The Current Affairs has become an integral part in the W.B.C.S Exam Preparation and reading the newspapers and correlating the issues in the news to the W.B.C.S Syllabus is crucial, which most of the candidates find it difficult.

What to Read in the Newspaper?

• Front Page: The front page is reserved for the most important news. However, some newspapers today devote large spaces in the front page to cover sensationalist news. So, you need to be good at identifying the important part & filtering out the irrelevant one.
• City and Regional News: This section is not important.
• Editorial and Opinion: These are important for widening your knowledge base, improving language skills, understanding key issues etc. This section is very useful for GD phase of MBA admission but has limited utility for objective type GK questions, as they emphasize more on analysis than facts.
• National and International News: These are important from examination point of view.
• Business and Economy: This section is critical, especially so for MBA aspirants as you can expect a majority of the questions in current GK from it.
• Sports: Each paper has at least 2-3 questions related to major international tournaments across various sports.

Taking Notes

• Economy and Business – In this section, note down details of the latest budget, latest trends in macroeconomic indicators like inflation, GDP, latest business mergers and acquisitions, new appointments of head of business, etc. Please do not waste time in noting down latest figures of inflation, tax collected etc. as it is unlikely that a question may be asked from them.
• Politics – In it, note down new laws, bills and constitutional amendments etc. Also, keep a note of recently held or upcoming elections and recently launched schemes by the Union Government. Note down the names of any new appointees at high positions in the executive, legislature and judiciary.
• International News – Take down facts related to conflicts, national elections, regional treaties, global meetings and their agendas etc. Also, keep noting down facts related to India’s foreign relations, economic ties, political conflicts, bilateral and multilateral relations etc.
• Sport – From the sport section, note down the names of winners of major international and national level tournaments. If an Indian sportsperson performs well on the international stage, it automatically becomes important for your exams.
• Miscellaneous – This may include information on new technological developments, celebrations related to a cultural festival, international days like the world environment day etc.