[Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from Newspapers in Less than

one hour for UPSC IAS IPS CSAT Exam

This article is in response to many panic mails that I receive, help! It takes more
than 4 hours just to read The Hindu.
1. Why is it important to read the newspaper?
2. Cant I just use Chronicle, Civil Service Times or Pratiyogita Darpan?
3. What are profile-based interview questions?
Location-based questions
Academic background based questions.
Hobby
Firefighting
4. Which newspapers should I read
5. Should I read more than one newspaper?
6. What are the important items in a newspaper?
Administration/ Polity
National News
International News
Economy
FrontPage
Columns / Editorials
What to prepare from Columns/ Editorials?
Sports / music / life-style/ Bollywood
7. How to read the newspaper in less than 1 hour?
The beginning
The front-page and second page
Third, fourth and fifth page
The 6 to 9 Page
Page 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, you
have to read newspapers.
Why is it important to read the newspaper?
Because in the government job exams, at all three stages (preliminary, Mains
and interview) . They ask questions related to current affairs.
To write a decent essay, you need facts and viewpoints. For this you need
Fodder, and newspapers are best sources for the fodder material.
Cant I just use Chronicle, Civil Service Times or
Pratiyogita Darpan?
Such magazines only serve as supplement and not as substitute of the
newspapers.
Why? Because the magazines have the page limit, they cannot give justice to
every 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 you
in 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, district
and 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 to
TB/HIV/Malaria/Delhi Superbug related research, etc.
If youre a B.A (English): Whats the latest trend in English literature? What
was the controversy in the Jaipur literature festival? And so on.
Hobby
Tennis, Cricket, Chess, Computer: then you are supposed to know the current
affairs 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
hour. (i.e. When the interview or group-discussion (GD) is barely 20-30 days
away).
Then They start google searching for GK related to their profile.
In such a short time, you cannot cover all satisfactorily. Therefore, daily
reading 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 the
local newspapers only serve the masala news of politics, cricket and
Bollywood.
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 Hindu
and 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, but
you 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 from
newspaper. 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 union
and 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 birth
anniversary of Nehru Gandhi Family). It is important because, they list out the
various developmental schemes and provisions in it. Most important part is
who runs the scheme? for example NREGA thing for under the jurisdiction
of rural development Ministry (and not under Labour Ministry)
4. Election related items: what will the initiatives taken by the election
commission? 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 reforms
for the profile Based Questions)
What is not important?
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 in
investigation or court and how to prevent it in future. You dont have to go in
minute 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 23th
October 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 now
experts and politicians say we need a comprehensive hostage-crisis guideline
after this incidence= important.
Railway accidents, how many killed =not important. Reason for the rail
accident 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= not
important. But the reason behind those geographical phenomenons =
important.
ISRO sends an artificial satellite = important. How much does it weigh? = not
important.
When and How many men did leopards kill in Maharashtra = not important.
Why is leopard killing men in Maharashtra= important. What is Government
doing to stop the leopard? = important.
International News
1. Bilateral visits of prime ministers and presidents. What treaties or trade pacts
did 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, US
vs China / Russia missile defence, NATO-Afghanistan and so on.
6. Meetings of organisations such as ASEAN, G20 etc , and particularly what
India 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
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 the
time, 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 a
20 years old photo when he/she was in college. If you ever happen to see
them in actual TV Debate, it turns out theyre quite older than what they look
in the newspapers.
Editorial is written by the editor himself. For example Shekhar Gupta for
IndianExpress on Saturday. While Columns are written by experts (including
self-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 and
line 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 file
those newspaper cuttings. So do whichever method suits you (noting
down or filing the cuttings).
But Not every column is worth your time and energy. For example in
Indianexpress, there is one guy writes about Nepals political turomil every
week. But in Nepal, the Prime ministers are changed every week and this guy
happens to give ball by ball commentery of everything. Its not worth the
Cost-benefit ratio. So skip him.
Similarly there is one Yogindar Alagh in Indianexpress, who pretends to write
on rural Development but just I did this and that when I was a
minister=Not important.
Maintain the balance: some column writers have a habit of being totally
cynical 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 reform
suggestions.
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 is
tennis or chess, then you must follow the related sport-news.
For others, I say just skip it. Anything historic about Sports will get published
in the competitive magazines and or the free blogs/ current-affairs related
websites anyways. So daily following these sports-pages = not worth the time
and energy.
Bollywood and cricket related news = not important in any case. Unless
something 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.
1. A study-desk or Table
2. A Red colored 0.7mm ballpoint pen and or a red sketch pen.
3. Loose papers, folders, notebooks
4. 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 explained
above).
Third, fourth and fifth page
Is usually Gujarat / Ahmedabad news for example
20 people died in car accident in rajkot
xyz girl eloped with a neighbour
A cop was found taking bribes
Stone-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 Gandhi
written 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 environmental
issue vs. livelihood of ship-breakers in Alang
Gujarat State Government launches Girl Child education and School
enrollment drive.
Ahmedabad Municipal corp will give Rs.250/- to all Government school
students who live more than 3 kms from the school, apart from the mid-day
meal, Bicycle distribution and Vidhyalaxmi scheme.
We are done with 5 pages
The 6 to 9 Page
These are devoted to national news
Only concentrate on important exam oriented news. Underline the important
lines 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. Highlight
the 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 / cut
and file it.
Your can either keep five separate full-scape notebooks. OR you can write
these in loose papers and then file it in five separate folders.
The advantage of loose papers = you can add more pages between, when the
follow up news comes. For example in case of QFIs. Same is not possible in a
notebook.
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- write
or paste the state/city related news. Second part- about your
academic background
Third part- news related to hobbies.
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 the
keywords 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 and
note down the gemstones.
Ive seen Maestros who write the summary note of entire The Hindu
newspaper on just one side of an A4 sized paper, without missing even a single
important item. They dont read every line of a newspaper, their eyes are
trained to scan through the lines and hand automatically highlights the
keywords. Its an art and can be mastered only by practice Daily writing habit
also 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 a
contender. 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
URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/06/current-affairs-ias.html