Dear Aspirants,
Greetings from our Team !
Prelims 2016 is over and thankfully we were of some help to you all in your endeavor for CSE 2016.
After Prelims, we were receiving numerous requests to conduct a test series for Mains 2016. While we were definitely overwhelmed by the support and interest shown in us, we thought it would be better to design a test series suiting to the needs of the aspirants and thus we sent a list of questionnaires to our registered students for their valuable feedback.
Clearing this exam is not about how much you know or don’t know , it is all about how qualitatively you can write in a given time frame.That’s what matters and that is the exact reason why many deserving and intelligent students don’t get through and more often than not, the reason is lack of practice.
One can read a 1000 pages on a particular topic but to put it with in 250 words is a real challenge and thus writing tests helps one to filter out the crux of the matter and put forth meaningful and valuable points in exam without beating around the bush.
After going through the feedback given to us by many of you, we have come up with a comprehensive test series for Mains 2016. The test series is designed keeping in mind the recent trends in UPSC CSE Mains exam in the past three years.
Feature of the series:-
- The Test Series will consist of 13 (Thirteen) Tests out of which 8 (Eight) tests will be sectional tests of GS I,II,III and IV and 4 (Four) tests will be full length Mock Tests of GS I,II,III and IV.
- One test will be on Essay.
- We have divided the syllabus of each GS paper in two parts for sectional tests and provided primary and secondary references for each part of them. (Refer to our Mains Test Series Schedule)
- Aspirants are advised to refer the primary references first and go through the secondary references only if the time permits.
- We will be focusing mainly on Current Affairs for GS II and III as has been the recent trends.
- Students will be given Log In credentials after registration and each test will be uploaded on the Students’ Portal latest by 10:00 AM on the day of the test.
- While our Test Series is Flexible and students can postpone the test suiting to their personal studying time table, we would like to advise you to stick to this time table as this will exert extra pressure on you to timely complete the syllabus. We don’t want our students to be the victim of procrastination.
- We will be providing Fixed Space Answer Sheet for each test on our Students’ Portal. The students are advised to print the same and answer for the sake of practice. However, students can also write answers on normal A4 size papers with the questions written on the top of the page.
- We will be receiving the answer copies through our email id upsctree@upsctree.com.
- We will be providing a detailed PERSONALIZED REVIEW of your answers within a week’s time from the date of submission of your paper.
- The students who have joined our ‘Essay Test Series’ programme must be well aware by now of the detailed review we try to provide to our aspirants
- We are committed to ensure the same standards in our Mains Test Series programme as well.
- Evaluation of answers will be done in accordance to the requirement of UPSC. Adequate emphasis will be given on Relevance, Content, Brevity , Language Competency,Economy of words and other aspects that either deal with the quality or quantity.
- We would also be pointing out various Opportunities for Improvements (OFIs) in each answer.
- The evaluated answer sheet will be sent to the students’ individual mail ids.
- The students are free to contact our team of faculties anytime for personal doubt clearance and discussion.
- We will also be providing answer materials for each test in the Students’ Portal after completion of each test.
- Our subscribers must be aware of the quality of articles we publish by covering various perspectives and we would be sticking to the same mantra while preparing the questions for the test series.
- Rest assured, the standard of questions will be at par with UPSC and the Personalized Feedbacks by our team will be going a long way in sharpening your answer writing skills.
Registration and Cost:
The Comprehensive Mains Test Series programme will cost Rs. 6500/- only for the new joiners , for all the 13 Tests with Personalized feedback.
New Joiners can register here – Click Here
We have fixed the cost after taking into account the feedback given to us by our students and the viability of the project.
Our existing students who have already subscribed either our ‘Essay Test Series’ or ‘Prelims Test Series’ can opt for the Test series by paying Rs. 5500/- only .
Existing students can register here – Click Here
We intend to provide as much help as possible and you should not hesitate to ask any queries that you may have irrespective of their nature.We are here to help.
Feel free to write to us , if you have any queries/requests with regards to the program.
Wish you luck !!!
Thank you,
UPSCTREE Team
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.