Friends, I’m doing a fresh start.

In a new video initiative, CSEWhy Masterclass, I sat with H’nble chairman of Estimates Committee.

This video is of great value to note additional pointers for GS2 & GS3 notes as well.

If you want to explore upskilling with UPSC, a special word of advice for you towards the end

Watch it at 1.5x 👇🏼

https://youtu.be/ShPdgMha7OA?si=zm6JlMGFver_ayZE

I have given feedback on 20 essays via email in last one week

15 were on 'Not all who wander are lost'

14/15 aspirants started with Gautam Buddha 🙃


React ❤️ to convey if you want me to share some lesser quoted but better examples for your Essays

Note: A fresh start at CSEWhy! Watch first MASTERCLASS with H’nble chairman of Estimates Committee here


🚨 26 October 2023 | Thursday 🚨

Nothing major in newspaper today. Use time to revise current affairs on
blog.csewhy.com


Reading Recommendations🗞

IE
1. Mahua case: process, precedent (GS2, Polity)
2. LS Ethics Committee: its constitution, members (GS2, Polity)
3. Mumbai Alarm Bells (GS3, Environment)
4. Balance of green power (GS3, Environment)
5. To open the campus (GS2, Education)

TH
1. Warming Ties (GS2, IR)
2. Unhealthy urban India must get into street fight mode (GS2, Health)


PS: Hit ❤️ for yourself if you're reading newspaper daily!

Note: New video with IAS Naveen Chandra coming on YouTube channel tomorrow. Subscribe now!

🚨 27 October 2023 | Friday 🚨


Mains Keywords ✍🏼

1. Reference Fuels
• Specialised fuels used by auto-manufacturers for testing & calibration
• India starts producing its own

2. Osteoporosis
• A condition characterised by weakening of bones
• Causes long term pain, changes in posture & increase chances of fracture, nerve injury

3. Finfluencers
• People with public social media platforms offering advice and sharing personal experiences about money & investment in stocks


Reading Recommendations🗞

IE
1. The Biden pragmatism (GS2, IR)
2. Warming up, breaking the ice (GS2, IR)
3. The best of both sides, Page 13 (GS2, Social Justice)
4. Takeaways from war zone (GS2, IR)
5. APAAR ID (GS2, Education)

TH
1. TN experience on caste survey (Reading the gist would suffice)
2. Why are the China-Bhutan boundary talks significant? (GS2, IR; focus on last para)
3. What does abortion verdict mean for reproductive justice? (GS2, Social Justice)


PS: Subscribe to my Free Current Affairs Blog: Blog.CSEWhy.com

Note: 4 things to know as you start UPSC Preparation - Hear from IAS Naveen Kumar Chandra

🚨 28 October 2023 | Saturday 🚨


Nothing major in newspaper today other than QATAR

I've summarised that in post below👇🏼

Revise India-Qatar Relations from UPSC point of view here

Note: Part time opportunities for aspirants coming up at @CSEWhyPlanB

🚨 29 October 2023 | Sunday 🚨


Revise concept of Cloud Seeding here

Mains Keywords ✍️🏼

1. QR Code
• A type of 2D matrix barcode
• Invented in 1994, by the Japanese company Denso Wave for labelling automobile parts


Pre-related📄

1. Meri Maati Mera Desh
• Campaign under Ministry of Culture
• Culminating event of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'
• Tribute to Veers & Veeranganas who made supreme sacrifice for India
• Comprises many acitivites & ceremonies across country at panchayat, block, ULB, state & national levels

2. National Crime Records Bureau
• Headquartered in Delhi, setup in 1986
• Under Ministry of Home Affairs
• Functions as repository of information on crime & criminals to assist investigators

3. National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS)
• Launched in 2022, under NCRB
• Assigns a unique 10-digit National Fingerprint Number to all suspects arrested by the police
• Integrates data on a common platform for police across states


Reading Recommendations🗞

TH
1. IITM Pune demonstrates cloud seeding can produce rainfall (GS3, Environment)
2. Why will police stations install DNA systems? (GS2, Polity)


PS: Hit ❤️ for yourself if you're reading newspaper even on a Sunday!

Painful to read!

Always know when to exit

Need help with Plan B? Join @CSEWhyPlanB

Sunday Special ❤️

4 Recommendations to utilize the weekend right!

1. Roadmap to better your essays | Click here to improve

2. Global South, what? | Click here to understand

3. Countries along tropics | Click here to revise

4. Indian Diaspora | Click here to save to your notes

A CSEWhy exclusive! :)

Note: I've set up my first website. Did you check it here?

🚨 30 October 2023 | Monday 🚨


Mains Keywords✍️🏼

1. Middle-income trap

• When a country reaches $5,000-$6,000 per capita income, but then doesn't increase at a pace

2. Lewis Model

An expanding manufacturing ("capitalist") sector could absorb much of the surplus labour in agriculture & other "subsistence" sectors, by paying wages just high enough to make men leave the family farm


Pre-related📄

1. Jehovah's Witnesses

• A millenarian Christian group
• Doesn't believe in Christian Trinity, but believes in Jesus as son of God & Jehovah as God
• Follow a literal interpretation of Bible, have no priests & don't approve of traditional priesthood as practised in other Christian groups

2. 'Penny drop' verification

• Mandatory for withdrawal of funds by subscribers of National Pension System
• Involves Central Recordkeeping Agencies checking active status of savings bank account & match name in bank account number with name in Permanent Retirement Account Number

3. Places in News: Soloman Islands

• Archipelago in Southern Pacific Ocean
• "Flourishing" cooperation with China


Reading Recommendations🗞

IE
1. Change & Challenge (GS2, IR)
2. Policy to what end, at whose cost (GS3, Economy & Agriculture)
3. India's first dist-level study on hypertension flags disparities in care, Page 10 (GS2, Health)
4. China model India didn't follow (GS3, Economy)
5. Caution for Israel, flashing warning signs for world economy (GS2, IR)

TH
1. Give up impropriety, demonstrate impartiality (GS2, Polity; important)
2. An unfolding economic tragedy (GS3, Economy)
3. The Indian Railways' revenue problem (GS3, Infrastructure)


PS: Don’t be scared at long length today, it’s easy! 😄💪🏻

Solomon Islands

Compiled Govt. Schemes for your Mains Answers in this post

Read once and use at your discretion :)

Click here to visit

Friends, I sat with IAS Naveen Kumar Chandra (2018 batch, West Bengal Cadre)

He summarised 4 important things for UPSC 2024 Prelims

Listen at 1.5x to learn👇🏼

https://youtu.be/j6poRM55mF4

Looking to start a 7 days challenge of writing one answer everyday to build a habit

React ❤️ if you’d want to join!

Note: Take a Pledge for UPSC CSE 2024 today!

🚨 31 October 2023 | Tuesday 🚨


Mains Keywords ✍🏼

1. Indian Philosophy wrt Indian Ocean Region

• 'Free, open & rule-based' maritime order is the priority
• "Might is right" has no place in such a maritime order

2. Prisoner's Dilemma

• Any situation in which 2 entities could gain important benefits from cooperating or suffer from failing to do so, but find it difficult/expensive to coordinate their activities
• Application in IR: Need for countries to collaborate with each other instead of working at cross purposes

3. Nanoflorets

• Particles synthesised by IIT Bombay researchers
• Could absorb sunlight at many frequencies & convert it to heat with an unprecedented efficiency
• Potential Application: Coating on surfaces to heat homes & sterilise surfaces in hospitals

4. Debt Service Ratio

• Measures the proportion of income used to repay debt-related obligations
• Lower DSR indicates better sustainability


Mains Keys🗝
(Use as examples in Mains answers)

1. Geo-tagging of all projects & works along with uploading progress reports with colour photographs on online portal made mandatory by Finance Dept for receiving funds, to ensure timely completion with transparency (GS2, Governance)


Reading Recommendations🗞

IE
1. On the brink (GS2, IR)
2. To clear the air (GS3, Environment)
3. Issues in electoral bonds case (GS2, Polity)
4. 10 years of China's BRI (GS2, IR)

TH
1. The Israel-Palestine confict is at bend point (GS2, IR)
2. Towards stabilisation of US-China ties (GS2, IR)
3. The expansion of settlements into flood-prone areas (GS3, Environment)
4. Easing the transport of cargo by Railways (GS3, Infrastructure)

PS: Hit ❤️ for yourself if you're reading newspaper daily!

Note: Get the Daily CA Compilation access in one place from point no. 2 of the pinned message

🚨 1 November 2023 | Wednesday 🚨


Mains Keys 🗝

1. Akhaura-Agartala rail link re-establishes rail connectivity between Northeast India & Bangladesh after a gap of nearly seven and a half decades (GS2, IR)


Pre-related 📄

1. Strategic Forces Command

• Responsible for operational & administrative control of the country's strategic & tactical nuclear assets
• Termination of services power under Army Act 1950 & Article 310 of Constitution with President of India


Reading Recommendations 🗞

IE
1. In the interest of all (GS2, IR)
2. Every drop counts (GS3, Environment)
3. Where Alan Turing started it (GS3, S&T)
4. Maratha Quota (GS2, Polity)
5. What a 'normal' monsoon hides (GS3, Environment)


TH
1. Welcome assertion (GS2, Polity)
2. Safety first (GS3, Infrastructure)
3. Ethics, parliamentary conduct and the Indian MP (GS2, Polity)
4. Stocktaking climate finance (GS3, Environment)
5. The stance of the Maldives President-elect on India (GS2, IR)
6. A Gaganyaan for the seas: inside India's 'Deep Ocean Mission' (GS3, Space)

PS: Hit ❤️ to confirm you are reading newspaper daily!

Akhaura-Agartala Rail Link

Note: Join @CSEWhyPlanB to find opportunities to help you make money with UPSC Prep

🚨 2 November 2023 | Thursday 🚨

Nothing major in newspaper today. Use time to revise current affairs on blog.csewhy.com


Reading Recommendations 🗞

IE
1. The sarkari naukri (GS2, Policy/Social Justice)
2. India's own CAR-T cell therapy (GS3, S&T)
3. In Tripura-Bangladesh railway link, new opportunities and old connect (GS2, IR)


TH
1. AI & Issue in human centricity (GS3, S&T)
2. Reconciliation over retribution (GS2, IR)
3. Understanding the US-Israel relations (GS2, IR)


PS: Hit ❤️ to confirm you are reading newspaper daily!

Note: New govt job openings posted on @CSEWhyPlanB

🚨 3 November 2023 | Friday 🚨

See India-Qatar relationship for Mains Answers here


Mains Keywords ✍️🏼

1. Democracy Room

• A room in every senior secondary school to be dedicated for regular display of voter education materials and conduct of Continuous Electoral & Democracy Education activities throughout the year

2. Frontier AI

• It is highly capable foundation generative AI models that could pose severe risks to public safety

3. ATL Sarthi

• Creating clusters of existing Atal Tinkering Labs
• Overseen by guidance committee involving students, teachers, principals and mentors
• Responsible for making ATLs in their region & facilitating access to tinkering for schools


Pre-related 📄

1. Bletchley Park Declaration

• Singed by 28 countries in world's first AI Safety Summit in London
• Incorporates acknowledgement of substantial risks from potential intentional misuse or unintended issues of control of frontier AI

2. UNESCO's Creative Cities Network

• To promote cooperation among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development
• Kozhikode and Gwalior recent additions
• Varanasi, Srinagar & Chennai also part of the network


Reading Recommendations🗞

IE
1. Clearing the dust, lifting the haze (GS3, Environment)
2. Why global pact in AI matters (GS3, Tech)

TH
1. Biosphere reserves are evolving as pockets of hope (GS3, Environment)
2. Is the United Nations toothless in ending wars? (GS2, IR)


PS: Hit ❤️ for yourself if you're reading newspaper daily!

Friends, thinking of hosting heritage walks in Delhi with expert heritage leaders

Need to know how many of you would be interested in spending your weekly break in this manner.

Please fill this quick form to help me plan this better

https://forms.gle/xDwRDgneiEeuKZZGA