Analysis of Prelims Paper I

The GS Paper for the Prelims 2016 threw up some real surprises. It broke away from the earlier conventions. The most important features of the paper are as follows:

• Prime focus on current affairs, both national and international
• Very few questions from the subjects like Geography and Polity
• Very few questions that are core to any subject. 
• Shift from concept oriented questions to fact oriented questions  

The following is the detailed break-up of the questions asked from various subjects. As I told before, since many questions are general, it is difficult to include them within particular subjects. 

History

A total of sixteen questions came from History. Out of these, six questions were from modern history, five from ancient/medieval history and five from Art & Culture. While the questions from modern history were simple, those from other areas were relatively tough.

Geography

Just five questions were asked totally from this subject and those too were not really core to the topic. Many of those had a connection with the current aspects like those on river-linking and shale gas sources.

Polity 

It consisted of again five questions. All of those were from the functional aspects of the Constitution and none from the philosophical parts like the Preamble, Fundamental Rights etc. Questions were asked about Parliament, Executive and the Local Bodies and these were conventional in type.

Economics

Ten questions were asked from this subject. But only two were to the core i.e. questions on capital budget and budget deficit. The rest were related to the current aspects of national and international importance. This includes the technological and administrative reforms taken up in sectors like banking (Questions on Payment banks, Core banking solutions, MCLR etc.)

Science & Technology

It consisted of eleven questions. Except a question on virus, all were related to current aspects. It spanned the various important technological fields like space-technology, bio-technology, military technology, Information Technology and Electronics. Greater focus was given to scientific advancements in India or to those which India is related to. Significantly my earlier post of S&T contained some of these information.

Environment

This subject was one of the prime contributors to the Prelims with a total of thirteen questions. But none of them were related to the science related aspects like ecology or biodiversity. All were based on national and international programmes/agreements. Significantly my earlier post on Environment contained most of these information.

Current Affairs

As told before, this formed the major part of the paper. A total of forty questions were asked from Current Affairs. Of these twenty-two were related to national affairs while eighteen were related to international affairs. Apart from these, many questions from subjects like Economics, S&T and Environment were related to Current Affairs.

Summing up, the pattern of the Prelims Paper I is as follows:

Subject	Number of Questions
History	16
Geography	5
Polity	5
Economics	10
Environment	13
Science & Technology	11
Current Affairs	40
Total	100

Prelims also the Mains way?

The changing nature of Prelims implies that it is also going the Mains way. General Studies for Mains (especially GS II and GS III) heavily rely upon Current Affairs. The areas asked for the Prelims - 2016 are similar to those generally asked for the Mains, except that they were referring to some specific facts. Let us now see the two most important question types in Prelims Paper - I

I. Government schemes, institutions and Acts 

A major portion of the paper has been dedicated for Government schemes, institutions or Acts They are as follows:

1. 'Stand Up India' Scheme

2. 'Mission Indradhanush'

3. Food Safety and Standards Act

4. Green India Mission

5. Gram Nyayalayas Act

6. SWAYAM

7. Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana

8. Atal Pension Yojana

9. Bureau of Energy Efficiency

11. 'DigiLocker' facility

12. 'Payment Banks'

13. Ujjwal Discom Awaas Yojana (UDAY)

14. Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan

15. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

16. National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA)

17. Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme and Gold Monetization Scheme 

II. International agreements/organisations/reports

International agreements/organisations/reports seem to be the next big part. Most of these are either economy or environment related. 

1. Food and Agricultural Organisation 

2. Doing Business Report

3. Trans Pacific Partnership

4. India-Africa Summit

5. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)

6. UN REDD+ scheme

7. Greenhouse Gas Protocol

8. Agenda 21

9. Base Erosion and Profit Shifting
10. New Development Bank

11. Gulf Cooperation Council

12. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

13. International Solar Alliance

14. European Stability Mechanism

15. UNFCCC

16. Sustainable Development Goals

17. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

18. International Financial Corporation

19. WTO

20. UN Convention to Combat Desertification

21. IMF

22. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

23. International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC)

A candidate who is well acquainted with the day-to-day affairs would find the questions easy, even though he/she is not well aware of the basic concepts. But, it doesn't mean that you can ignore the concepts and study only current affairs for the next time. We can never take UPSC for granted. The important message is that the subject matter for Prelims and Mains is almost becoming similar and the only difference is in the way you approach the two. While we need to study the vital details for Prelims, there should be a holistic approach for the Mains. This implies that our preparation strategy should be focussing the Mains from here onwards.

Cut-off for Prelims

Prelims 2016 is assumed to be a bit tougher compared to Prelims 2015. Hence there is a high chance for the cut-off getting lowered. A 100-105 range is most probable. But, as we know this exam is synonymous with surprises and uncertainties and hence there can be wide variations. Let us hope for the best, but prepare for the worst too..