Aspirations

I am leaving for the academy day after tomorrow .....As of now am excited, bit anxious ,bit Nostalgic.....Finally the "TRUE JOURNEY" begins..Since last few days I am really blessed to experience  the love and blessings that all my family members and especially my grandparents are bestowing me with..Its an amazing feeling to see that "happiness" in their eyes...and in the process am being pampered with delicious delicacies from NANNI's(my maternal grandmother's kitchen) each day...Each day each wish of their's make me feel that i have to shoulder my responsibilities nicely come what may! But today got one of the most beautiful BEST WISHES GREETINGS one could think of getting on starting  a fresh new sojorn. An old tribal lady has been coming to our home for some days now  and i have known her since like just a week ....and today when she got to know that am leaving for training ...she told me"didi acche se kaam seekh kar jaldi se ache se  Kaam kijiy...

It is almost time to pack my bags for “that one dream journey to a dream destination LBSNAA,Mussoorie”. Ahh!finally THAT moment is here….that journey for which I had always dreamt of …time to see “LIVE” the academy!!!!!!Ever since I made up my mind for UPSC , LBSNAA’s  (Google Image pics) were all that adorned my room walls, my PC/Laptop screen page and   THAT one picture of LBSNAA Gate  gave me true enthusiasm to keep moving ahead!!!!I remember the low points and frustrating evenings during the preparation phase of CSE (when everything seemed so weired,grey and my mind used to tell me “Bas karo abb nahi hoga”!!) ,I used to login on Fb to have a glimpse of LBSNAA pictures of fellow friends and seniors undertaking training there……ohhh!How  desperately  I used to wish that I was there next year and then jolted myself out of that chair with a determination to get a picture clicked of myself in same locations next year no matter what and to give my best to m...

HAPPY  66th BIRTHDAY   INDIA –A birthday Message from Indians !! May   God   bless   you   with   Happiness and Success Happiness-  ( After all in 1750 AD you were the happiest country in the world(according to certain computations of Happiness Index in Economic History)and hopefully you would soon lead the tally of Gross Happiness Index gifted to you by your neighbor country ,Burma. Success Economic   Success (“Reflect a bit on your glorious history-You were the  world's largest economy during the years 1 AD and 1000 AD.Your share of world income collapsed from 26.6% in 1700 then became almost equal to Europe’s share of 23.3% at that time, to as low as 3.8% in 1952. Indeed, at the beginning of the 20th Century, “the brightest jewel in the British Crown” was the poorest country in the world in terms of per capita income.”Since then , you have come a long way and   wish that you return  to 18th Century glori...

I will be sharing the important links that i come across relating to GS and more specifically relating to my optionals Economics and Anthropology .Hope this helps.Following are some links relevant for anthropology! http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/most-complete-pre-human-skeleton-discovered-scientists-377732.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18825901 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/tribals-have-right-to-live-near-wildlife-sanctuaries-supreme-court/articleshow/15594130.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mother-of-Sanskrit-and-related-languages-was-spoken-by-Turkish-farmers-says-new-study/articleshow/15633438.cms

She was a little girl from a small city. She was  small in size but had big dreams in her eyes…..She was introvert and happy in her own sweet world. Her life oscillated between the school and the home. For her   this  was the meaning of LIFE and she was pretty happy with small yet beautiful things in it..be it discussing about a fellow classmate, sharing tiffin and at times chocolates…for her the teachers of school were the ideal…to whom she looked upto …..However, whenever she heard about big cities like New Delhi, London et al  …she was drifted in her own world of beliefs…in spite of the fact that she had been to some of these cities ..but her perception was very different…she would paint her own beautiful picture about the same…Tall high rise buildings, heavy traffic and smart people. She saw her city as opposed to this a very small, serene place where you could enjoy true niceties of life. As a little girl she could not understand the” paradox of cities “...

Rendezvous with the “Gateway to the Northeast” The curious side of me very often makes  me excited to explore an idea called INDIA much more …to witness the beauty of the country being unleashed before your eyes..Northeast of India has been one part of this subcontinent which I always wanted to explore. Last weekend , I got an opportunity to explore and visit Assam(the gateway to the Northeast) and Meghalaya.  As a kid I remember seeing the map of the country and trying hard to remember the capital city’s of these seven sisters of NE(I must admit though I could cram up all the ancient history books without saying “uff”..but i would never be able to remember the names of capitals of these states and would end up mixing them all!!!) Only capital city name which I could remember nicely out of these 7 states was that of  “Guwahati”…since then I wished to visit the place and after almost decades I indeed visited the city.Before leaving for Assam , I was having a faint id...

Marksheet ROLL NO:006368 NAME:HARSHIKA SINGH CIVIL SERVICES (MAIN) EXAMINATION, 2011 SUBJECTS MARKS ESSAY (PAPER-III) 100 GENRAL STUDIES (PAPER-IV) 144 GENRAL STUDIES (PAPER-V) 132 OPTIONAL-I(ECONOMICS) (PAPER-VI) 133 OPTIONAL-I(ECONOMICS) (PAPER-VII) 213 OPTIONAL-II(ANTHROPOLOGY) (PAPER-VIII) 196 OPTIONAL-II(ANTHROPOLOGY) (PAPER-IX) 175 WRITTEN TOTAL 1093 PERSONALITY TEST 204 FINAL TOTAL 1297 Remarks: Recommended.

WHY CSE AND IAS? For me to be an IAS officer has always been my childhood dream which over a period of time became my only aim and ambition in life. As a kid i was always fascinated by "Red/Yellow light car" and earnestly wished that one day even i would ride  one of them!!! As I grew up ,I started to understand the intricacy and the beauty of the civil service and this made me passionate about the service. There were a couple of incidences which further motivated me for the same: When i was in high school , we were taken to visit a village in Jharkhand . It was one of the first instances when i came in touch with rural world around us. I was taken aback when i met a young girl of around 14-15 years old and she was already a mother of two. I realized that people there and especially the women were not aware about the schemes for them...lack of education was omnipresent and so much of ignorance propelled me to appreciate the nuances and challenges of the service and ho...

Strategy for General Studies General Studies is a very important paper in CSE both in Prelims and Mains. With the changing pattern of the CSE especially in the last 1-2 years , it becomes imperative for each aspirant to be very much updated with the current happenings and news apart from the conventional portion. GS can broadly be divided into two parts-Conventional portion(like History,geography, polity) and Current affairs. For Prelims, GS preparation needs to be widely extensive(i.e. one needs to know something about everything) and for Mains –GS preparation needs to be Intensive as well as understood well ( and also supported by analysis) . For GS I took study materials from Smart Foundation,Guwahati , Vision IAS ,delhi,Vajiram and Ravi(Mains course materials) and Brilliant Tutorials(for my first attempt) .This helped me to bit more systematize my preparation plan. The Comprehensive list of books/journals/newspapers and magazines that I followed for the same: CSAT (...

Strategy for Economics Why Economics? My Background in Economics and the  interest in the subject  was the most obvious reason for Economics as my first optional. I am B.A Economics(Hons) from St.Xavier’s College ,Ranchi (Jharkhand) and MSc.Economic History from London School Of Economics and Political Science,London,UK . The Comprehensive list of the books that I followed was For both my optionals ,I emphasized on making my concepts very clear and re-read the textbooks.I read all the books enumerated below-different books cater to different portions of the syllabus so I have en umerate d all of them… For Paper 1 Microeconomics Ahuja and Koutsyansis Macroeconomics Ahuja Mankiw International Economics Salvatore basically and for some random parts M.C Vaish Public finance Lekhi Dalton H.L Bhatia Money and banking- S.B Gupta Ahuja RBI website For Growth and Deve...

Strategy for Anthropology Why Anthropology My interest in the subject was the most important reason for selecting Anthropology as an optional.I would request all the aspirants to choose optional based on interest as at the end of the day ,its “YOU” who has to sit with those books for long hours and in course of time have to start “living “ that optional as well.Availability of study materials and a background in biology also helped me in choosing Anthropology as my second optional. The comprehensive list of Anthropology books that I followed was Topics                                                      Books Physical Anthropology                   P.Nath/B.M Das Social Anthropology                     Ember and Ember   ...

Highlights of the Budget 2012-13 REALISTIC BUDGET The 2012 budget  is a realistic budget .A budget that can best be described as a  “Balancing Act in a democratic political economy”.In the backdrop of “real  Economics” Vs. “Real politik”, the budget was definitely not the one that would grab the headlines for being a BIG-BANG budget but on a holistic basis , the budget did justice towards achieving a balanced,sustainable and inclusive growth.It was in fact an excellent piece to see how it tried to delineate a fine line in a “Mixed economy” and the changing  role of Government /state as an indicative /prescriptive organ in post –reform Indian economy  y. Simply put, this budget appeared as one which will not benefit any single individual significantly but will lay the foundation for strong political economy. NUTSHELL OF THE BUDGET -Tweaked a bit with Direct income tax ..raising the exemption limit to 2 lakhs. -Increased the indirect tax rate (EXCISE AND SERVICE...