on Macroeconomics and many a toppers have suggested that NCERTs of 11th and 12th would do just well. Also, keep up with our stories where we cover the latest news in great depths at Stories @Economics section.
If you do these few things well, you will be in good stead for your IAS Mains preparation as well.
Read the complete article here: http://killerstartups.com/startup-reviews/civilsdaily-current-affairs
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan, but there’s a whole lot more going on in the world than Stephen Colbert beginning his tenure at The Late Show.
Good grief, it’s become difficult to get to real news these days.
There’s so much content available online that it’s tough to cut through the noise and get to the goods. Even if you do reach “news” sites, the offerings are pretty scant. Soundbites. Breezy writing, more about entertainment than delivering news. And lots and lots of vapid clickbait.
Civilsdaily looks to put the news back into news. At the moment, this news source can be found on either desktop or for download on Android devices at Google Play.
Civilsdaily delivers breaking news and daily events in the form of flashcards. Before your mind runs to Flipboard (because the app does bear a useful similarity) Civilsdaily does more than toss out headlines. It provides news cards with a curated list of key point summaries. It shares, you know, details, information – the news instead of the preprogrammed response of so many media outlets.
To be fair, the Internet has diversified the voices covering the news. Reading or listening options outside the mainstream abound. However, crisp and smart coverage is still lacking. Huge props to Civilsdaily if they can turn a penetrating spotlight back onto current affairs that truly matter.
The chronology of flashcards makes it much easier to follow stories (just getting started, the focus at the moment is almost entirely on India). No, gleaning stories from all over the web that are related to a topic isn’t the same as keeping a clear view of a developing story. Civilsdaily collects stories on the website for connecting the dots and gaining a better understanding of milestone events in a news cycle.
Like other news apps, there’s room for discussion, the ability to search news by category, and to receive the latest from your favorite news sources. You’ll get to decide for yourself, of course, but a quick survey shows that, in addition to these common news elements, the top stories and most discussed stories on Civilsdaily have a gravitas that is both refreshing and hard to come by online.
So, if you’ve had your fill of mindless lists and excess silly videos, if you’d prefer more news and less attitude in your news – basically, if you’re hungry for a better, on point news source, you’ll want to have a closer look at civilsdaily.com without delay.
Over the years, across the generations a lot of gyan has flown through on how to crack this or that exam.
While we do believe that every IAS aspirant needs to develop his/her own strategy keeping his/her strengths and weaknesses in perspective, there are some basic things which you can keep in check right from the start!
… and crack the civil services with elan!
Mornings: Your mind has not yet been burdened with all the information and stress you accumulate throughout the day.
Evenings: Information obtained right before sleep is much more likely to be transferred into your long-term memory.
Right after Class: It’s the best time to review since you don’t have to deal with re-learning things you might have forgotten if you delay it until later.
Most of these points have been distilled from studies across the internet and they hold true across most of the exams. We are sure that most of you will vouch for them as well!
We would love to know what works best for you! Share your peak performance strategies with us and we would feature them in our blog posts!
If you have come across this page via a simple google search on “How to Clear IAS” or “How to Prepare for Civil Services” or any related SOS call on this mother of all examination, then we can safely deduce 2 things –
1. We are sort of getting famous (or at least we would like to think so!)
2. You have already made up your mind and probably want some really basic – quick tips to start with – just to see that you get the initial things correct OR you are the “done with the 9to5 job – start up idea nahi hai – life mein kya karein“ junta and you are thinking of giving Civil Services a shot!
If on the other hand, you are a regular reader at this website, you would agree that it’s a customary job of every self respecting IAS Prep site to give out occasional gyan on how to clear IAS!
Update #1: Prelims Paper 1 Syllabus for UPSC
Fair enough? In quick points then, here are the 5 commandments that will do well to get started with the IAS Prep. Advanced gyan later!
Preparing from civil services is like taking an extended sabbatical from regular life and getting on a train to Hogwarts Wasseypur to take on an unprecedented enemy. One day you are casually browsing through articles such as this and the other day you have 10kg worth of material piled up on your study desk!
You might have cleared the gruelling JEE or that unnerving CAT, got a stellar rating in those demanding corporate jobs or a magna-cum-laude certificate from a US university BUT nothing, virtually nothing overwhelms you like UPSC does!
So, take things slow. It’s a long race and you need to develop an appreciation for the syllabus. This could be a start of something good – you will get to know policy matters, economic realities and the sad social reality of the country you live in and you might just be able to connect with your surroundings and grow a new found love for India in general!
Except maybe for environment & biodiversity – We are yet to find a person who loved mugging up all the national parks and endangered species for the love of god! So, please have a headstart on E&B – Keep a tab on all small, big enviro related things in the current affairs and make a note in a copy – most of the questions are asked from the current affairs.
A more comprehensive post on how to tackle E&B has been written by Satish (CSE 2014: AIR 97) – How to Approach Enviro & Biodiversity?
Remember the time when you used to scoff at civics – that thin, small, parchment sized book which used to form a meagerly 20% part of your SST syllabus in class 9th and 10th? Of course you do!
That non-existent subject now forms a big part of the UPSC Syllabus in a new avatar – The Indian Polity.
Remember those moral science classes you used to have where the teachers tried hard to make an adarsh balak out of you? Yes, no? Well, UPSC has made a full fledged GS Paper out of it – Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude.
So, what’s the point?
The point is that this is the time to pay homage to the old gods and new those NCERTs and quickly brush up on the concepts. Do not waste time hankering between old or new books. Get hold of the new NCERTs – go through them briskly – they are easy to read, are less boring and may delude you into believing that clearing IAS is a cake walk!
That’s where you need to graduate you to a bit heavier books – Laxmikanth for Indian Polity, Bipan Chandra for Pre and Post Independence and so on. We will furnish the reference books in a separate post and link that here soon.
We made the Civilsdaily Android App for one reason and one reason alone – To make Current Affairs more approachable. So, keep up with the daily Newscards on the app – you will slowly get a hang on the events of national and international importance.
Once you cover the NCERTs and build some command over the static part of the syllabus, you will be able to understand news better. You would understand what Raghuram Rajan mean by rate cuts, what’s going on with India and the world or why is there so much clamour about the Judicial Appointments System.
That’s when the real magic starts! That’s when you will be able to attempt questions better and bring out better analysis points!
Update #2: Read our 3 point strategy post on Newspapers for IAS Prep
The golden rule is this – You will learn more from your peers than from your teachers. This held true in college and this holds true even now. But why’s that?
We tend to have our biases and blind spots in life. We give more importance to some subjects, some themes (even at the expense of leaving out on other exam related important stuff) because that’s just how we are. And here is where your peers come to save you – their take on some issue could complement your learning and vice versa.
You are more likely to remember those passionately argued points on labour laws or women issues than the ones mentioned in the XEROX booklets at Karol Bagh.
The whole idea of this expansive UPSC syllabus is to make the future bureaucrats more sensitive about the various issues plaguing our country and having passionate aspirants in your study groups help!
All men are equal but some are more equal than others… And the 2 papers worth 500 marks @ IAS Mains are dedicated to the optional which will make or mar your chances. For some it’s a continuation of their graduation subject and for some it’s a whole new science (or arts if we should be precise).
A good optional also serves as a good breather for the time when you feel overwhelmed and over-annoyed with all the GS around! So, take your time and test the waters before zeroing on one. We will come to your rescue with posts from some of the IAS Rankers on how and why they chose their optionals. Some of them are –
For the benefit of our readers, we have compiled some 30+ posts written on the theme of “How to clear IAS”. Please click through this collection to read more –
Everytime I attempt the CSE Prelims Paper 1 and feel like taking a guess, the options throw me off!
And just after the Prelims gets over and you get the answer keys, here’s where SHOLAY waley Chachaji comes in the frame…
And if that wasn’t enough, you have a new found army of relatives to take care of when they ask:
In those moments of solitude and self reflection, you think…
And then the eternal reality unfolds – First attempt ho yaa last attempt, UPSC shall prevail!
Hope this puts up a cheerful smile! We thought it’s about time that we show the lighter side of Civilsdaily. A lot of you guys have been reading daily news with us and we hope that current affairs are a bit easier to follow ever since!
Feel like adding more to this list of meme? We would love to hear from you guys. Share it among your friends or study groups to lighten things up!
Download the Civilsdaily Android App - Click here.
Had your share of laugh? Good. Now get down to some real work and read the essential strategies for clearing IAS Pre and Mains, here:
Down through the ages, a new form has evolved for the preparation for the UPSC Mains examination. The aspirants are invited to come up with a ~200 odd words answer to a set of questions put on a daily basis. The peers & mentors are invited to assess the answers and plug up leakages in terms of logic and facts.
We at Civilsdaily intended to respect that tradition but then we realised that this way of approaching news might be myopic in the long run.
Why so?
Phailin found its way in the paper with “How cyclones are named”, Shale gas found its way under “Distribution of shale gas”, Section 66A of the IT act made its presence felt in the paper, Green Corridors, String of Pearls all were there.
UPSC has this uncanny habits of joining multiple topics in a single question like connecting border management to internal security, makes sense?
Enough Gyaanbaazi – What do we propose?
Ready?
We started thinking about Civilsdaily sometime in early January. We were talking to a friend of ours who was appearing for the civil services examination this year and among other things, he was complaining about how hard it was to connect the news items together and understand a story in full.
A lot is lost among the clamour of opinions, open letters, discussion forums and what not and news starts becoming overwhelming! And that’s how we realised that the news is broken today.
We started by hand curating bits and pieces of important news items which were most relevant news for IAS Prep. Preparing current affairs for IAS Prep is no mean task.
We aggregated the best news dailies from India and abroad and pushed them in a simple, clutter free interface – The Civilsdaily Android App!
Look familiar? We bet they do! These and many more formed the part of the current affairs questions at the UPSC 2015 Paper I this year. We are not saying that a sincere student won’t be able to ace them all (given enough time and coverage), but imagine having them all in one place – handy for a quick revision while you wait in long queues or sleep through those boring lectures, wait for your code to compile in the office or that customary chai-sutta break!
What next?
If you are preparing for UPSC 2016 & beyond – There is no reason why you should miss even a single day @civilsdaily. While we understand that it’s not easy to remember all the news items, we do firmly believe that key point summaries + regular revisions will go a long way in making current affairs for IAS Prep easy for you!
For those looking forward to this year’s mains – Try and read all the News Stories that we have been making all this while.
All right then, it’s time to end this blog lest it becomes too didactic! Share your experiences – if you have been a seasoned exam taker, let us know your experiences.
Share this post! Let it reach as many students as it should. A community is only as strong as its members and we would love to break the UPSC Mains’ code as well!
PS: We have started bringing in independent mentors, guests and rankers at the CD Hub. The idea is to make concepts lucid and understanding easy!
PPS: If you have benefitted from our endeavours, please take some time and rate us at the Playstore. If you have already done that, won’t you be nicer still and tell us about civilsdaily at this question @Quora!
See you around!
Ask anything and everything.
Starting out with your IAS prep? Read this blog – CD’s Guide to IAS Prep: From Aspirant to IAS Officer
Link to the FREE android app – Click here to download
Here’s an explainer video on how to use Civilsdaily.com –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGu0Glgpcsw
