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Monday 29 April 2019

How to study psychology for UPSC exam

Psychology can be tricky for the mains. The way to get into the groove for the psychology is a bit tricky. I am sharing a link of topper Mithali Sethi here

Drive (pdf) - Download

Source: www.insightsonindia.com (LINK)

A comprehensive strategy with lots of matierials are given. It is a very useful read for psychology mains.

Notes shared by the Mithali Sethi (LINK)

Note: This blog makes attempts to share links, articles written by toppers. 

Sensitivity Training Merits Context Methodology

Psychology Paper 2 Topic


Sensitivity training

It is a method of training that makes one aware about the dynamics of group and their roles. It makes them aware of their prejudices/bias and make them sensitive to others.

Eg: - Ctx is an IT company with professionals of all generations. Subbu 57 yr and Ragz 25 yr old work in a group that works in virtual group of 10. The 8 members  of virtual group are from China, US. There may be biasness, prejudices of each member with the other.

Subbu thinks “What is this guy Ragz doing in this group which has seniors like me. He doesn’t respect my seniority and don’t even stand up when I come. He has long hair with ponytail that doesn’t suit this office”

Ragz thinks “ Subbu is not updated on latest styles of IT world. He won’t know about new UI designs and trends. I wonder how I will communicate with this guy who never parties or even tells a ‘Hi’ to me.

Each team member would be harbouring a set of such impressions which may be adversely affecting the organizational set up. The sensitivity training will help them to discover each other, it will allow one to explore his/her thoughts. At the end, the thoughts held will get altered and a new cohesion/understanding is intended to be developed.

Raghav the trainer is brought in to  give a sensitivity training. He does it in following steps

1.       A unstructured meeting is conducted when all the members (10-15, in this example 10)meet at head quarters.  The old values held by the members are challenged and an face to face interaction happens within the group.
2.       The new values are developed.
3.       The new values are freezed. Subbu feels that Ragz though looking different is sincere in work and he is rather a problem solver. Ragz feels that gesture which he thought was rude from a China team mate was infact a friendly gesture in that culture.

A self awareness of one’s attitude and bias happens in a facilitated manner. An introspection of one’s behavior can be done. This is a group psychotherapy started by Kurt Lewin.

It is useful technique in organizational structure.


Which is the best Coaching institute in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, India


A common inquiry that aspirants and their parents have is - which is the best coaching institute?. Which is the best one which will get him/her into the service?. Where to stay ?
 I may not be able to answer your question fully, but may be able to help you get a better view about coaching institutes.
Soon after the result of the civil services, a campaign trail is started by IAS coaching centres. The common ad style is something like



XYZ IAS Academy 

(A guy generally in suit - photo in inset near name of academy)

10 in top 20, 50 in 100

(photos of toppers)
And 300+ Selections.

The ads will be dotted with pictures of young civil servants who just entered in last upsc exam. Sometimes highlighting 1st rank to 500+.


The address, the details, the updated course and how innovative we are generally is in the last line.



I understand that like in all business , marketing has to be high pitch. But as a customer( aspirant) has to put some thought to understand these ads. Why?
Simply because, in case you are joining the said flamboyant institute which churns out IAS officers, then you are paying for all the hungama created by the institute. The ad campaign by many institutes runs into crores. The institutes sometimes charges lakhs from a student, the accumulated lakhs go to feed these crores. That’s the way business runs and its perfectly fine if you are ready to pay and institute delivers.

Now to the winner’s part, you would see that toppers are claimed by all institutes. The topper who accidently left an inquiry email to the institute at puberty stage of preparation,  one who attended their outreach programme, to the original student who really studied at the institute – all will figure in the ad campaign.  If the ads were true, check the ads of prominent 10 institutes you would figure out that toppers photos will figure in all most all the coaching institute!!. I have met a topper whose name was falsely claimed by a Delhi institute, while only time he visited Delhi was for an upsc interview. He gently reminded the suit boot owner of the institute and his reply was “ Abhi toh chalne do, aapko kya bharak padtha hai”. So in case you are marching to an institute just because they have advertised 10 in 20 toppers studied there, then beware.


How do the institutes make so much toppers to be part of institute?


1.       Conduct “free” intro sessions – which entices to be part of the historic institute. A format with details of the attendees is signed from all participants. When the results come, the staff will dig these data, if you attended and signed then you are their “student”.
2.       Conduct free mock interview – this s catch late strata which many institutes use. The guy has passed mains and there is high chance he will get through. A good quality mock interview will ensure that he becomes the aspirant who studied here. This is reason why some institutes conduct mock interviews with good quality faculty as they can claim you as student without taking any pain to take you all the way through hectic mains exams.
3.       Just steal a pic and claim he was student!
4.       A highpitched ad driven institute in prime locality of Delhi has more probability of an aspirant joining and simply getting higher conversion. The person may have left the institute and studied on his own as the institute was not good. But since he spent money there, then naturally they now have a poster boy.

Lets now move on to total claims, 300+ selections. What is ‘+’ no one has any idea. Probably the institute is waiting to see ad of its main business rival and planning to increase. The multiple branches, multiple type of courses (online/offlie/correspondence) make it difficult to identify or clarify most claims. Even if the institute wrongly claims that a person passed because of their excellence, there is little way to verify it. An interaction with the newly cleared persons will give an idea of the state of the coaching institute. Many young civil servants have blogs where they clarify things.


What institutes won’t tell
1.       How many students attended and did not make it?
2.       Which good teachers the institute has?
3.       Why do they charge so high!


What matters in a coaching institute?

The Teacher
The only important factor in an institute is its teachers. Passing any exam depends on student and teacher, the way the teacher is able to connect to the students. Meeting the teacher, his attitude to students is key to your win. Is the institute which you join have the teacher who is best for you or is it just a ad based institute which don’t pay to teachers?. How many hours of class the best teacher gives you?.  It is a strategy of certain institutes to run multiple branches where good teacher is just an occasional visitor. This will be of limited use. Hence you should verify these facts.

The feedback
The question papers and its review should be able to evaluate you. The evaluator should be able to speak to you and explain the correct way. A one-to-one interaction and correct evaluation with support system (where to find the answer and how to present it) is needed for your continuous improvement of writing skills.

I hope these inquiries would be put forth by aspirants. This will help you weed out the high pitch ad based institutes and find the correct institution.

Note: There are very good coaching institutes everywhere, you just got to ask the right questions to find the good ones. Kindly cross check the credibility of the institute in multiple ways before you join. This blog makes an effort to identify and post blogs of toppers.


Thursday 18 April 2019

Dollar Currency Swap by RBI

RBI is central bank of India and it uses liquidity management tools like
a)      Repo
b)      OMO (Open market operations) etc.

Recently, RBI used another tool – Currency swap

Effects/Aim:

To infuse liquidity to overcome the current liquidity crunch.
The rupee appreciation may slow.
The dollar reserves of RBI increases.

How does it work?

RBI gives rupees for which banks gives dollars to RBI under certain terms and conditions. This contract is for a period of 3 years and the banks have to pay a forward premium. The banks (Tier 1) can participate in auction for the 5 billion dollar.  The banks will buy back dollars after 3 years at rates arrived through auction.
The content below can be ignored by aspirants. It is for causal readers of this blog.

What are risks of the currency swaps?

The swaps have default risk and exchange risk. In this case, since RBI is central bank, it can avoid default risk.

How is the swap agreement made?

As in most financial contracts, reasoned assumptions are made regarding the economy and then scenario analysis is done. The risk management analysis based on cash flows and assumptions in exchange rate, policies which may be followed by banks etc are done to arrive at a decision making.

How is liquidity created?

Banks which get rupee pass it on to its customers.
The customers could be
a)      Old customers –
1.       Those who repay
2.       Those who default due to business risk
3.       Those who lend not to pay but to pump in money for businesses at cost of bank or because of many other factors or for evergreening. (here after referred to N)
b)      New customers – which includes small, micro and medium industries  who need credit at lower rates for successfully running business. It also includes customers who will be able to generate cash when money is available at lower rates. (assuming the banks charge lower rate).

If the money gets routed to the Old customers who Sl.No 3 or N , then the whole exercise will go void. 

How to know whether banks are lending for Old Customers Sl. No 3 types or N ( intentionally careless or lending with intent of not paying )?


The current debt equity level and its variations can be analyzed to understand it. (provided company don’t collide with auditing and rating companies in rigging all the processes). If it gets to these customers, then the purpose gets defeated.

If you are further interested you may explore web on 

- Reverse mirror swap
-securitization of swap

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