UPSC Aspirant

Tamil Nadu Census 2011 - recommended for TNPSC Preliminary Examination

Legacy Diaries General Knowledge-India TNPSC

Category	2011
Population	7,21,38,958 (37.19R + 34.95U)
Sex Ratio	995
Child Population	6.89 million / 68.9 L
Child sex ratio	946
Literates	52.41 million/ 5.241 Crore
Literacy rate	80.33
Rural Population growth	2.27 million (absolute)
Urban Population growth	7.47 million (absolute)
Districts	32
Sub-Districts	215
Towns	1097
Villages	15979

1. Largest Rural Population – Villupuram (7.94% of state rural population)

2. Highest Urban Population – Chennai (13.39% of state urban population)

3. Decade growth rate in population in rural and urban – 6.49% & 27.16% (TN overall – 15.60%)

4. Decade growth rate highest in rural – Villupuram district (16.58%)

5. Decade growth rate lowest in rural – Kanyakumari district (-43.89%)

6. Decade growth rate highest in urban – Kancheepuram district (65.33%)

7. Decade growth rate lowest in urban – Nilgiri district (-4.09%)

8. Proportion of rural and urban population – 51.55% and 48.45% (increase of 4.41%)

9. Largest proportion of rural population – Ariyalur (88.88%)

10. Largest proportion of urban population – Kanyakumari (82.47%) – (apart from Chennai which is totally urban)

11. Sex ratio – 995 (987 in 2001); increase in rural by 1 point to 993 and increase in urban by 16 points to 998.

12. Highest sex ratio – Nilgiri district (1041); Rural – Nilgiri district (1055); Urban – Thanjavur district (1038).

13. Lowest sex ratio – 1. Salem (934), 2. Ramanathapuram (960)

14. Child population (0-6 years) – declined in rural (-13.73%) and grown in urban (+8.02%) (Note : decline in child population means decline in fertility, which shows that the stage is in 3^rd stage of demographic transition)

15. Child sex ratio – 946 (942 in 2001); Rural -937(933 in 2001) and Urban – 957(955 in 2001).

16. Rural child ratio – Niligiri (highest -979); Cuddalore (lowest – 878)

17. Urban child ratio – Nilgiri (highest – 984); Ariyalur (lowest – 908)

18. Highest number of rural literate – Villupuram; Highest number of urban literate – Chennai followed by Coimbatore.

19. Literacy rate - Male literacy rate – 86.81 ( R-82.08, U-91.82); Female literacy rate – 73.86 (R-65.52, U-82.67)

20. Highest literacy rate in urban and rural – Kanyakumari district (R-90.95; U-92.40)

21. Lowest literacy rate in urban and rural – Dharmapuri district (R-62.69; U-74.43)

22. Highest male literacy rate in rural – Kanyakumari (92.49)

23. Highest male literacy rate in urban – Pudukottai and Sivaganga (94.17)

24. Lowest male literacy in urban and rural – Dharmapuri (R-67.30, U-78.17)

25. Lowest female literacy rate in rural – Salem (56.71)

26. Lowest female literacy rate in urban – Dharmapuri (70.25)

27. More Villages in – Villupuram district (1486); Less in Nilgiri (40)

28. No if sub-districts more in – Tirunelveli and Pudukottai (11 each)

29. No of statutory towns more in – Kanyakumari district

30. No of census towns more in – Kancheepuram district

Summary of above in tabular format

*denotes excluding Chennai. Means Chennai is the highest or lowest and the mentioned is the next to it. B in sex denotes both.

Sex	Category	Highest	Lowest
B	Population	Kancheepuram*	Nilgiri
B	Rural Population	Villupuram	Nilgiri
B	Urban Population	Coimbatore*	Ariyalur
B	Decade growth rate in urban	Kancheepuram	Nilgiri
B	Decade growth rate in rural	Villupuram	Kanyakumari
B	Proportion of rural population	Ariyalur	Kanyakumari
B	Proportion of urban population	Kanyakumari	Ariyalur
-	Sex Ratio	Nilgiri	Salem
-	Rural Sex ratio	Nilgiri	Salem
-	Urban Sex ratio	Thanjavur	Krishnagiri
-	Child Sex ratio	Nilgiri	Ariyalur
-	Rural child sex ratio	Nilgiri	Cuddalore
-	Urban child sex ratio	Nilgiri	Ariyalur
B	Child Population	Vellore*	Perambalur
B	Rural Child Population	Villupuram	Nilgiri
B	Urban Child Population	Kancheepuram*	Ariyalur
B	Decade child population growth	Kancheepuram	Nilgiri
B	Decade rural child population growth	Villupuram	Kanyakumari
B	Decade urban child population growth	Kancheepuram	Nilgiri
B	Highest rural literates	Villupuram	Nilgiris
B	Highest Urban literates	Chennai	Ariyalur
R+U	Literacy Rate	Kaniyakumari	Dharmapuri
-	Male Literacy Rate - Rural	Kaniyakumari	Dharmapuri
-	Male Literacy rate - Urban	Sivanganga & Pudukottai	Dharmapuri
-	Female Literacy rate- rural	Kanyakumari	Salem
-	Female literacy rate - urban	Kanyakumari	Dharmapuri

World History for General Studies (Paper -1) by Ravi Shankar - Is it worth buying for Main Examination preparation?

Legacy Diaries History Suggested Books

Civil Service Main Examination 2013 is concluded, now the candidates have some clear cut idea about how and from where the questions are asked. Before the examination many new books were coming in the market just like the mushroom during the raining season. Not all mushroom's are good and the same is applicable to study materials too. I came across a book which claims that it is a comprehensive package world history in General studies paper-1. Is it worth buying? I am here to provide you with a critical review of the book, considering the quality of its contents, way of presentation, correlation with prescribed syllabus and of course a comparison with the main examination question paper.

About the book

Publication : Arihant

Author : Ravi Shankar

Edition : First Edition, 2013

Price : MRP 150

General Studies (Paper:1) - Main Examination Syllabus (World History)

History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc, - their forms and effect on the society

What contents does this book cover?

Chapter 1 :Renaissance

Chapter 2 : American Revolution

Chapter 3 : French Revolution

Chapter 4 : Industrial Revolution

Chapter 5 : Unification of Italy and Germany.

Chapter 6 :Imperialism and Colonialism

Chapter 7 : Russian Revolution

Chapter 8 : World War 1

Chapter 9 :World War 2

Chapter 10: Political Philosophies in Modern World

Chapter 11 : Liberation from Colonial Rule

Chapter 12 : Post War Foundations : NATO and European Community

Chapter 13 : Fall of Soviet Union and USA's Domination

Important Historical Terms and Famous Personalities

Model Question - Answers

How many questions you would have attended in World history portion in the concluded main examination?

Latecomer- Industrial revolution in Japan involved certain factors that were markedly different from what west had experience. - Not covered
What policy instruments were deployed to contain the great economic depression? - Mock question at the end of the chapter has answer to this question directly.
Africa was chopped into states artificially created by accident of European competition. Analyse. - Covered in Chapter 6: Imperialism and Colonialism.
American Revolution was an economic revolt against mercantilism. Substantiate. - This question is almost picked from the model practice question provided at the end of each chapter. Here is the model question mentioned in the book, " The American Revolution was essentially as economic conflict between American capitalism as British Mercantilism."?

Positive Features

Lucidly written in the format of notes.
Covers almost all prominent part of the syllabus.
Font is catchy and it draws interest to read.
Practice questions after every chapter and mock questions with answers at the end of the book.
Good quality paper

Drawback

History of China, Japan, Vietnam are not covered extensively. In fact NCERT covers this area.

Over all it's a good buy for World History portion of main examination. Of course NCERT too covers these areas. The topics covered will also be useful in tackling objective questions in other competitive examinations (IB, SSC CGL etc,) too.

Where to Buy

Flipkart - Rs.105(30% off) - To buy click here

Arihant Site - Rs. 127.50 (15% off)

How to prepare for IBPS PO Common interview? - Guidelines, Strategy and Mock Questions

Legacy Diaries Banking General

Common Interview and Allotment date - Notification

IBPS Common Written Examination (CWE) is over and now it’s time for the Common Interview. The official notification with respect to the common interview is already released.

When does the interview start? – From January 2, 2014.

When can I download my interview call letter? – From December 16, 2013.

When does the allotment start? – From April, 2014 (provisional) as of now.

What documents should I take to the interview? – refer the official notification, it is clearly mentioned.

Still in Confusion whether your CWE score is sufficient? - Click Here to Get Confidence

IBPS Common Interview

Once the IBPS score card was out, I am sure one set of candidates would have already started preparing for interview. Some candidates are still in confusion from where they should start. Few candidates (first timers) are still thronging multiple blogs and Facebook groups about what is the next step in the recruitment process. I am sure you will be surprised, one candidate has scored 76 (UR) and questioned in Yahoo Answers that she has passed the examination and she do know what will happen next. She enquires whether any individual bank will call/mail her to come to interview. Who knows this is also the reason (ignorance) that many candidates in spite of scoring good fail to turn to interview. Let’s hope no candidate miss the common interview, just because of ignorance.

What does the interview committee expect from you?

The number of members in the interview committee or whether there will be uniform number of members in the interview committee throughout the nation in all the centres is still not known or either revealed. However the interview board will not have less than 4 members. My first advice to dear readers(first timers) is that do not worry or panic thinking about the number of members in an interview committee. In fact more the members, less questions from every individual and good chance of escaping from any single person who continues to ask tough/critical question.

Let us do an analysis before going into the actual topic. Just ask a question to yourself? If you are the Chairman/ MD of a private bank and you are sitting in the interview committee. Your bank is performing well all these years and you are planning to widen your branches in more places. So you need Officer’s for your branch. What do you expect from the candidates appearing in the interview? Remember, choosing an inefficient person may spoil your business.

Will you hire a person who does not speak? – No, because you need your officers to engage themselves with customers. More you interact with your customers, more the business it brings.
Will you hire a person who is not clear in what he is expressing? – No, because if you are loan manager or retail manager you need to express your views lucidly to your customers to make them understand it. It is finally you, who bring business to the bank. So the person hired should be good in expressing his views.

Continue to ask similar questions assuming that it is you who own the bank, this is a process of self-learning and I am sure just this self-learning and self-analysis will provide you with basic idea of how you should present yourself.

Won’t they test my knowledge?

Yes of course they do. But the personality test is not just about digging out your knowledge. It is also to test your attitude, skills, confidence, creativity and ability to accomplish a task. So your interview basically has two components,

To test your personality.
To test you knowledge. ( conceptual understanding and in depth knowledge)

Testing your Personality?

When it comes to personality test, once should keep two thumb rules in mind,

“There is no right or wrong answer, it just matters how you answer”.

“What is right for someone, may be wrong for you and what is wrong for others may be right for you”

What do they ask to test my personality? It is not necessary that they should ask you question. Your sitting posture , way of answering, way of dressing, the way you look them and the way you argue/counter argue your points provides them the necessary clue about your personality. They evaluate your confidence level, inferiority/superiority complexes, ability to face problems, ability to find solutions, your attitude and so on without specifically asking any question, but from the answers given by you to some general questions.

Let us see one by one,

What does my posture signify? - If you bent yourself with your arms and legs crossed then it signifies that you are someone who is unfriendly and it is an indication of antagonism. Amy Cuddy, professor and researcher in Harvard Business School, reveals that these weak postures increase your cortisol level and decrease your testosterone level. Higher Cortisol and lower testosterone reduces your confidence level. Whereas if you sit straight, which she portrays as strong pose, increases your confidence level by reducing the cortisol level and increasing the testosterone level. So your sitting posture indirectly gives them idea about your confidence level.

Do not say sorry often – During the course of interview, if you fail to answer any questions or answered incorrectly, do say sorry and suffix it by saying that you will learn/ correct it. But if you continuously say sorry, it indirectly signifies your inferiority complex. Try to avoid the word please too.

How to answer the questions? – The way you answer the questions also gives an idea of your attitude. When a question is asked, first listen to him fully before giving the answer. Do not interrupt and start answering before the member completes the question. Answer the question clearly so that the interview board understands what you wish to say. Remember, it doesn't matter what you say, it only matter’s what they understand. So make your answers to the point asked expressing it clearly. Efficient answer gives them an idea of your ability to express your views and communication skill.

Have a smile on your face – Try to have a smile (it doesn’t meant you have to laugh loud or show your teeth). Just have a gentle smile in your face, even if you fail to answer the question. It shows your issue solving capability and ability to handle tensed situation.

Forget exclamatory remarks – Never use, ‘Oh My God’, ‘Shit’ or any other exclamatory words during the course of the interview when you do something by mistake. Let your hands be in rest. Some people tend to keep their hands on their head or forehead when they commit mistake. If you are in this list, control your hand. Also while answering avoid hand actions.

Groom yourself properly – If you are a boy – have a clean shave, proper haircut and present yourself appealing. Appealing doesn't mean the way you dress to visit your girlfriend. You need look like a professional. The reason is, customers usually have more belief in someone who is well groomed. Also not being shaved or haircut signifies that you are lazy. It is not necessary that you have to go with suit. You can go with formal wear (preferable light shirts/ dark pant) and shoes. Wearing light coloured shirts will look calm and pleasant, whereas dark colours may sometime irritate the one who site opposite to you. (Source: Read somewhere long back, Google colour psychology to learn a bit)

Inferiority/ Superiority complex- Both are dangerous. Never try to exaggerate what you say nor stay without giving your opinion. Do not talk too loud (shout) nor talk too low.

Dealing with counter argument: If you have difference of opinion about anything with the committee member, you can politely say that you have a difference of opinion and request him to permit you to say it. Do not give your counter opinion without requesting. It will surely have a negative impact if the committee member himself has some sort of superiority complex.

First Impression: This topic should have been mentioned first, but I purposely kept it at the bottom to stress its importance. Usually after interviewing a candidate, members take a minute or two to call the next candidate. Just wait for your time to enter. Usually there will be a staff to assist you. Even if you are asked to come in, gently open the door, request cordially, “May I come in Sir’s/Madam” and wait until they ask you to take your seat. Usually once you come near your seat, they immediately ask you to sit. Say ‘Thank you’, sit with a strong pose with a smile on your face.

Some questions you should be ready to answer

I will just share the questions, but not the answers as it violates rule 1 and 2 which I have already mentioned. Let me put it again,

“There is no right or wrong answer, it just matters how you answer”.
“What is right for someone, may be wrong for you and what is wrong for other may be right for you”

In all these questions, do not give superstitious/ exaggerated answers; try to be honest and down to earth while answering. There are few ready made answers available for all these questions provided by coaching centers. Do not assume that the board members are fool. They can easily differentiate an honest and a naïve answer. Below are few common questions which are generally asked in bank interviews. These questions are basically not to test the knowledge, but to test your personality and your attitude.

Tell me about yourself?
Why did you choose banking as your career?
Why did you prefer banking though you are from Science/Engineering background? (If you are from Science or Engineering background)
Are you preparing for any other competitive examinations?
Why do you want shift your profession /company / career? (If you are already in job -Do not complain your past employer at any cost even if they are bad on you - Have a answer if the salary you get now is more than what you will be getting in bank after becoming PO)
Did you choose banking just because of the lucrative salary or for so called white collar job?
what did you do all these years after your graduation? (If you are jobless)
Why did you give “XYZ” bank as your first preference? (Not often asked, but what if asked?)

Questions to test your creativity

What difference can you bring after joining in a bank as PO?
What new marketing strategy can you adopt to increase the business in your bank?
Suggest some innovative ideas for financial inclusion?
How can you market the need for credit cards in the present generation? (Other retail banking products too may asked in similar fashion).
Other similar questions to study your skill and creativity.

Questions to test your knowledge

Your knowledge on current happenings, concepts on banking, aptitude skill and computer awareness were already tested through the written examination. But what is the proof that you had better understanding of the concepts? In order to confirm this, few questions usually of analyzing type are asked to trigger your thinking capability. Sometimes direct questions too are asked, similar to what is asked in written examination. But there is a universal truth, if the questions continue to rise in difficulty, then you are performing well. If the level of question has dropped from what is asked to you before, then probably you did not satisfy them. Usually to make you comfort (mostly) they start with some fundamental questions. What is IFSC code? Why it is required? What is MICR code? Why it is required? How bank transactions are made? What is the difference between NEFT and RTGS? What does it mean by priority sector lending?

These questions are like starter following your personality questions which I mentioned previously after seeing your profile. Based on you answers, level of questions may vary. Usually the questions get diverted from your answer. Be careful when you mention any concept/ term. Probably your next question will be the same. The same technique can be used to get the board members to your comfort zone. For instance, if you have done quite a good research in financial inclusion and have better ideas. Try to bring the concept of financial inclusion when you answer a question. Give a slight stress and expect the question from your comfort zone.

Topics to cover for the upcoming IBPS PO common interview

Let me share few topics of importance which one need to cover before appearing in interview.

Refine your basic knowledge on banking concepts and economic indicators. (Similar to what you prepared for written examination, but now enrich your knowledge in concepts so that you can answer all types of interrogations on these topics).
New Banking Licence – Pros and Cons
NPA in bank – what can be done and your opinion on steps taken by government to tackle the issue.
What additional steps can be taken to improve security in ATM? (Remember the recent Bangalore tragedy.)
Are internet banking / mobile banking / online transactions safe? How will you convince a customer about its safety and ease of use?
What is your opinion about the RBI’s permission to permit WOS of foreign banks to acquire to domestic private banks? (Bank unions are going on strike against this decision on 18^th December, so you can learn the pros by reading from RBI point of view and cons by reading the trade union point of view.)
What is your opinion about the RBI decision to allow foreign bank subsidiaries to list in local stock exchange?
What are the problems faced by farmers? Do you think Agriculture loan waiver has reached the targeted audience? What are the Government’s steps to tackle the issue? Give your suggestion? (Agriculture loan comes under priority sector lending, so one need to have idea about this.)
What can be done to keep inflation under control?
What is the reason for dollar price hike recently and the remedy taken?
What is your opinion about the recent monetary policy changes by RBI? (Look at RBI site)
Have a look at the sites which I will be mentioning and note for any new order/ policy etc., – RBI, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, SEBI, IRDA before going to interview.
Also go through recent topics of discussion like - Food Security Bill, Cash Benefit Transfer, Mangalyan (why to spend 450 crores in Mars exploration when more than 70% of our people are still in poverty?) etc,

Bottom Note

Questions listed above are to give some basic idea. Candidates are asked to widen their knowledge conceptually in the recent topics of Economics and Current Affairs.
Important topics related to banking which are not mentioned can be shared by experienced candidates. It will be helpful to first timers.
I personally believe that one need to answer honestly to questions on his profile. However some coaching centres have ready made answers for it. What I have mentioned is my view, it is upto the candidates to decide.

"With Confidence You Have Won Before You Have Started" - Marcus Garvey

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