Scanned Notes and Strategy Tejasvi Rana Rank 12 (Economics Optional Marks

Economics Optional

SCANNED NOTES

Evernote link for strategy and notes: https://www.evernote.com/pub/tj_iitk/economicsnotes
Google Drive link for scanned notes: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-Oa7Q8caXTKdnNsQi1teFZtVnc?usp=sharing
Google Drive link for relevant documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-Oa7Q8caXTKOFBscWNEblFwTG8?usp=sharing

Paper1

My score jumped form 89 in 2015 to 173 in 2016. I think greater clarity of models that comes with re-readings facilitated this jump. Apart from that, I did not shy away from trying different tricks and techniques to improve presentation of my answers. These I have discussed topic wise.

Micro
- Cover HL Ahuja comprehensively except a few chapters. The chapters to be excluded are given at Abhimanyu Gahlaut’s blog. In case of any confusion, follow a simple thumb rule. If there are questions asked in previous years from that chapter or related chapters, then those needs to be covered. It is advised to make small notes of this bulky book as it is repetitive.
- Gaurav Aggarwal has made notes from this book on Evernote. For welfare economics portion specifically, I read the book for understanding and then avoided duplication of efforts by revising from his notes. There are some topics (of welfare economics) covered in his notes which you will not find in the book.
- For Hicks, Kaldor and Schitovsky werlfare criteria, refer to this link for greater understanding- http://policonomics.com/compensation-criteria/ Since almost every year one question comes from this topic, see if you can get better clarity.
Macro
- Richard Froyen is the basic book. Understand the models and the economic inference. Example: If you explain how shifts in, say, IS- LM curve mean for the economy, then i think you get better marks. This explanation is given in the book
- HL Ahuja must be covered for the following.
  - Covering new terms and definitions e.g. Say’s Law, Principle of Effective Demand, Inflationary Gap, Consumption Function, Paradox of Thrift, Insider Outsider Model
  - Different take on/ interpretation of the model. Example
    - Classical Full Model on Pg 67
    - Keynes’ Critique of Classical Theory Pg 69
    - Comparison of Keynes and Classical Model
  - Topics that may appear in exam on the basis of previous year questions e.g Chapters- Investment Demand, Unemployment
- You won’t take a lot of time to cover HL Ahuja as you just have to check that you are not missing anything important.
- For a few extra marks, cram a few facts/ terms from macroeconomic history. You can get these in ‘Perspectives’ section given in Froyen. Here are a few examples I had thought of using somewhere
  - Pg 168: The terms like ‘spending hypothesis’ and ‘money hypothesis’ can be used for comparison of models.
  - Name of papers of Keynes, Friedman etc can be written in the brackets.
  - Some relevant quotes of Keynes and Friedman like
    - In long run, we are all dead.
    - When the capital development of a country becomes a by product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done.
Money and Banking
- I covered QTM and Keynes Money demand from Froyen
- For other topics, I referred to HL Ahuja.
Public Finance
- I relied on Musgrave and Musgrave. Its better to make notes from this book for organising things better.
- Some chapters like Maximum Social Advantage, Public Revenue, and Division of Tax Burden (I and II), i did from H L Bhatia.
- I left some portions like Debt and Borrowings uncovered as questions on these can be done using macroeconomic models. You can go through HL Ahuja (Macro) Part VI but a quick reading should suffice.
International Trade
- Salvatore is the bible.
- Know the names of economists who have given different theories as this year a model was asked by the name of the person who gave it.
- Cover empirical tests of different models also.
- Do cover Ch 9, 10,11 and 12 of the book as these are less technical and questions appear each year.
Growth and Development
- For theories, read ML Jhingan. Refer to Gaurav Aggarwal notes for summary/ revision
- Multinationals can be covered from Salvatore
- For changing role of markets and planning, and welfare indicators, i referred to Gaurav Aggarwal’s notes.
- For basic needs approach, I got some document. I am sharing the notes I made from there.
- For environment portion, I got this wonderful source from where it seems most of the questions have appeared. Just google all the units mentioned here or smartly edit the web address. http://www.iitg.ernet.in/scifac/qip/public_html/cd_cell/chapters/m_k_dutta_environmental_economics/TITLE%20PAGE.pdf

General tips for Paper 1

- Write important 2-3 assumptions before explaining/ talking about any model.
- For paper 1, it is better if you are able to revise the models 2-3 times as you will get greater clarity each time you revise.
- There are some topics like Role of central Bank or instruments of monetary policy which appear quite frequently. Select these and prepare your answers.
- I revised International Trade and Macroeconomics more than other topics as questions are more predictable from here and we end up attempting these questions only.
- Practice diagrams, graphs and figures. If a model has a figure, i think there are no marks without it.
- I attempted Q6 in Paper 1 (CSE 2016). There were 2 questions which required proofs. I think it is better to attempt these if you can as they may fetch you more marks if done correctly.

Paper II

I got 106 last year and 152 in CSE 2016. This paper has always been a nightmare for me. Even now, I wish I could save myself from writing about it.

We all know how in social sciences, it is very difficult to prove a hypothesis as so many X variables combine to give Y. Similarly here, we try so many things in our answers that we dont know what worked. But this time in this paper, I think I did almost everything wrong except a few. My time management was horrible in this paper. So a lot of content I had prepared, i could not write. I had skipped some topics while preparing. But I focussed on the presentation. I made a lot of diagrams and pie charts, even if they conveyed very less. And since I faced paucity of time especially in last questions, I wrote less but I made sure that at least data and economists’ names are not missing. Because of these reasons I think I have got a decent score.

Booklist

Pre Independence portion
- I referred Tirthankar Roy mainly.
- For land reforms, I referred Gaurav Aggarwal notes and Tirthankar Roy
- I am providing notes for this portion. These I have made just now in April before CSE 2016 result. These are not my creation. Since I had time to spare, I combined Gaurav Aggarwal, Abhimanyu Gahlaut and Riju Bafna notes, and included additional data and facts from Tirthankar Roy. Note that referring to multiple sources for each sub-topic is not advisable as rate of return is low. You can look at these notes if you like.
- Since the weight age in the exam to this portion is on a rise (it seems), perhaps one should spend some time on this otherwise neglected portion.
Pre and Post Liberalisation

VKRV, Gadgil and Vakil		I am providing notes made from Gaurav Aggarwal Notes Google searches HL Ahuja (Macro) Ch 44: Limitations and Relevance of Keynesian Economic for Developing Countries.
Agriculture	Land reforms and Land tenure System	I am providing notes. Source: Uma Kapila and Dutt & Sundaram
	Green Revolution	Uma Kapila covers Gulati and Fan’s 3 stages of Green Revolution
	Capital formation	I am providing notes Source: Gulati and Bathla (2002), Sawant et al (2002). Both are epw papers i think.
	Agri and WTO	Agri and WTO: Indian Perspective by Biswajit Dhar
	Food processing	I am providing notes FICCI Report- Bottlenecks in Indian Food Processing Industry
	Subsidies, Prices, PDS	I am providing notes. NFSA from Uma Kapila. Refer to notes as other sources I can’t recall.
Industry	Composition and growth	Policies and Composition from Gaurav Aggarwal notes/ Dutt and Sundaram Growth explanation: Uma Kapila
	Role of public and private sector, Privatisation, Disinvestments	Papers by Nagaraj and Vijay Kelkar in Uma Kapila Evolution of privatisation policy in Gaurav Aggarwal notes.
	Small Scale and Cottage Industries	I am providing notes I read some EPW papers by MH Balasubrahmanya, Uma Kapila’s chapter, 12th FYP and incorporated current affairs
	Strategy of Industrialisation	Gaurav Aggarwal notes.
	Role of FDI and MNCs	I am providing notes Source: Uma Kapila paper by Nagesh Kumar
National Income	Trends and sectoral composition	I am providing notes Misra and Puri Ch 14, Uma Kapila Part 5- Ch 32. Additional Source: Go through a paper by Deepak Nayyar and Rodrik and Subramanian. M&P Ch 35 for services sector led growth sustainability. M&P Ch 62 Economic reforms and Liberalisation
Poverty	Measures and Alleviation Strategies	I am providing notes Sources: Gaurav Aggarwal notes and NITI Aayog Report- Eliminating Poverty: Creating Jobs and Strengthening Social Programs
	Trends	Gaurav Aggarwal notes Himanshu 2012 for 2005-10 trends. Read Uma Kapila Ch 38 and Misra and Puri Ch 15.
Inequality		I am providing notes Ch 16 M&P, UK- Ch 38, 39.
Employment	Trends	I am providing notes Ch 40 UK, M&P- Ch 12
	Rural Wages	I am providing notes. Ashok Gulati CACP Paper Hanon Jacoby and Basab Dasgupta
	MNREGA	I am providing notes.
Trade	NEP and trade	Uma Kapila for trends in volume, composition and direction of trade
	TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS	I am providing documents and notes
	IPR	I am providing notes.
Convertibility		I am providing document. Also read M&P Ch 40 relevant portion
Public Finance	FRBM Act, Fiscal Consolidation	I am providing notes Source: Uma Kapila, M&P, Montek Singh Ahluwalia article http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/jsgoPSQ6WRh3eQo2p7ZsJL/Time-for-a-brand-new-FRBM-Act.html This year articles will keep pouring in, otherwise search for last year ones.
	Finance Commission and Fiscal Federalism	I am providing notes. Source: M&P, Gaurav Aggarwal notes, etc.
Monetary policy		I am providing document by Mohanty
Planning		I am providing notes Uma Kapila, Gaurav Aggarwal notes

Note

Uma Kapila chapters are according to 25th edition
M&P chapters are according to 34th edition
Dutt and Sundaram and M&P are almost equivalent. Go for either one.

General Tips for Paper 2

E survey needs to be covered for current issues and latest data
I read a Business newspaper for current issues. It is helpful as one can quote economists who have written articles. Also they relate the issue with the economic theories.
Check RBI speeches and NITI aayog websites for relevant articles
You may find understanding my notes a bit difficult. The purpose is to tell the areas where I focussed. So you can make your own notes as per your need.

Preparation strategy- Key takeaways

Prepare notes for each and every word written in the syllabus. If the entire topic is at one place in the book, underlining and highlighting in the book itself is fine.
If you have covered the entire syllabus at least once 1-1.5 months before the Mains, then you are well prepared. You can set such a target for yourself.
When Mains are 1-1.5 months away, attempt previous year papers, at least from 2011-2016. Every Sunday I used to give both the papers in a simulated environment (from 9am-12pm and 2-5pm). Then I used to check and improve my answers on the same day. Since the previous year questions are bound to repeat, it is quite beneficial.
You can see previous year papers while preparing each topic as it will give you an idea as to what are the important sections.
For every topic and sub topic in the syllabus, have some diagrams/ graphs/ pie charts/ flowcharts etc ready. I also mugged up important economists’ names and their viewpoint for each topic/ sub topic. You can see that in my notes also. Similarly mug up important statistics.
When you cover current economic topics for GS3, make sure you go a step ahead by incorporating economists’ names and their viewpoints as well as relevant data.

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Scanned Notes and Strategy Tejasvi Rana Rank 12 (Economics Optional Marks – 325, CSE-2016)