Backward Linkages from The Hindu: Gaining the knowledge of whatever goes around currently is far from being sufficient if you aim at cracking the IAS Exam in the first go itself. It requires you to put in an extra effort. Read on to find how you can do so.
Keep a Track of the Backward/Forward Linkage
Remember that you are reading The Hindu not as any common reader, but as an IAS aspirant. Consequently, you are to keep a track of the backward/forward linkage for all the relevant developments for all the important Current Affairs.
The Civil Services Exam conducted by UPSC requires you to be absolutely thorough and perfectly updated with the Current Affairs. And that obviously implies that you should be able to co-relate the current developments at various platforms with the previous ones in a suitable perspective while you read The Hindu.
Thus whatever is in News currently should be logically co-related to whatever had been making News from the past concerning the same issue. And the same process needs to be continued with till the IAS Exam takes place in its entirety, that is to say, till the Interview.
Maintaining a track of the Current Affairs with what had been taking place in the past and whatever is expected to take place in future requires a suitable shift in the time frame from backward to forward and vice versa as and when required.
That is to say, the News, i.e., the current one might bear a strong co-relation with what had been taking place in the past. Thus, you need to co-relate the Current Affair with the background that it had been connected to in the past.
How to Maintain the Backward/Forward Linkage?
There might be quite a few instances where you would need to update your notes of the Current Affairs in a manner so that they are perfectly in sync with what took place in the past.
Here are a few tips for an effective maintenance of the Backward/Forward Linkage:
- Maintain separate files: It’s advisable to maintain separate files/folders/registers for the notes on various issues pertaining to the Current Affairs that you take down from the The Hindu. You may either keep the soft copy of your notes in your PC/laptop or write down the details on a sheet of paper, as you may find convenient.
Besides, it would be in the best of your own interests if you divide the files into various sections and sub-sections. It would allow you to maintain the notes for various topics and the sub-topics in a more organized manner.
For example, it would help you maintain and update the notes with greater ease if you maintain various sections for the notes of GSI Paper. You may maintain one section each for
History of India & World, Geography, and Society & Culture.
- Keep it simple: Take down the notes in a simple and lucid language. That is to say, the notes prepared by you should be easily understood.
Take down brief and precise notes. Once again, the point to be noted is that you should keep your notes absolutely intelligible and hence, comprehensible. There is no scope for any jargon.
- Gain a critical insight: It should not be forgotten that most of the times, the news or the inter-related articles focus on the specific aspects of various issues and/or topics. So, you may take down the notes accordingly.
Next, when you find the same topic or the news in print once again, you may take down the notes in the same vein. It will help you maintain a brilliant forward to backward and vice versa linkage for the concerned Current Affair.
Needless to say, it will also allow you to gain a sharp critical insight concerning what goes around in the world. Besides, your perspectives will be widened.
Above all, it’s an aware and critically balanced mind that values the truth keeping all the prejudices at bay that is valued most by UPSC.
Try to Gain a Crystal Clear Understanding
Besides, it can also help you gain an insight into how agriculture may become more remunerative an activity for the sake of the farmers. It would not be too complex for an IAS aspirant to think of how FPI can be employed to add to the value of the various agricultural products.
Besides, various alternatives, e.g., Contract Farming may be explored to simplify the complexities of the problems encountered by the supply chains in the Food Processing Industry.
A Word of Caution
Backward Linkages from The Hindu: It ought not to be forgotten that UPSC has never been looking for exceptionally great scholars. The government body does not conduct the Civil Services Exam to look for scholars in order to ask them to write big, bulky books.
Where the forward and backward linkage of the Current Affairs helps you is to gain a holistic understanding of the entire issue. And how can you gain the same unless and until you link the current developments with the past one and vice versa?
Well, you aim at joining the Indian Administrative Services. And UPSC would like you to have a clear understanding of the Current Affairs. Only then can you understand the nature of the various problems suffered by the society and wherein lies the solution? It’s only when you get this basic understanding that you can form the policies, get them implemented in an effective and unprejudiced manner.
formulation and implementation of the government policies is among the most important of the duties of an IAS officer. And that explains, why is the Backward/Forward Linkages from The Hindu is so crucially important for the flawless preparation of the IAS Exam concerning the Current Affairs.
if you really aim at beating the competition, you may supplement your reading of The Hindu with reading Yojana magazines, government reports, Economic Survey etc.
Once you gain a holistic understanding of the entire Current Affair (whatever it be), your answers in the Mains as well as the Interview are bound to be flawless. And the Backward/Forward Linkages from The Hindu for Current Affairs as described above is certainly going to help you achieve the same.