MY DREAM IAS !

Agnes Smedley

American feminist Agnes Smedley played a key role in assisting Indian freedom fighters in the U.S. and in Europe in the beginning of the th century. An unbashed feminist, fearless journalist and writer as well as relentless activists for the causes she believed in, Smedley inspired socially concerned writers like Alice Walker, because she wrote about povetry without romanticizing it. The span of her activism covered the three continents - America , Europe, and Asia. During World war I , Smedley grew close with Lala Lajpat Rai, M.N.Roy and Sailendranath Ghose and agreed to serve as communication centre for Indian revoloutionaries then in US. In 1929, she finished her autobiographical novel Daughter of Earth.

Item Response Theory(IRT)

Item Response Theory(IRT) attempts to model students ability using question level performance instead of aggregate test level performance. Instead of assuming all questions contribute equally to our understanding of a students abilities, IRT provides a more nuanced view on the information each question provides about a student. The Human Resource Development ministry and NCERT carried out a survey using the IRT to test the learning curve of class III, V and VIII.

5/20 Rule

Geography 2007 UPSC

MAJOR RIVERS(By Length)

• Nile, Africa - 6,825km

• Amazon, South America -6,437 km

• Chang Jiang(Yangtze), Asia - 6380 km

• Mississippi, North America - 5,971 km

• Yenisey-Angara, Asia - 5,536 km

• Huang (Yellow), Asia - 5,464 km

• Ob-Irtysh, Asia - 5,410 km

• Amur, Asia - 4,416 km

• Lena, Asia - 4,400 km

• Congo, Africa - 4,370 km

MAJOR ISLANDS(By sizes)

• Australia: 7,617.930 sq. km;  widely considered part of a continental landmass, not officially an island. but without doubt it is the largest island on the planet, and when combined with oceania, the smallest continent on the earth.

• Greenland: 2,175,500 sq.km

• New Guinea : 792,500 sq.km

• Borneo : 725,500 sq km

• Madagaskar : 587,000 sq km

• Baffin : 507,500 sq km

• Sumatra : 427,300 sq km

• Honshu : 227,400 sq km

• Great Britain : 218,100 sq km

• Victoria : 217,300 sq km

Major Seas(By size)

• South China Sea-2,974,600 sq km

• Caribbean sea-2,515,900 sq km

• Mediterranean Sea-2,510,000 sq km

• Bering Sea-2,261,100 sq km

• Gulf of Mexico-1,507,600 sq km

• Arabian Sea-1,498,320 sq km

• Sea of Okhotsk-1,392,100 sq km

• Sea of Japan(East Sea)-1,012,900 sq km

• Hudson Bay-730,100 sq km

• East China Sea-664,600 sq km

Dry cask storage

Dry cask storage is a method of storing high-level radioactive waste, such as spent nuclear fuel that has already been cooled in thespent fuel pool for at least one year and often as much as ten years. Casks are typically steel cylinders that are either welded orbolted closed. The fuel rods inside are surrounded by inert gas. Ideally, the steel cylinder provides leak-tight containment of the spent fuel. Each cylinder is surrounded by additional steel, concrete, or other material to provide radiation shielding to workers and members of the public.

DEEPEST OCEANS & SEAS

• Pacific Ocean-35,827 ft (10924 m).

• Atlantic Ocean-30,246 ft(9,219 m)

• Indian Ocean-24,460 ft(7,455 m)

• Southern Ocean- 23,736 ft(7,235 m)

• Caribbean Sea-22,788 ft (6,946 m)

• Arctic Ocean-18,456 ft(5,625 m)

• South China Sea-16,456 ft(5,016 m)

• Bering Sea-15,659 ft(4,773 m)

• Mediterranean Sea-15,197 ft(4,632 m)

• Gulf of Mexico-12,425 ft(3,787 m)

OCEANS GREATEST DEPTHS

• Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean-35,827 ft
• Puerto Rico Trench, Atlantic Ocean-30,246 ft
• Sunda Trench, Indian Ocean-24,460 ft
• South Sandwich Trench, Southern Ocean-23,736 ft
• Arctic Basin, Arctic-18,456 ft

International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)

Functions

LARGEST OCEAN ON EARTH(By Size)

EARTH RECKONER

 General studies topics of 2013

• Need for Second State Reorganization Commission ( Telengana Issue and recurring demand for new states)
• Ordinance Route for passing important bills and bypassing Parliament 
• Panchayati Raj Institutions - Reflecting over 20 years of getting Constitutional Status
• Estimating Poverty Line - Away from Reality
• Depreciating Rupee and Increasing Current Account Deficit
• Govt. Initiatives to Empower Women
• Disaster Management ( Uttarakhand Floods / Eco-tourism / Sustainable Development / Climate Change)
• Nuclear Energy ( Kudankulam Nuclear  Power Project & INS Arihant )
• Corporate Social Responsibility - Corporate or Social ?
• Indo-Bangladesh Relations ( Elections in Bangladesh / Growing Influence of Hardline Islamists / Shahbagh Movement / Boundary Issues / Water Sharing )
• Arab Spring - Revolutions in Middle East Countries (Tunisia / Egypt / Syria)  - Growing Reach of Muslim Brotherhood
• State Sponsored Espionage by USA (Snowden and Manning) - Intimidation of Whistleblowers

Development Issues- VAJIRAM(Governmental Policies and interventions for development in various sector)

UPSC IAS Prelims Question Paper - 2

CSAT VOCABULARY FOR CIVIL SERVICES BOOK

UPSC GS 2013 Question Paper With Answer Key

HOW TO FACE A UPSC INTERVIEW

Viceroys and GG's of India

Lord William Bentick(1828-35)

• First Governor General of India as designated by Government of India Act 1833.
• Known as the benevolent Governor General.
• Banned practice of sati in 1829, suppressed Thugi in 1830(military operation led by William Sleeman) 
• Banned female infanticide
• Created the province of Agra in 1834.
• English was to be court language in higher court but persian continued in lower courts. English was made the official language of india in 1835.
• The regulation of 1833 on land revenue settlement by Mertins Bird(called as the father of land revenue settlement in North). Use of filed maps and filed registers  were prescribed for the first time.
• Inquiry into titles of Inam lands.
• 1830, annexation of chachar took place.
• 1831, annexation of Titu Mir and Kols.
• 1831, annexation of Mysore.
• Treaty of perpetual friendship with Ranjit Singh.
• Abolished provincial circuits courts; a separate Sadr Diwani Adalat was set up in Allahabad and Sadr Nizamat Adalat at Delhi.
• Education Reforms. Appointed Macaulay as president of committee of public instruction.

Colonial Era (1818 AD to 1947 AD)