How to approach Current events of national and international importance

Information about Current events both National and International is of utmost importance for the entire exams and perhaps is inevitable in the Mains and Interview. In last year Mains, almost all the questions were linked to current happenings and this is where regular reading of editorials is put to use as it helps in developing perspectives and keeps you well informed. We may discuss this later as presently our focus is on the preliminary exams

        For Preliminary examinations, having current affairs as your strength is always an asset. It will definitely add on to your overall performance though you cannot only bank on them as it is vast and you never know what may be asked. But certain basic things and general news should be given importance as that is the minimum you should know about your country.

For International events, you may have to keep a tab on various wars, treaties, summits, conventions. While reading them as part of news, you may want to know more about it. For instance so much has been written and discussed about subsidies. So will it not be wise to know in details about WTO. We read so much about BRICS, isn’t important to know about it in details?

Every year we read about Nobel Prize, we think knowing about the winners is important. But what is most important is to know about the invention in details. And one may have to know how the Nobel prize started, with how much fund, which were the original subjects that were included in it, last year’s invention and winners.

 Usually for National news one may have to be updated about:

a.  The several Commissions and committees like the finance commission report, Law Commission report, budget, economic survey or committees for specific purpose like Shanta Kumar committee, Urjit Patel committee.

b.     Schemes (e.g., Jan Dhan Yojana) and new bodies formed (e.g. Niti Ayog).

c.       Important legislations

d.    Important cultural news of any part of India like the recent Nabakalebar festival of Lord Jaganath.

e.       Major awards, ceremonies.

f.       Diseases, Cyclones etc.

SOURCES

For schemes, you may keep a tab on newspapers. And by June-July every year, GK Today usually comes up with a compilation of all the major schemes for the year. 

Also if time permits, you can go through India Year book published every year. I however prefer a simple guide to the year book that New Vishals comes up with. It somehow is simple and easy to read. Not all sections are important. It will be discussed later.

The most important thing however will be to solve questions from test series available online because usually the questions cover the important news of the year. You need not necessarily join any test series as most of the question booklets are available in regular shops in Delhi at Old Rajinder Nagar 

[Kumar Book Centre, Mobile: 09968637044, 08826403255, 07042539169 or visit www. http://kumarbooks.com/]. You can call the shop and place your order. It’s usually reliable. Test Series of Vajiram and Ravi, Career Launcher and Vision IAS is good.

Also one has to buy a manual for GS Paper I like Tata McGraw Hill or Arihant. One of our teachers had suggested Spectrum Manual and I can vouch for it. It is crisp and covers all relevant sections. The international and national events section along with the GK portion is a must.

Apart from all this, if you still have time you can order Current Affair booklet of Vision IAS. I will however give it a skip this time ;)

Important Websites: [very very important]

For current affairs, the most important website is http://www.gktoday.in/. It is very useful and one should go through it every alternate day.

Websites like http://mrunal.org/ and http://www.insightsonindia.com/ are also very useful. However for this section I would suggest gktoday. 

 

Two things need to be kept in mind. It becomes usually very difficult to revise everything that has happened for the past one year during exams (usually it is from July to July). My solution to it is as follows and in no way it is the best way or the only way. I just feel it is working for me and it may work for you.

Though one may read newspaper regularly it won’t be possible always to make notes, considering that you are already busy with your work or studies. Also, even if you make notes, you may find it difficult to revise it right before exams. So one may consider making a small current affairs dictionary either online (Like evernote) or in hard copy. And whatever organization, or new medicine or disease or area is in news it can be recorded in the dictionary alphabetically. So while reading the newspaper you highlight the key words and add it to your dictionary. Whenever you are free, you may just Google the terms and read it at your leisure. Every Sunday just revise the dictionary and as Sundays should usually be off days with no pressure of work or studies, dictionary work can be prioritized. Before exams it will be easier to go through the dictionary.

The second thing one should keep in mind is that questions will not always be lifted from what is happening around. Questions may be asked on the institutions in news. For example this time the Indian Prime Minister has extensively travelled to several countries, so some of the questions in Prelims 2015 of current affairs were also from that area, usually referred to as GK. And the trend may continue because the visits aren’t stopping ;)

For better understanding, lets us see some of the questions that came from this section in Prelims 2015.

So there were the Simple and Direct ones like:

Which one of the following was given classical language status recently?
a) Odia
b) Konkani
c) Bhojpuri
d) Assamese

[This was asked last year. So yes, UPSC very much repeats questions. Of course it was in news too]

 Amnesty International is
a) an agency of the United Nations to help refugees of civil wars
b) a global Human Rights Movement
c) a non-governmental voluntary organization to help very poor people
d) an inter-governmental agency to cater to medical emergencies in war-ravaged regions

[So many parts of the world are engaged in wars every now and then and Amnesty International’s reports are usually quoted in editorials.]

 H1N1 virus is sometimes mentioned in the news with reference to which one of the following diseases?
(a) AIDS
(b) Bird flu
(c) Dengue
(d) swine flu

[Very much in news always, for the past few years]

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ often seen in the news, is
a) a strategy to tackle the regional terrorism, an outcome of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
b) a plan of action for sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, an outcome of deliberations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum
c) an agenda for women’s empowerment, an outcome of a World Conference convened by the United Nations
d) a strategy to combat wildlife trafficking, a declaration of the East Asia Summit

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has been launched for
a) providing housing loan to poor people at cheaper interest rates
b) Promoting women’s Self Help Groups in backward areas
c) promoting financial inclusion in the country
d) providing financial help to marginalised communities

[Cannot be more easy than this]

The ‘Fortaleza Declaration’ recently in the news, is related to the affairs of:
a) ASEAN
b) BRICS
c) OECD
d) WTO

Among the following which were frequently mentioned in the news for the outbreak of Ebola virus recently?
a) Syria and Jordan
b) Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia
c) Philippines and Papua New Guinea
d) Jamaica, Haiti and Surinam

Indirect and Tricky ones

India is a member of which of the following?
1. Asia-Pacific economic corporation.
2. Association of South-East Asian Nations.
3. East Asia Summit
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 and 2 only
b) 3 only
c) 1, 2, and 3
d) India is a member of none of them

[You should know India’s membership and non-membership into several of such groups especially in a time when all of these organizations have been in news. I ignored this section completely; of course I will pay for it ;)]

With reference to bio-toilets used by the Indian Railways, consider the following statements:
1. The decomposition of human waste in the bio-toilets is initiated by a fungal inoculum.
2. Ammonia and water vapour are the only end products in this decomposition which are released into the atmosphere.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

[I have put this in the tricky part because though it was very much in news, was discussed in the railway budget; many people might have ignored its details.]

Which of the following has/have been accorded ‘Geographical Indication’ status?
1. Banaras Brocades and Sarees
2. Rajasthani Daal-Bati-Churma
3. Tirupathi Laddu
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 only 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

[Recently there was a debate on the origin of Rasgulla where people from Odisha were demanding Geographical Indication status for it and were of course opposed by people of West Bengal. So a curious student should ideally know which other products in India have had this status.]

Do not be scared by seeing the sources or the questions. The more you get comfortable with these, the more you will like the exams, the more you will do well.