Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Economy of India – Some Quick Data each one of us must know

The most commonly asked questions in the interviews and almost every topic in the group discussions revolve around the economy. When it comes to the knowledge of economy and speaking on it for validating the point we wish to make, it is critical to substantiate our point with specific data. We cannot know or remember all the data but with the knowledge of a few critical data we can correlate and add value to the argument we make.
We have compiled some significant facts which must be kept in our mind before we go for any GDPI.
1.       Indian Economy is the 10th largest Economy in the world in terms of the GDP and 3rd largest in terms of Purchasing Power Parity.
2.       India ranks 2nd in the world in terms of farms output and agriculture and allied activities account for 17% of GDP while 51% of workforce is employed in these activities.
3.       According to the World Bank reports in 2012, India’s industrial manufacturing GDP output was 10th largest in the world on current USD basis.
4.       Industry accounts for 26% of GDP and employs 22% of the total workforce.
5.       India hosts many oil refinery and petrochemical operations, including the world's largest refinery complex in Jamnagar, run by Reliance Industries limited that processes 1.24 million barrels of crude per day.
6.       India's mining industry was the 4th largest producer of minerals in the world by volume, and 8th largest producer by value in 2009.
7.       India's services sector has the largest share in the GDP, accounting for 57% in 2012, up from 15% in 1950. It is the 12th largest in the world by nominal GDP and fourth largest when purchasing power is taken into account.
8.       In 2009, seven Indian firms were listed among the top 15 technology outsourcing companies in the world.
9.       As of 2009, India is the fourth largest producer of electricity and oil products and the fourth largest importer of coal and crude-oil in the world.
10.   Indian Railways is the fourth largest rail network in the world, with a track length of 114,500 kilometers and 7,172 stations. This government owned and operated railway network carried an average of 23 million passengers a day, and over a billion tons of freight a year.
11.   Retail industry contributes between 14–15% to 20% of India's GDP. The Indian retail market is estimated to be US$450 and one of the top five retail markets in the world by economic value. India is one of the fastest-growing retail markets in the world and is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2020.
12.   India accounts for 1.44% of exports and 2.12% of imports for merchandise trade and 3.34% of exports and 3.31% of imports for commercial services trade worldwide.
13.   India is a founding-member of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since 1947 and its successor, the WTO.
14.   Since independence, India's balance of payments on its current account has been negative.
15.   In 2011, Transparency International ranked India at 95th place amongst 183 countries in perceived levels of public sector corruption.
16.   India's literacy rate had grown from 52.2% in 1991 to 74.04% in 2011, which is lower than the worldwide average and the country suffers from a high dropout rate.
17.   India became the 10th largest insurance market in the world in 2013, rising from 15th rank in 2011.
18.    India with 17.5% of total world's population had 20.6% share of the world's poorest in 2013.
The aspirants are advised to make a note of aforementioned points and keep revising for a successful and impacting GDPI experience.
All the Best!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015



English then and now


Teaching of English began when the British had brought almost the whole of India under their subjugation. At first, the teachers were all English because no Indian was yet competent enough to teach the subject.
After a few decades, there were a large number of Indian teachers of English. They were competent because they themselves were taught by English teachers.
People like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekanand, Pt.Moti Lal Nehru, and Poet Rabindra Nath Tagore were all products if that age. Their English was impeccable.
Conferences and meetings were all conducted in English. All our heroes of freedom struggle used English as they belonged to different states and their native languages were not known to each other.
After India gained independence, continuance of English as the official language was debated all over the country. Some people were of the opinion that English should be driven out of country along with ‘The English’. Then commonsense prevailed and English held its place as the second official language.
During the past few decades, importance of English has grown manifold because of the development of information technology world trade, inter depence of the countries due to many political and economical reasons and it was realized that people could not make progress unless they knew good English.
The need to know English grow manifold but the standard of teaching English went down and down. The teachers themselves could neither speak nor write good, intelligible English. They came to know that ‘Grammar’ but they did not know that teaching of grammar as a separate subject is not desirable as the students should first acquire the ‘Language skills’ i.e.
1.       They must listen and understand.
2.       They must speak in a way that other people may understand that.
3.       They must be able to read and comprehend.
4.       They must be able to write good, informal English but they do need grammar in a different way.

Grammar should be taught with the help of the language and not the other way round. The teachers themselves should know grammar very well otherwise they will not be able to tackle the mistakes committed by the students.  So the teachers should know grammar and use it himself when necessary.
So what is needed is to build up an army of teachers who can speak English well. No particular ‘approach’ or ‘method’ will be needed if the teacher is good in English himself.
If he speak in English in the class of the students will be compelled to listen to him and understand what he is saying. If the teacher insists on using English when they answer the questions put by him, the students will be able to speak. Similarly if the students are given some topic for writing, the teacher should guide him all the way, this way their mistakes will be fewer.
So what we need is a posse of teachers who can speak and write correct, idiomatic English used in everyday life. We need competent people to teach and train such teachers over a period of time.
That is the only way to raise the standard of English in India which is destined to become a world power in near future.

Written by















Mrs. Roma Chakraborty
        P.E.S. Retd.Associate Professor
    English Language Training Institute
Allahabad