Geography some topics

I will keep updating the topic headings which i feel are important for mains as well as Prelims. Prepare notes on them, and don't go through the factual things understand thoroughly so that u can answer any direct or indirect Question.

Earthquake , Plate tectonics, P waves S waves and Surface Waves, Tsunami, Continental drift theory..........

----will be continued

Biodiversity

Bio diversity is all those different forms of life on earth

The United nations held Summit for Biodiversity in Rio de Janerio in 1992 also called as the Earth Summit,  you can even call it Rio summit as it was held in place called Rio de Janerio
UN declared the year 2010 as international year for bio diversity


Coming up next ----> India's contribution to biodiversity and other important topics

Indian National movement Timeline :

Birth of Indian National Congress -> 1885
Phases of Indian National Movement
Moderate Nationalism-> 1885 to 1905
Extremist Nationalism -> 1905 to 1919
partition of Bengal-> 1905
Surat Split-> 1907
Minto Morley reforms or Indian councils act of 1909 -> 1909
Montague Chelmsford reforms or Govt of india Act 1919 -> 1919
Home rule movement-> 1915 - 1916
Rowlatt act and Jallianwala bagh Massacre-> 1919
Non Cooperation movement -> 1920 to 1922
Gandhian Era -> 1919 to 1947
Khilafat movement-> 1919 to 1924
Simon commission -> 1927
Nehru committee report -> 1928
First round table conf -> 1930 Nov to Jan 1931
Gandhi Irwin Pact -> 1931
Civil Disobidience movement -> 1930 to 1934
Communal award and Poona pact -> 1932
Third round table conf -> 1932
White paper of March 1933
Govt of india act 1935
Reserve bank of india -> 1935
August Offer -> 1940
Cripps Mission -> 1942
Quit India movement -> 1942
CR Formula -> 1944
Simla Conf -> 1945
Cabinet mission plan -> 1946
Indian Independence and partition -> 1947

We will discuss whenever time permits the imp events of history

Simply Economy

Everyone stresses on reading the news paper specially The Hindu for GS paper of KAS , IAS or any civil service, But it would seem boring if we do not have the basics cleared, only the Kgs of paper will increase and news reading becomes boring as we find many words as Inflation, deflation, ASI,Purchase power etc etc.

We will deal with these one by one, say Inflation, The Explanation and illustrations may not always be technically perfect, its just for better understanding

Note: Have copied some Pics from Web to make it simpler

Inflation Definition: General raise in the price of goods and commodities,

Why Inflation?

Too much of Liquidity i.e Printing of more currency by Govt or When there is more currency flow in the market
Raise in the production costs or raw materials by manufacturers for Profit sake
Less availability of goods etc i.e when demand for a particular product is more
Tax Raise
Increase in Population
Low Foreign direct investment

Inflation also occurs if Employment rate is high i.e if low unemployment which means purchasing power of people goes up and hence prices go up...

Eg: Because of IT effect in bangalore all Software guys are ready to pay more rent due to good salaries and the real estate spikes up...............
Thus Inflation also depends upon Purchasing power

Liquidity----->
Purchasing power----> is the Peoples Ability to buy goods etc etc


Inflation Some more Ex: Suppose Govt buying oil from Iran, and Iran might increase oil prices for some reasons , if we buy oil for such high prices, will impact in transportation cost, Food and all other things.

If in Agricultural production, for a year onion grown is too less to meet the needs of all the 100 crore people, then onion prices will increase

Or else if everyone has sufficient money to buy onions, then demand for onion will increase , hence the prices of goods depending on onion will go up... all these are just every day happenings and condition is Famously called Inflation

Types of inflation                                                                                     






Cost push inflation  
 As the name itself says occurs when there is increase in the cost of production of goods, subsequently the price of Finished products also increases

Eg: Suppose there is increase in the cost of carrot or onion , all fast food centres increase the price of onion dosa, not even these, even Bhel puri tikki puri prices also will go up

Demand pull inflation
 If the Demand for a particular commodity is more than its supply then occurs the demand pull inflation i.e if there is a limited amount of shirts in a shop and the buyers are more than the available stock, then the strategy to decide who gets the shirts is one who can pay higher than others obviously increasing the price of that shirt than usual.
Demand pull inflation depends on the purchasing power of the people. if People have more money then they will rush to buy the goods which might result in raise price of goods to match the supply, hence resulting in demand pull inflation

Fiscal Inflation
When there is excess Govt spending This type of inflation occurs,Situations like disasters occur and govt has to spend more on recovery and rehabilitation.                   Hyperinflation  This type of inflation occurs during war after war is over ,i.e it is an inflation which is out of control

Measures to Control Inflation

Who does it?

Govt, Central Banks,Monetary authorities or Finance ministries.Methods?
Monetary Measures
Fiscal Measures
Other measuresMonetary measures:

• These are the measures taken by Central Bank i.e RBI in india.
• IT will control the money supply by increasing the Bank rates. When there is more interest rate people will not go for loans , stop spending more inturn savings will increase, Thus the circulation of money is less and hence slowly reduces inflation.
• Reserve ratio will be increased (We will discuss this someother time)
• Central bank will sell the Govt securities and bonds to contract supply of money

Fiscal Measures Will be done by Govt through

• Direct Taxes increase(Eg:income tax)reducing the purchasing power of people decreases and thus demand for goods and services also reduces
• Increase in Public borrowing
• Reduce Public expenditure
• Govt can also make Protectionist measures like banning export of essentials like pulses creals to increase domestic consumption, and Encourage imports by reducing the import duties on import items.

Other measures or long term measures

• Population control, more the people more the demand... hence family planning awareness should be created among people.
• Increase the supply of goods by increasing production specially agricultural and industrial products, so that self sufficiency is maintained apart from exporting and inturn reducing the prices. Encourage agriculture and allied activities then most inflation will be reduced.
• Effective planning is needed to taclke inflation such as Control Illegal activities such as smuggling, say if Rice sugar and oil or any other thing is exported illegally toi get higher prices then causes scarcity and increases prices here.

Egs:
1.In many cases Inflation is created artificially to gain more profits by creating insecurity among people
Eg: Rumours spread like gold price is going to hiked on akshaya tritiya day and all people rush to shops and buy gold, which itself increases prices becuase of shortage in gold... and thus inflation occurs.

2.Insecurity in investors should be removed by maintaining peace and harmony, i.e if the workers go on strikes or dharna , it will stop production , causing demand for goods due to shortage of goods.


Finally Good economic planning will reduce inflation... and helps in developing a healthy economy.

Buy Books Online at Flipkart.com!

Choosing an Optional Subject

Many candidates ask me through mail on Optional Subjects, And I Always have only This Answer

Optional Subjects play a critical role in securing good score in the Main Examination, this is the most common thing that every aspirant knows. There are some more basic things which any one who is preparing for the Civil Services must consider ,


Deciding Subjects should be truly on their strength in the same, Not because there is a Popular Quote saying 'It has good Scoring records from past' . I have seen a lot of people carrying the statistics saying Pub Ad is scoring, History and geography are less scoring, Kannada Litt is better than others. I would say None of these are actually true. If you master any Subject and develop good writing Skills in that, None can hold you back from Scoring.
I have been repeatedly saying from my other posts in the blog that Choosing an optional Subject should be made only on ones interest in the subject.
Some subjects might be lengthy or may not have good scoring statistics, but that doesn't mean no one can achieve good scores by choosing such subjects, You can be an exception by trying it .

Optional subjects are a matter of Personal Choice, Do not decide them on a Public forum.

Before choosing Just look at the syllabus and see If you are comfortable with that and then go for it.
There was a popular Quote ' If Some one has done it Then you can also Do It, If No one has done it Then YOU MUST DO IT '

KAS 2012 Prelims Date Fixed for April 22nd

KPSC has finally put an end to all the confusions mounting over the Exam Date of Prerliminary Exam to be held for Gazetted probationers. Much awaited Feb 26th is ignored and as of now Prelims is decided to be held on April 22, you can have a look at the same news dated today, i.e 2nd Feb Prajavani. There is almost 2.5 months Exteended time to prepare for Prelims.

Small Tip to prepare on Indian Polity

It will be of great help if we are going for Comparative analysis and study Indian Polity

Eg: Read President and then Governor , Compare their Role and Functions. Similarly Supreme court and High court, Parliament and State legislature etc...

KAS notification for 2011 is out Finally...

KPSC has notified recently that KAS exams for 2011 Gazetted Prrobationers will be conducted in the month of Febraury 2012 and  Mains Exam for same will be in June 2012. Applications are available online and you can apply till Dec 12th 2011. Please reead the instructions correctly and apply.

There is very less time and hence speed up your process of preparation.

New Pattern from 2012 and Prelims Syllabus as given in News paper

New Pattern from 2012 and Prelims Syllabus as given in Gazette of Karnataka:

I have Copy pasted from the PDF  you can check it at:

http://gazette.kar.nic.in/15-09-2011/Part-EOG-(Page-4745-4896).pdf 

The Preliminary Examination shall consist of two papers of objective type

(multiple choice),-

(i) each paper carrying 100 questions with each question carrying two marks; and

(ii) each paper shall be of a maximum of 200 marks and of a duration of two hours (Total for two papers

400 marks) in the following description, namely:-

Sl. No.	Subject Area	Number of Questions	Marks
PAPER - I
1	General studies related to National and International importance 40 80	40	80
2	Humanities 60 120	60	120
Total		100	200
PAPER - II
1	General studies related to State importance 40 80	40	80
2	General Science & Technology Environment & Ecology 30 60	30	60
3	General Mental Ability 30 60	30	60
Total		100	200

Note:

1. The question paper shall be set both in Kannada and English.

2. The standard of General Mental Ability questions of preliminary examination (aptitude test) shall be that of

X/SSLC level and the remaining papers are of Degree Level.

3. The number of candidates to be admitted to the main examination shall be 20 times the vacancies notified

for recruitment in the order of merit on the basis of the performance in the preliminary examination subject

to accommodating the same ratio in adequate number of candidates belonging to the categories of

Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, each of the other Backward Classes and others.

(ii) under the heading “Section II”, “Syllabi for the Examination” for Part-A and entries relating thereto,

the following shall be substituted, namely:-

“PART - A

SYLLABI FOR THE EXAMINATION

1. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION (objective type):

PAPER - I

(i) Current events of National and International importance.

(ii) Humanities – History of India – Emphasis shall be on broad general understanding of the subject

in its social, economic, cultural and political aspects with a focus on Indian national movement

with special emphasis on Karnataka.

(iii) World Geography and Geography of India with a focus on Karnataka.

(iv) Indian polity and economy, including the country’s political system, rural development, planning

and economic reforms in India-sustainable development, poverty alleviation, demographics, social

sector initiatives etc.,

PAPER - II

(i) Current events of State importance and important State Government programmes.

(ii) General Science & Technology, Environment & Ecology-contemporary developments in science and

technology and their implications including matters of everyday observations and experience, as

may be expected of a well-educated person who has not made a special study of any scientific

discipline general issues on Health, environmental ecology, biodiversity and climate change that do

not require subject specialization.

(iii) General Mental Ability,- Comprehension, Logical reasoning and Analytical ability, Decision making,

problem solving, Basic innumeracy (numbers and their relations, order of magnitude etc.,) and

data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc., (class X/SSLC level).”

So Take a Deep Breath ... Only so much to Study :)

Syllabus change and the confusion

There is a lot of confusion on whether syllabus changed for mains also...?
some news papers claim the same that its an open secret that syllabus is changed for mains and they claim the subjects...

Anyways the real owners (i.e The KPSC office) have never come out and said that " Yes We have changed Pattern and syllabi of Mains as well..." as they did for Prelims..

Hence No need too Panic... Just Chill out and prepare as per the old pattern of Mains Exam.

Compulsory Kannada and English

For Compulsory Kannada and English Need not spend much time,except for reading as its only of 10th class Level

If you have Long written Kannada then may be just write a page or so whenever time permits. No  need to Panic as its only Qualifying Marks and at the same time should not take too light also...

Just be in touch with the grammar.

For English from magazine wizard can find some help.

On Conclusion can say that Grammar Correction + Reading news papers will help in English language Paper and for Kannada News Paper + some writing will do a good job.

Role of Dictionary and writing a good Answer

How many times do we understand the Questions Correctly? 

Eg: Do you Find any Diff between the following Questions?
       1. Describe Ashoka's policy of Dhamma.
       2. Comment on Ashoka's Dhamma

Is the answer for both the above are same or do they follow the same steps of Explanation?

No ..........

Because there is difference in the meaning of words Describe and Comment

If you look into Dictionary: Describe -> State the characteristics or appearance
Comment -> Give your View Point

So Friends we all generally come to conclusions after seeing the question and write answer in similar fashion for both.Before looking at dictionary also you just knew the meaning of words, But just knowing and Exactly knowing makes a huge difference. If we had known exact meanings we can change the style of writing accordingly. This is where we can fetch marks. Otherwise also there will be mention of Ashoka's Dhamma in both the answers. What the Question Demands will be met if we know exactly.

Hence a Very Dictionary should be on your table all times of your preparation. Even though we know good English, we will not be having the Insight knowledge of words.
A good Dictionary will help you understand complex topics also. Don't worry if you have to look into Dictionary a number of times also. You will be benefited in long run...

Here i would like to give you few words mostly which will appear in questions and Answer accordingly:

Describe
Discuss
Debate
Do You agree?
Evaluate
Elucidate
Examine
Trace
To what Extent.... etc

Once you understand this concept. Whenever you are studying a topic, you will analyse it in different directions.

Hope this helps you and Try to add more words by yourself. then you can write an effective answer to any question.

Also Read : http://kas-aspirants.blogspot.in/2012/12/last-minute-answer-writing-tips.html

Public Administration Ref books

@ Manoj Through Mail ->Books for Public Administration

Some of the books to be followed are as below:

1. New horizons of Pub Adm : Mohit Bhattacharya
2 Public Administration : Avasthi and Maheshwari
3 Indian Administration : Rajni goyal
4 Administrative Thinkers : Prasad and Prasad
5 Financial Administration : M.J.K. Thavaraj
6 Local Administration : S.R. Maheshwari
7.Public administration by Lakshmikanth may also help you. But Mohit Bhattacharya is the book to start with specially from Mains Point of view.
Public Administration Books At Flipkart.com !

If you are not able to understand any part get the help of internet. Else for subjects like Pub Ad Group discussions will help to clear the concepts.

Kurukshetra and Yojana on rural Development , women,SC/ST empowerment – must for Public Administration optional)

Adding a Comment from :

Soumya DollyJanuary 19, 2013 at 5:22 PM

i referred fadia & fadia , ramesh arora , mohit bhattacharya(gives analytical view) , sapru (for public policy) , avasti & maheshwari , prasad & prasad (administrative thinkers), laxmikanth (for p-2) etc and some random websites which i cant remember right now. but one has to refer the books which they find interesting and suitable according to syllabus and question paper trends. i think Mr.Nikhil can guide u better as he has written mains(UPSC) twice.

Study Planner for Working professionals

Civil service still the major attraction and an brilliant option to all those who wants to serve society with any educational background.
Even after having the best paid jobs will not let students stop dreaming about Civils...
But a major problem how to keep up the pace of studies while working, here are some small tips from my side. Hope it will help you in some way.


Usually the Preliminary exam will be in the month of May to June and Mains in month of Oct or Nov
Lets start from Prelims stage: In any case its good if prepare from both prelims and mains point of view.
suppose you Start preparation from the month of Sep say ...

• Choose the subjects based on your own thoughts not on others opinion.
• Surf the net or collect info on what books to Read
• Don't forget to buy at least one competitive Magazine, Civil Service chronicle the best one and may be for Karnataka or Kannada students Sparda chaitra or Sparda Spoorthi easily available in market.
• Purchase Map book and subscribe to Yojana and Kurukshetra
• Read news paper during Lunch or tea break in office. After coming home its tough to read the big books, may be you can go through the question papers of previous years and familiarize yourself with the type of questions asked, in some time you can easily guess the important areas of asked questions.
• During Weekends or on Holidays Make sure you are at least reading the NCERT or basic books.
• Go through the world map and Indian map try to understand the river systems and different imp places in world map.
• In free time surf net for National and state issues on various administrative points and Education related and environment related things.
• Practice this till end of November. From December no compromise on regular minimum 4 hrs of study, and on weekends and holidays 8 hrs Must.
• Once your thorough with the basics, then start reading the reference books.

Remember there is no substitute to Reference books and your hard work, None of the coaching classes can provide that.

There are lot of people in rural area who have cleared exams with good results just with the help of Books.
Remember the lines if one has done it, it means that you can also do it. and if none has done it , it only means that YOU MUST DO IT.

Don't worry if your finance is not good enough to join classes or not able to join due to time constraints, Even in coaching they will read from books and teach you. That you can very well do it by yourself just by spending more time. Collect as much as info before December for studying and then start studying full fledged from December.

I have been seeing lot of people saying not able to spend time as we are working. I understand as i had faced same problem. But do we have an option, to succeed  we must work hard rite?
If you have Joined the classes, Don't just to think we know lot of things (am not criticising), its a fact that we think that i know something which is better than my previous state,actually we are wrong, just see the Mains Question paper and Judge yourself.

Well I can say this much , am also a learner, Study well. You can also give me some more tips for studies.

All the best

Regarding Coaching Classes

Lot of Institutions in Bangalore are meant specially for the IAS and KAS exams.You can find them throughout bangalore Specially in Vijaynagar which is called hub of competetive exams.

But I would like to advise you all that Most of the institutions just make Huge success claims which is False and your Hard earned money should not be wasted for such things.

If you are very serious about the exam then I suggest you to make thorough enquiry about the institution you are willing to join. You will get better information over internet than those institutions, its my personal experience. I do not like to mention the name of the instituion here, you can find the reviews for the same in lot of sites.

If you work hard little more you YOURSELF can gain better knowledge than that offered by the coaching institutes.

I had been in touch with quite a lot of people who went for coaching ( institues which claim great success in results) But we have realised they are not up to the mark.

But definitely you will have some advantages like:

-> You will get like minded people and serious candidates

-> you will be somehow in touch of the subjects whether study at home or not...

-> some basic idea of the exam and what books to read and other minor things.

Disadvantages:

-> You might get influenced by the trainer's dialogues: as some claim that if you are reading this notes 3 times is sufficient for clearing the exam... this doesnt make sense.

-> You may loose your own opinion of choosing an optional.

Be careful if you want success listen to your heart first, because it is you who has to read and understand and write in exam.

Dont get inspired by others who Show you general statistics saying this optional has been scoring... since scoring in any subject is possible if you have developed good writing skills :) only 10% accounts for choosing a subject, rest needs your effort.

KAS Prelims Pattern Changed

From Prajavani News paper dated 26th Aug 2011 : Karnataka Administrative Service - KAS Prelims  Exam pattern to be on lines of IAS Exam conducted by UPSC.

Examination Process at 3 stages as before:

*** Preliminary Exam ---> having 2 papers

       Paper1 General studies

       Paper2 Mostly as CSAT paper2

***Mains Exam ---> As per the old pattern

       2 optional Subjects

      General studies paper

      Compulsory English and Compulsory Kannada

***Personality Test

It May be published officially in website of KPSC in two months but the pattern change is confirmed.

Initial preparation for KAS Exam?

KAS is one of the prestigious exam that the karnataka state govt conducts. Many say the exam is not conducted in a transparent manner. Many even on stop before they trying for the same...

Anyways lets keep all the controversies aside and start preparing with the hope if we have good marks then nobody can stop us in securing a Seat in KAS services that too without going for any coaching classes.

If one has already decided about the optionals they want to take in mains, its fine. They can start preparing in respect of mains exam. Its more unlikely that the syllabus or pattern of mains is going to change at this point of time ( for prelims it might change as many are saying). Anyways even if they change the pattern of the exam the basic theme of general studies will not change.

Many say that there needs to be separate preparations for prelims and mains. but its not 100% correct. if you prepare in respect of mains initially our confidence in subjects will increase.

First get the question papers of General studies and optionals and make your self familiar with the questions, and then start with all basic books such as NCERT , (reading NCERT books will definitely help you in remembering things for a long time).

After NCERT only start reading Reference books. otherwise for students who are from science background or people who are writing their exam after a long gap of graduation will stumble at many steps of their preparation.

Make notes of everything that you are studying and start practicing the answers. this will help you get very good marks. Many of us just read things but we are not prepared to write. There is huge difference between Just an answer and the Best answer.

Then read news paper daily without fail and make note of important things in a separate book, may not write the full paragraphs but in short words so that you recall when required.

If you are a fresh graduate and chosen subjects of your degree, then at great advantage. if not Better understand the things rather than going through some local manuals.

We will discuss about General studies and News paper reading in a separate post

Suggestions are welcome.

About the Exam

The Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), established in 1951 under the provisions of the Constitution, recruits candidates to the various civil services across the state. The selection is done on the basis of marks scored by candidates in the commission’s examination ( preliminary and main) and personality test. For some services in the state, the commission only conducts written competitive examination or takes a personality test of the candidate.
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Karnataka Public Service Commission Examination Process

Karnataka Administrative Service examination is a three stage process:Stage I. Preliminary Examination (Objective Type) for the Selection of candidates to the main examination; and

Stage II. Main Examination (Written Examination) for selection of candidates to the personality test.

Stage III.Personality test: For final selection of candidates to various posts/ cadres

Information on Age and Eligibility are provided in KPSC website : http://kpsc.kar.nic.in/