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[Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from

Newspapers in Less than one hour for UPSC IAS
IPS CSAT Exam

Study-Plans
RBI (Prelims)RBI
(Written)KAS
(Kashmir)ACIOCAT
(IIM)CPF (Asst.
Commandant)SPIPA
(Gujarat Only)

CSAT (IAS
Prelims)

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 profilebased interview questions or roleplaying questions.

What are profilebased 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 roleplaying 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 11thhour.
(i.e. When the interview or groupdiscussion (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.

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. (I'm 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 stateGovernment 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 23rd 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, NATOAfghanistan 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.
1. 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.
2. 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-veryimportant. 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 selfproclaimed 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 antiGovernment. 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 / lifestyle/ 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.
4. Loose papers, folders, notebooks
5. 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 etc.

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 partwrite or paste
the state/city
related news.

Second partabout your

academic
background
Third part- news
related to
hobbies.
S&T

All the sciencetech,

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 timeconsuming 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 practise. Daily writing
habit also improves your handwriting
speed, which is again important for the
Mains exam.
Like a professional athelete,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.
June 6th, 2012 | Category: strategy
Copyright 2012 Mrunal- All Rights Reserved

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