HOW TO START PREPARATION FOR IAS

HOW TO START PREPARATION

As per your sugestions.......m discussing this query again.....

I WILL DISCUSS IT SECTION WISE........lets start wid INDIAN POLITY

Start with DD Basu nd then Subhash Kashyap by NBT.

Then “Perspectives On Indian Constitution” edited by Subhash Kashyap.

Indian Constitution At Work (NCERT Class XI textbook in political science, newer syllabus)

Politics in India since Independence( NCERT Class XII textbook in political science, newer syllabus)

Democracy in India: Issues and Challenges (NCERT Class XIIth textbook in Political science, older syllabus)

Democratic politics (NCERT Class Xth, newer syllabus)

**Modern History-

Began with ‘Modern India’ by Bipin Chandra, supplemented by ‘India’s struggle for Independence’ by Bipin Chandra, Mukherjee, Panikkar. Spectrum’s book on Modern India

For Ancient India, :::-- ‘Ancient India’ by R.S. Sharma (a wonderfully concise book where every single word is important) and supplemented sparsely by
‘TheWonder that was India’ by A.L. Basham.
For Medieval India, Satish Chandra’s two volumes on Medieval India quite sufficient.

Apart from this, another famous standard text is ‘An Advanced History of India’ by Majumdar, Raychaudhuri and Dutta.

--Geography

Mapping has come out to be a real challenge in recent years. The strategy to handle India map question is again practice. What one should do is to practice map everyday for one hour. Start from mountains first day, then rivers, then waterfalls and then important cities and so on. Also mark important places which are in news from news paper. Regular practice of mapping will make you more confidant. Go through atlas also

Magzine 'Geography and you' is must read, ‘Geography And You’ is available in printed as well as PDF format.

For general geography and world geography the same wizard book on geography will be more than sufficient. Special editions on these topics are published in Competition Wizard magazine which can be helpful for quick revision (only for prelims)

Indian Economy Special Issue by Pratiyogita Darpan especially for prelims.

For reference- Indian Economy by Mishra and Puri.

International affairs/ Bilateral Issues-

Contemporary World Politics( Class XIIth NCERT)

International relations chapters in the book

Democracy in India: Issues and Challenges (NCERT Class XIIth textbook in Political Science, older syllabus)

Science and technology

Science and technology section is very vast and unpredictable. . Whatever can be covered from newspapers should be done. Defence, environment, nuclear and space science are some important sections which need special emphasis.

Monthly Magzines
Pritiyogita Darpan (PD), Competition wizard and Civil services times

As far as newspaper is concerned, HINDU is ultimate

How much money is enough to retire ?

I think it depends upon ones lifestyle.

I think having a total of Rs 1crore(10m) is enough if you plan to live a modest lifestyle.

You can have a Fixed deposit of that amount which gives you around 9-10 lacs (900k to 10m) per annum. Now if someone who do not want to live lavishly can save a lot from this much amount. Which again increases your net year by year.

For me spending Rs 300k per annum today is modest style of living.

Small calculation:

Let us say that today I need 3lacs (300k) per annum for my expenses.

My Fixed Deposit gives me 9lacs(900k) per annum.

Inflation for next 10 years be at 10 percent per annum.

In  above case at the end of ten years I will have a net of 1.4 crore(14 m)  giving me 13 lacs (1.3 m) per annum returns and annual expenses will be 7.5lacs (750 k).

Note that this 1.4 crore is a result if I do not invest the profits per annum into FD if I do that it will be a higher number.

Along with it get some appropriate insurance policies( medical,accidental, lifeterm). These are important especially when you are not working.

This answer is totally based on my perspective of modest lifestyle.
I think if I have this much amount in my bank account and if I do not enjoy my job then I will retire but currently neither is true for me.

For having a lavish lifestyle I will suggest not to leave your job because there are no limits to it.

Indian Politics

What every Indian should know about politics ?

•  You should know how you can contact and get your problems to representatives from your region (MLA, MP, MCD(for Delhi) election winning candidate).
• You should be aware about the manifesto of party you are going to vote.
• You should be aware about the background of the candidate you are going to vote.
• Everyone should know this : 49-O .
• Everyone should read daily editorials/OP-Ed from The Hindu or other newspaper which gives neutral views . This would give you ample awareness about current political situation of our country.
• You should try to understand as much as possible from this : Politics in India

Trip to Jim Corbett Nation Park

Jim Corbett National Park Uttrakhand state of India. It is one of the must visit places in India for nature lovers especially if you are in North India for travel or vacation.

Along with jungle safari you can enjoy various river-side adventure activities over here. This place is full of great resorts we stayed at Infinity resort.

Some pics :

Trip to JAIPUR.

Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan is a must visit city if you are in north India for travel or vacation.

I visited Jaipur in winters of 2011.

Best time to visit : winters as temperatures can go up to 44-45 degree Celsius during summers.

Famous places of tourist attraction are :

1) Amer Fort : Big nice fort with quite some history associated with it. We found maximum crowd here. Also entry tickets were cheap.

2) Jal Mahal : Although during the time we visited it was not allowed to do boating in lake and go inside the Mahal. Nice place to just relax and enjoy cool breeze near lake.

 3) Hawa Mahal : Again cheap entry tickets and lots of crowd.

4) Chokhi Dhani : A small village resort. A great place to end your trip with great food and great people. 

Finally do no forget to take time out for local markets.

Petrol Politics

"The Monk who sold his Ferrari knew about the Petrol price hike !!!"

Petrol prices were raised by 7.50 rupees in Delhi and by similar amount all over the country 2 days back since then I have read, heard, talked, debated, joked a lot about this topic so I thought it is going to be a topic I am going to write about.
Petrol as we know now is the deregulated petroleum product in our country which forces many people to simply believe that its not government which is rising the prices but the Oil marketing companies who just want to cover the losses as they are not compensated by government for their losses on Petrol. But this is not the complete truth.
So petrol being considered as rich-man's fuel was deregulated by our government on june 2010, which basically means government will not give subsidy for petrol and therefore have no control over prices and Oil companies will decide the petrol prices. Government did this in order to  bring the fiscal deficit down and improve the overall health of Indian economy.
So starting with some facts:

FACT 1:India imports crude oil from different nation where oil is in abundance. This crude oil goes to refineries where it gets converted to Petrol,diesel and other products, and finally oil mkt. companies provides it to customers. So price of petrol In our country should be driven by crude oil price.. and you will be shocked to know that crude prices has been falling from the last 3 months the net fall has been around 12-13%.

FACT 2:The government which deregulate petrol to control fiscal deficit waves off half a trillion dollars to corporates. The lesser I say about this the better it would be. Read this :  http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article3223573.ece

FACT 3: Even if when Petrol is deregulated why is it that oil companies wakes up after 6 months to raise 7.5 RS and not raise Rs 1-2 every month for 6 months . Note that with the deregulation Oil company chiefs can revise the rates every 1st and 16th of every month depending on the international prices. The only reason I can think of is Government intervention but why would government ask oil companies to raise prices after 6 months ...???? answer is simple STATE ELECTIONS ...
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3453040.ece

I got these facts just by Googling and reading  newspaper so if one decide to do a complete research can find answer to many questions which pops in my mind every now and then :

QUES 1: How much petroleum subsidy contributed to total fiscal deficit pre june 2010 ? If this is not a major contributor to fiscal deficit what are the other sources??

QUES 2: What will be the impact on inflation with this rise ?? epecially food inflation?

QUES 3 : Government deregulated petrol in June 2010 they why did that had no impact on Fiscal deficit infact , Fiscal deficit has always been rising steeply sice last year .. why ??