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1.

Prologue

2.

DIY-P1: Beginning the Prelim cum Mains preparation

3.

DIY-P2: Approaching Science Tech, IT, Space, Defense

4.

DIY-P3: Approaching Environment, Agriculture, Geography, Economy & Polity

5.

DIY-P4: Approaching History, Culture, IR/Diplomacy

6.

DIY-P5: theHindu Reading from Frontpage to Editorial

7.

DIY-P6: theHindu: Reading from Economy to theEnd

8.

Recommended books to kick start UPSC prep

Prologue

Here starts my first lecture for the new year and new prelims- brief analysis of last
years prelim-GS paper and how to read thehindu newspaper for UPSC?

Often candidates outside Delhi, underestimate and neglect thehindu for preparation of
their general studies and thereby hurting their own chances of getting good ranks in civil
services exam.

PowerPoint available at http://Mrunal.org/download

DIY-P1: Beginning the Prelim cum Mains preparation

the difference between a UPSC lover and a UPSC killer

the syllabus and analysis of general studies for preliminary and Mains examination

how to approach science and technology for prelims cum Mains preparation

overview of the MCQ asked from public health topic in UPSC 2015 preliminary exam

how to cover the public health, pharmacy and medicine related News from the Hindu,
for UPSC prelims and Mains

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/bJ87N_ZpFCo

DIY-P2: Approaching Science Tech, IT, Space, Defense

within science and technology topic, how to approach information technology (IT),
space and defense, agriculture inherently related topics from the Hindu newspaper

how to prepare ISRO related topics for UPSC prelims, mains and interview

how to meticulously prepare the defense innovation and joint exercises

how to prepare the theoretical portion of science and technology from NCERTs and
general studies manuals.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/d1P5RAn3JpM

DIY-P3: Approaching Environment, Agriculture, Geography,

Economy & Polity

Environment & Biodiversity: five subtypes of MCQ asked in UPSC 2015 Prelims

Relevance of the Hindu newspaper preparation of environment for prelims and Mains

Why read India yearbook?

Why read NIOS and NCERTs for wildlife, flora, fauna and pollution related MCQs in
UPSC prelims?

How to approach physical, Indian and world geography for Prelims and Mains? How
to cultivate map reading skills?

How to approach economy, banking, finance for prelims, mains and interview?
How to approach Indian polity and Constitution? Relevance of M. Laxmikanth, India
yearbook, the Hindu newspaper and Prsindia.org

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/d5jaw2EyfI8

DIY-P4: Approaching History, Culture, IR/Diplomacy

how to prepare Indian culture, ancient and mediaeval and modern India and world
history?

Importance of NIOS, Tamilnadu textbooks, Spectrum and Bipan Chandra.

Why old NCERTs are not relevant except for World history?

Analysis of MCQs asked from history and culture topic in UPSC 2015

Approaching international relations (IR), diplomacy and diaspora topics for Mains.
Analysis of the IR/grouping questions asked in Prelims-2015.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/a839lzLqiTs

DIY-P5: the Hindu Reading from Frontpage to Editorial

Why read thehindu newspaper for UPSC civil services IAS/IPS exam?

Understanding the PMIF framework: Prelims, mains, interview or fodder?

How to analyse the news on frontpage from prelims, mains and interview
perspective?
How to fasttrack page 2 to 7 which are littered with coaching ads and Delhi crime?

How to fast track page 8 to 9 where hardly few centimeters of space is given to The
NATION!

Why read the columns, letters to editors and the editorials, and how to make notes out
of them?

Sample editorial All in the spirit of equality- how to digest it for UPSC prelims,
mains and interview perspective.

How to eliminate useless news from the perspective pages i.e. page 11 and 12.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/iw9RRWjZ_eE

DIY-P6: theHindu: Reading from Economy to theEnd

How to read the economy, banking, finance pages in thehindu newspaper for UPSC
point of view.

Why it is useless to follow day to day sharemarket and IRDA-RBI-SEBI

notifications?

Why read the open page in Tuesday edition?

Why ignore sports pages, except during high profile mains / interview related news?

Sample news: Lodha Committee- how to prepare it for prelims, mains and interview.

Why should we read last page about Life?

How to follow the PIN- persons in news, dead in news, places in news, books,
authors, awards and diaspora news in the hindu?

Why Government advertisements are important?

Why should we read the speeches of president and vice president?

Few tips on magazines, notes making, time management, repeated failures and career
backups

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/Ii-kDrIo8dM

Recommended books to kick start UPSC prep

Relevance

Subject

Title

Pre+Mains

Culture

Ms. Ishani Pandya (AIR-502 | ICLS) Lecture & Powerpoints

Pre+Mains

GS Theory

NIOS, NCERT, IGNOU & Tamilnadu State Books

Pre+Mains

Economy

Mrunals Lecture & Powerpoints Budget and Economic survey

Mains

Economy

GSM3: Food Processing Industry

Pre

General

Last 21 Years CSAT Prelims Topicwise Paperset by Disha Publicatio

Pre+Mains

Current Affairs

TheHindu, Frontline, Yojana Magazine, prsindia.org, idsa.in

Pre+Mains

Geography

Ms. Rajtanil Solanki (AIR-367 | IRS) lectures & Powerpoints

Mains

Geography

GSM1: Factors affecting location of Industries

Pre+Mains

Geography

School Atlas-Orient Blackswan

Pre

History

Lucent GK (for Ancient, Medieval, Modern)

Pre+Mains

History

A Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir (Spectrum Publicatio

Pre+Mains

History

Bipan Chandra: Indias struggle for independence

Mains

History

Bipan Chandra: India since independence

Pre+Mains

Polity

India 2016 (Yearbook)

Pre+Mains

Polity

Indian Polity by M.Laxmikanth

Prelims

Polity

Laxmikanths Objective Polity MCQs for Practice

Mains

Polity

GSM3: Land Reforms

Mains

Ethics

GS4: Articles and Lecture Videos @Mrunal.org

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

8.

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)

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 11th 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.

2.

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.)
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 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, 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.
8.

Climate change, environment related news.

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 sexscandles 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.
4.

Columns and Editorials related to Economy.

IIP, GDP, WPI, CPI etc. Not the numbers but the reasons behind that number and
the future because of that number.

5.
6.

International: ASEAN, World Bank, EU etc.

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.
2.

Daily Ups and downs of sharemarket.

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 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.
o

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 shipbreakers 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 pas

Economics

Same exercise

Your profile

One file or notebook, make three sub-parts in it. First part- write or paste the state/city
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 feedly browser
addon: Click me to learn the trick