What are the important items in a newspaper?

First go through the old question papers of UPSC (at least last three years), that should give you a
rough idea on what questions are asked directly or indirectly from newspaper. And then read the
newspaper keeping that in mind.

Administration/ Polity
1. Press conference of government, where they announce various policies, administrative
reforms etc. (Im talking about the press conference of union and State government, not the
press conference of Congress and BJP.)
2. Various bills, minutes of Cabinet meetings.
3. The big full-page advertisements given by ruling party, about their achievements. (This usually
comes before the election and on the birth anniversary of Nehru Gandhi Family). It is important
because, they list out the various developmental schemes and provisions in it. Most important
part is who runs the scheme? for example NREGA thing for under the jurisdiction of rural
development Ministry (and not under Labour Ministry)
4. Election related items: what will the initiatives taken by the election commission? Any problems
or controversies.
5. You have to prepare these for both Union as well as your own state Government. (Your state-
Government schemes and Administrative reforms for the profile Based Questions)

What is not important?

1. Press conferences of political parties and civil society.

2. No need to do Ph.D on every scam. All you have to do is brief highlight of what was the scam,
how was it committed, what is the presence status in investigation or court and how to prevent
it in future. You dont have to go in minute details like on 23rdOctober 2007, Mr XYZ the
accountant of store-dept in Commonwealth games misreported a 50 rupees ball for Rs.5000.
Learn to skip the garbage sentences while you are reading a news item.
3. Same goes for elections: The XYZ by-elections were conducted on 23th October 2004 in
which Mrs. XYZ wife of ABC belong with JYZ Political party defeated

National News
Maoists kidnap a collector = name of the collector is not important. But now experts and
politicians say we need a comprehensive hostage-crisis guideline after this incidence=
important.
Railway accidents, how many killed =not important. Reason for the rail accident and
 SP says BSP took 50 crores or vice versa = not important.
How many killed in floods, landslides or tsunamis on which date= not important. But the reason
behind those geographical phenomenons = important.
ISRO sends an artificial satellite = important. How much does it weigh? = not important.
When and How many men did leopards kill in Maharashtra = not important. Why is leopard
killing men in Maharashtra= important. What is Government doing to stop the leopard? =
important.

International News
1. Bilateral visits of prime ministers and presidents. What treaties or trade pacts did they sign?
2. What is going on in UN, IMF, World Bank?
3. Elections in the big nations : USA, Russia, China, France, UK.
4. Political or military coup (usually in South America and Africa.)
5. Any major event: the democratic uprising in Middle East, Israel palestine, US vs China / Russia
missile defence, NATO-Afghanistan and so on.
6. Meetings of organisations such as ASEAN, G20 etc , and particularly what India did in such
conferences and meetings.
7. Climate change, environment related news.
8. Science and Tech related items for example CERN, Chinas space program, missle tests by
N.Korea, Irans nuke program and so on.

What is not important?

1. Lady Gaga or Justine Timberlakes world tours.

2. How many people are killed in a car bomb blast in Pakistan or Afghanistan?
3. XYZ researchers found out that eating tomato daily helps preventing tooth ache = not
important.
4. Anything small-time, that does not affect future of the World. For example sex-scandles of
Italian PM or marital wooes of Sarkozy.

More on How to prepare India and World topic for General Studies (Mains) Paper II, is explained in
a separate article. Click Me to read it.

Economy
1. Press conference or press note by Government, SEBI, RBI, Planning Commission etc.
2. ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM etc. (they usually complaint or suggest about Government policies
that affect the business houses.)
3. Columns and Editorials related to Economy.
4. IIP, GDP, WPI, CPI etc. Not the numbers but the reasons behind that number and the future
because of that number.
5. International: ASEAN, World Bank, EU etc.
6. Those preparing for Bank exams, should also note down the names of Chaimen of various
companies and banks.

What is not important in Economy

1. Daily Ups and downs of sharemarket.

2. Numbers. Because Economy is not about number but the meaning, history and future related
to that number.
a. For example, if IIP was 0.13 on Jan-2012. That itself is not important. Whether it was 0.13
or 0.128? that is not important.
b. Important Questions are : is this IIP good or bad? And why is it good or bad? Whatll be its
impact on future of Indian economy and Government / RBI policies?

FrontPage
1. There is a narrow column on the left hand side of the front page, most of the time, the
yearbook related information, government schemes etc. appear here.
2. The main news item on the frontpage: it is usually not-very-important. Reason most of the
time it is the political news. For example, Bihar Mahadalit Land Racket. If you are a candidate
from Bihar, you should read it, for the others, it is not worth it.

Columns / Editorials

Question: What is a column / Editorial?

These are big paragraphs like articles in the centre pages of a newspaper.
Generally each article has photo of the author and usually the author gives a 20 years old
photo when he/she was in college. If you ever happen to see them in actual TV Debate, it turns
out theyre quite older than what they look in the newspapers.
Editorial is written by the editor himself. For example Shekhar Gupta for IndianExpress on
Saturday. While Columns are written by experts (including self-proclaimed experts) on a
particular topic of politics, economy, international events.

What to prepare from Columns/ Editorials?

 Usually columns are made up of 7-8 paragraphs. But not every sentence and line is important;
there are just 3-4 gemstones in it, which you can use in your mains / essay / interview
answers. So just note them down.
Some people use highlighters to mark important lines and then file those newspaper
cuttings. So do whichever method suits you (noting down or filing the cuttings).
But Not every column is worth your time and energy. For example in Indianexpress, there is
one guy writes about Nepals political turomil every week. But in Nepal, the Prime ministers are
changed every week and this guy happens to give ball by ball commentery of everything. Its
not worth the Cost-benefit ratio. So skip him.
Similarly there is one Yogindar Alagh in Indianexpress, who pretends to write on rural
Development but just I did this and that when I was a minister=Not important.
Maintain the balance: some column writers have a habit of being totally cynical and anti-
Government. For example Tavleen Singh of Indianexpress, while I do admire her for having
the guts to openly write against Sonia, Mohan and Rahul, but in your answers, You must not
admire or criticize a particular individual (minister / politician) in the mains / interview. And dont
prepare a line that is too leftist or too rightists.
And if you criticise the Government, then you should also offer the reform suggestions.

Sports / music / life-style/ Bollywood

Lifestyle = painting, pottery, music, fashion events etc. most of which cannot be afforded by
middle class people.
The last 3-4 pages of English newspaper are devoted to this. if your hobby is tennis or chess,
then you must follow the related sport-news.
For others, I say just skip it. Anything historic about Sports will get published in the competitive
magazines and or the free blogs/ current-affairs related websites anyways. So daily following
these sports-pages = not worth the time and energy.
Bollywood and cricket related news = not important in any case. Unless something related to
administration or polity for example should BCCI be brought under RTI? And the copyright act
vs Bollywood.

How to read the newspaper in less than 1 hour?

Needs certain tools.

1. A study-desk or Table
2. A Red colored 0.7mm ballpoint pen and or a red sketch pen.
3. Loose papers, folders, notebooks
 4. And last but not the least a newspaper.

The beginning
Keep the red pen handy.
Im taking Gujarat Edition of Indian express as reference; just follow the same procedure for your
City /States edition of Indianexpress/ Hindu.
The front-page and second page
Circle down on important lines from the news (which news, that is already explained above).
Third, fourth and fifth page
Is usually Gujarat / Ahmedabad news for example

20 people died in car accident in rajkot

xyz girl eloped with a neighbour
A cop was found taking bribes
Stone-pelting and rioting in XYZ part of Ahmedabad after a cricket match.
Keshubhai Patel said XYZ against Narendra Modi.
Sanjay Joshis men have put posters against Modi in Ahmedabad.

^none of above, is important.

Then what is important?

Navjivan Trust of Abad says no to Gujarati version of Lets kill Gandhi written by Tushar
Gandhi.
Gujarat Maritime Board and pollution board gives clearance to ship-breaking of Exxon Valdez,
but NGO lobby says it contains dangerous chemicals. (Names are not important, but the
important part is the big environmental issue vs. livelihood of ship-breakers in Alang
Gujarat State Government launches Girl Child education and School enrollment drive.
Ahmedabad Municipal corp will give Rs.250/- to all Government school students who live
more than 3 kms from the school, apart from the mid-day meal, Bicycle distribution and
Vidhyalaxmi scheme.

We are done with 5 pages

The 6 to 9 Page

These are devoted to national news

Only concentrate on important exam oriented news. Underline the important lines using your
red pen.

Page 10-11 (Columns and Editorials)

Highlight the gemstones and move on.

Page 12-13 (International)

Highlight the important news lines and move on.

Page 14 (TV, Astrology, Cartoon strips)

Highlight the important news lines for example the timing of Balika Vadhu. Haha just kidding,
skip this page.

Page 15-16 (Business and economy)

Most important. Scan through every item, including small box news. Highlight the gemstones, if
there are any important diagrams, cut and file them.

Page 17-20 (Bollywood, Lifestyle, Sports)

Skip it.

We are done highlighting the important newslines. Now it is time for review.
The Review

Go through those red lines and either write them in the relevant notebook / cut and file it.
Your can either keep five separate full-scape notebooks. OR you can write these in loose
papers and then file it in five separate folders.
The advantage of loose papers = you can add more pages between, when the follow up news
comes. For example in case of QFIs. Same is not possible in a notebook.

Folder /
Sorting
Notebook

All the polity, administration, Development related

Administration
items should be either written or pasted here.

Economics Same exercise

One file or notebook, make three sub-parts in it.

First part- write or paste the state/city related news.
Your profile
Second part- about your academic background
Third part- news related to hobbies.

All the science-tech, environment, climate change

S&T
related stuff.
^ you dont have to write the entire sentences highlighted in red-pen but just the keywords or
phrases thatd help you recall the entire issue.
In the beginning, thisd be time-consuming mental torturing exercise.
But with time, youll develop the expertize of weeding out the unimportant news and note down the
gemstones.

Ive seen Maestros who write the summary note of entire The Hindu newspaper on just one
side of an A4 sized paper, without missing even a single important item. They dont read every
line of a newspaper, their eyes are trained to scan through the lines and hand automatically
highlights the keywords. Its an art and can be mastered only by practice Daily writing habit
also improves your handwriting speed, which is again important for the Mains exam.
Like a professional athlete This must be your daily regime as long as youre a contender. Just
because prelims are over or just because mains are over, doesnt mean you stop
this. Youve to do this on daily basis.
IF youre unable to get Hindu in your city, you can read it using feedly browser addon