PREVIOUS YEARS' QUESTION PAPERS

Hi folks,

I have just uploaded a booklet where you will find the links to all the previous year question papers for almost all the subjects.Just click on the subject name and you will be redirected to the page where you will find the question papers.I am thankful to the site www.examrace.com for doing such a great work.Keep up the good work guys.

THE LINK

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10717635/IAS-MAIN-PREVIOUS-YEAR-QUESTION-PAPERS
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19200267/-IAS-Previous-Year-Papers-Mains

Regards

SAM DIES, SPIRIT REMAINS

Samantha, the koala which drew the attention of the entire world after the video and photographs showing a firefighter named Davis Tree rescuing her from the deadly bush fire that destroyed huge areas and killed hundreds of human beings and millions of animals apart from huge property losses in the Victoria province of Australia six months ago was published in the media, finally succumbed to death a few days back.

Her death moved the international communities.And everyone aware of the incidence must have shed at least a drop of tear for the loss of the little animal which became synonymous with courage, compassion and agony.The 4-year-old koala had developed the cysts associated with urogenital chlamydiosis, which affects more than 50 percent of Australia's koala population.Although it fought bravely against second degree burns, the ovarian cysts finally defeated her in the battle for life which, thanks to excellent work done by the media, has now become an inspiration to millions all over the world.The loss was so heavy that even the Prime Minister of Australia lamented on her death with moist eyes and a choked voice.

Question is, why the death of this little animal has become such a widely published news? Two reasons, first: Davis Tree who saved her life set an example of humanity by providing the cute animal bottles of water and rescuing her from the danger of being perished in the bush fire.The picture along with this article conveys the message.Isn't it a wonderful act of apologizing to the animal world? Secondly, the bush fire which wrecked havoc on Victoria province shows how incapable we still are in managing disasters.Environmentalists in Australia have hinted that may be after the calamity, many of the rare species of the province have now become extinct.Add to it the heavy toll of human lives and property losses.

Last but not the least the little Koala in her six month long battle for life has taught us how to fight against the odds.Even second degree burns could not have stopped the unrelenting spirit of the little animal.She may be gone but her death and popular sympathy associated with that will now urge the human communities to become more responsible, more dutiful and more compassionate.Sam, your life will not go in vain.

E -BOOK ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND INSTITUTIONS

Dear Friends,

A collection of the articles on International affairs and Institutions,penned by me and others in this blog has been published in scibd.com and docstoc.com

You can read or download it from

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10717705/INTERNATIONAL-AFFAIRS-pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18697744/International-Affairs-Institutions

Thanks

E-BOOK ON INDIAN ECONOMY

Hi friends,

I have uploaded an e-book on Indian economy in scribd.com and docstoc.com. All the materials on economy so far published in my blog have been compiled in the book.You can read or download it from

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10717659/INDIAN-ECONOMY
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18514598/INDIAN-ECONOMY

Hope it goes well with you.Thanks

CREDIT AVAILABILITY FOR AGRICULTURE IN INDIA

Availability of credit has been the main hindrance in development of agriculture in India.The banking system is still hesitant on various grounds to purvey credit to the small and marginal farmers.Less availability of credits makes it difficult to adopt modern techniques which in turn renders agriculture unremunerative and land unprofitable.Despite government policy of financial inclusion,most of the farmers in India are still deprived of adequate and timely availability of credit.

Though there has been instruction to the domestic banks to reserve 40% of the Net Bank Credit for the priority sector lending and 18% out of that amount for agriculture by RBI,banks over the years have failed in achieving the target. The Rural Infrastructure Development Fund was set up in 1996 to solve the credit availability crisis.The Commercial Banks make contributions to the fund for failing to achieve their target for Priority Sector Lending.The Kisan Credit Card scheme launched in 1998-99 however was a laudable effort by the government to make credit available at farmers' doorstep.The scheme facilitated short term loan availability for seasonal agricultural operations and other agricultural inputs.In addition to that Personal Accident Insurance of Rs 50,000/ against annual premium of just Rs 15/ is being offered along with the cards.So far the performance of Cooperative banks has been commendable in issuing credit cards whereas commercial banks lag behind their targets.The performance of the Regional Rural Banks has been below par.Updation of land records and sensitisation of bank staff through training programmes are needed to add to the spread of the scheme.

However there were crying needs for loans for investment and working capital requirements for the farmers.To take care of the need Swarojgar Credit Card Scheme was launched in 2003.It must be noted that Non-Institutional credits which accounted for more than 90% after the independence have decreased considerably in the past 50 years and presently accounts for little more than 30% of the total agricultural credits.Moreover,till the liberalisation of economy started, cooperative banks were leading in credit delivery.But past one and a half decades has seen drastic change of the scenario with the commercial banks now leading in credit delivery by handsome margin.Another aspect of credit delivery in India is the dominance of short term credit over long term ones.Present short term credits account for more than 65% of the total credits.The accessibility to institutional credits is much higher in Southern India than rest parts of India and Tamil Nadu leads the way.

FIRST HURDLE CROSSED

Let me know who among you have cleared the initial hurdle.Those who have done must not be complacent and those who haven't must realize that this is not the end of the world.You must get ready for the next battle.Just One battle is lost,not the war.Anyways, would like you to reply in the comments section.

GUJRAL DOCTRINE

Gujral Doctrine is a set of five principles as propounded by I.KGujral, former Prime Minister Of India to guide the conduct of India's relation with her neighbor states.In the recent years ,in the wake of the acts of hostility on India by its immediate neighbour Pakistan this has lost some of its significance.However it still remains as a model for guiding relationship with other smaller South Asian nations.

The principles of Gujral Doctrine includes

• India should give and accommodate nations like Bangladesh,Bhutan,Sri Lanka,Nepal without any expectation of reciprocity
• No south Asian nation should allow its soil to be used by the enemies of any of the nations o the region.
• There should not be any interference in the internal affairs of the other nations
• Mutual respect for each others territorial integrity and sovereignty.
• Settlement of disputes by bilateral discussions

Moreover the doctrine also includes benign attitude towards Pakistan and relaxation of visa norms so as to ensure better people to people contact among the two nations.Moreover it has been alleged that winding up RAW was also one of the components of the doctrine.

The basic objective of the doctrine was to create an environment of mutual trust and friendship among the nations, where the weight and size of India are regarded by the nations positively and as an asset.Moreover it is also the proclamation of India's leadership for socio-cultural and economic integration of the region.

In the recent years the doctrine has faced severe criticism especially after the 26/11 incidence.It is also believed in many quarters that the doctrine was one of the cardinal reasons for the failure of the secret information services prior to the Kargil war.However,its importance in strengthening relationship with nations like Maldives,Bhutan ,Nepal can not be ignored while it must not be forgot that expectation of reciprocity should be the governing priciple in dealing with Pakistan.

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance in a broad sense refers to the efforts directed towards preservation of peace,promotion of human and civil rights and economic prosperity across the world.In the era of globalization, this term has acquired wider significance.

The 21st century has seen terrorism on a scale never experienced before.Incidences like 9/11 or 11/26 have shaken the very base of the world.Civil wars have torn many nations apart.Global warming has reached an alarming level.Selfish economic policies of a few nations have made poorer nations suffer.It is in this context that the importance of global governance has been realized by many thinkers of the world.However it must not be confused with the term"World Government".In fact it is the coordination of the efforts of all the governments to keep aside narrow interests and strive for overall prosperity of the world in socio economic and environmental matters.The unidirectional approach towards global governance is based on a few principles.These include-legitimacy of the use of power and its rooting,respect for other nations' sovereignty,competence and efficacy,cooperation and partnership,linking local demands with global ones to name a few.

However various challenges are ahead of the mammoth task of making Global Governance a reality.First of all it is essential to carry out reforms in the global institutions like UN, where still the grievances of the smaller nations are being ignored and majority of the decisions are being taken in the interest of the major nations like US or UK.Moreover in the age of so called"neoliberalism", organizations like WTO or IMF have to be more transparent in their governing policies so that economic interests of the poorer nations are not put at stake for the benefit of the big ones.Moreover there is an urgent need for coming to a global consensus for the restrictions to be imposed upon the industrialy developed nations for minimizing pollution.

Although the future of global governance does rosy, yet it is not impossible to achieve.What needed is the sense of cooperation among the bigger nations, so that a unilateral action plan can be chalked out.In the process, it is essential to shed off various prejudices that have so far isolated many nations from the world.Only with a greater degree of cooperation and better sense of brotherhood that the myth can be a soon be a reality.

CONVERTIBILITY OF INDIAN RUPEE

Convertibility refers to the freedom to convert one currency to any other internationally accepted currencies.It is of two types-Current account Convertibility and Capital Account Convertibility.Capital Account Convertibility refers to the freedom in converting financial assets of one country to the financial assests of another and vice versa in the market determined rates.In other words it refers to the flexibility in converting currencies of one country to another one for acquisition of capital assets abroad and vice versa.On the other hand current account convertibility refers to the flexibility in exchanging currencies of one nation to another for other purposes like trade,interest payment,amortization,family expenses etc.

After the economic liberalization process started in India in 1991, a Liberalised Exchange Rate Mechanism was introduced in 1992.This allowed partial convertibility of Indian rupee, thus introducing dual exchange rate.After that full convertibility on trade account started from 1993.It was followed by Full convertibility on current account from 1994.However after the Mexico crisis in early 1990s or the mammoth East Asia Crisis where there was sudden flow of capital internationally debilitating the economies of the involved nations,India was reluctant to adopt capital account convertibility.

However the Tarapore committee,appointed in 1997,recommended phased implementation of capital account convertibility with certain prerequisites like fiscal deficit to be 3.5% of GDP,CRR to be brought down to 3%, gross NPA of public sector banks to be 5% of the total assets,inflation rate to be around 3.5%.The committee was reappointed almost a decade later and submitted almost the same recommendations with some modifications.

It must be remembered that the movement towards fuller CAC should be aprocess and not an event.Macroeconomic stability is a must before achieving full CAC.Any adhoc arrangement from the fixed regime maintained for a long period of time might disturb the foreign exchange market and disrupt the economic progress.

ROLE OF NATO IN THE POST COLD WAR ERA

The end of the cold war and formal dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 resulted in complete revision of the policies of NATO.This culminated in the further eastward extension of NATO and expansion of its activities in those fields which were not previously its concerns.

The first major step taken by NATO was Operation Sharp Guard, military intervention in Yugoslavian crisis.This was followed by a few more operations in the Eastern Europe.From 1994 onwards, NATO shed off its initial reservations and involved in partnerships with regional forums.Partnership for Peace, Euro Atlantic Partnership Council,Mediterranean Dialogue are some of such initiatives.In 1999, Poland,Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first three former communist states to join NATO.In 1998 NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council was established.

After September 11 attack on USA NATO invoked Article 5 of its Charter for the first time in history.It states that attack on any member nation will be considered as attack on all the nations.It culminated in the war against terrorism.NATO also took command of International Security Assistance Force.After that NATO involved in Iraq and Afghanistan invasion as well.In 2002 the Berlin Plus Agreement was signed between NATO and EU.It enabled EU the option to use NATO's assets in an international crisis where NATO was reluctant to take steps.From then onwards there has been continuous increase in NATO membership.

SHORT NOTES

• Measurement of HDI for life expectancy:

HDI (le)= Real age - Minimum age
------------------------------
Maximum age- Minimum age Max age=85, Minimum age=25

• Medical Tourism: By providing modern and skilled solutions and facilities at cheap rate and higher care for health problems India is trying to attract patients for better treatment.This is known as medical tourism.

• Copy left:It is a group of licenses.Applied to software, art or other copyright works.Enables person to use,modify or redistribute any copy of works.

• RCI:Rehabilitation Council of India.It arranges for the rehabilitation of the people displaced after various development projects.It was et up as a registered society in 1986.

• Contagion is the cross-border spread of financial shocks. Such international spillover means that economic or financial troubles that originate in one nation can affect others.

• Absolute advantage refers to the ability of an economic unit (a country, for example) to produce more of any given goods at a lower cost of production than another economic unit. It is a relative term and is calculated through comparisons with other economic units.Absolute advantage is used to compare the productive efficiencies between different countries.

• Amortization can be referred as a process of paying off of certain amount of debt in regular installments over a certain period of time. Amortization in business is referred to a process of decreasing capital expenses over a definite period of time. This type of deduction is usually accounted over the property life. To be more specific, this method of accounting is used to compute expenditure of the value of intangible assets, like a patent or a copyright.

• Kleptocracy is when a government increases wealth and political power of bureaucrats and ruling class at common people's cost. Kleptocracy can also be named as cleptocracy or kleptarchy.Kleptocracy arises in such cases where a government is inefficient and not working properly for welfare of people. Kleptocracy can be also referred as a kind of despotism or some other form of domineering and favoritism that prevails in any government rule.

• Crony literally means a longtime friend. Crony capitalism refers to a capitalist market structure, where business men and ruling government share a close relationship. Businessmen form lobbies to extract favoritism from ruling party. Favoritism accrues in form of government grants, tax breaks and various financial incentives. It is argued that political parties and business enterprises form a kind a symbiotic relationship to stay in power via creation of networks. Both parties reap positive gains from cooperation.

• A duopoly is a market condition in which two companies producing a similar type of product have control over the market. This is similar to monopolies in which only one company controls the market and oligopolies in which multiple companies are allowed to trade in the market. The most popular example of duopoly is between Visa and Mastercard who exercise a major control over the electronic payment processing market in the world. Pepsi and Coca-cola are the two major shareholders in the soft drinks market. Airbus and Boeing are duopolies in the commercial jet aircraft market.

• Future value, often expressed as FV is a financial term, which describes how much a given amount of money will be worth after interest has accrued.Future value is referred to as the expected value of present sum of money in future. Future value is a measurement that tells the amount of money that can be received for any present investment in future. Future value of any investment depends mainly on two things the number of compounding periods and interest rates.

• D-Mark or Deutsche Mark (DM) was Germany's official currency until euro became currency of choice in 1999.D-Mark was replaced by euro in circulation from that year. However,Deutsche Mark was accepted as legal payment of purchases made inside Germany until February 28, 2002.

• BANANA is an acronym for Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything (or Anyone). The term is most often used to criticize the ongoing opposition of certain interest groups to land development.The term is commonly used within the context of planning in the United Kingdom.

• Stealth Tax is a term used for a tax levied in such a way that is largely unnoticed, or not recognized as a tax.Ex:Use of National Lottery by the British Government.Inflation is regarded as a form of stealth tax.
• Politburo, from German Politbüro, short for Political Bureau, is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.

• Pigskin politics is a political epithet used to describe or dismiss a person's pavlovian attachment to a political persuasion or party, given that party's/persuasion's past influence within the person's region. The term is usually used within the context of a person's attachment to a region or state whereby the person holds a specific set of beliefs and ideas as a result of having lived there.

JUNK FOOD

The famous microbiologist Dr. Michael F. Jacobson coined the phrase "Junk Food" in 1972 to describe unhealthy or non-nutritious food. Junk food contains little or zero nutritious value to the diet - it contains too much unnecessary calories and fat which are useless and harmful to human health.

Junk food has been a part of the consumer culture for years and now it has become an addiction for many people.Junk foods are very convenient to purchase and consume, which is one reason that millions of busy people don't think about a healthy diet or spend the time to prepare healthy meals. Junk food is also very popular among children, and with every passing day, its addiction is increasing.Moreover,spending millions of bucks by the corporates in advertisement to promote junk food as symbol of modern lifestyle is also another reason for its sky high popularity.

The effects of junk food are as below

Drowsiness

Obesity

Lethargy

Heart diseases

High blood pressure

To conclude, it can be said that junk foods can be used occasionally, but using them on a regular basis is very unhealthy and harmful.