- [Block-1] Disaster Management
- [Block-2] Cleaning India and Ganga
- [Block-3] Yearbook type
- [Block-4] Energy related
- [Block-5] International
[Block-1] Disaster Management
Disaster#1: Cyclone Hudhud
- Hudhud national bird of Israel. (IUCN status: Least concern)
- Oman suggested this Cyclone name to IMD.
- Hits Eastern coast ~mid-October 2014. Last year Phailin too came at same time.

Cyclone Hudhud: Path, area and intensity
Born | @Bay Bengal, West-Central region. |
---|---|
Speed | 155-195 kmph. |
Catalyst | deep depression over north Andaman Sea. |
Target |
|
People affected |
|
Environment |
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Economy |
|
Rescue operation: operation “Lehar”
Navy |
|
---|---|
Army | Lifejackets, engineer task forces on standby at Ranchi, Allahabad and Secunderabad. |
Airforce | C-17 Globemaster and five An-32 transport aircraft, Chetaks, Mi-8 helicopters, Mi-17 medium-lift choppers |
Coastguard | 17 ships, two air cushion vessels and 13 aircraft in Eastern |
NCMC |
|
NDRF | Evacuated >10000 people. |
Suggestions/ Precautions/reforms
- Coastal states should Prepare a “Blue book” for standard operating procedure during cyclones.
- Target zero human and cattle casualty. Move them to safe location well ahead of time. If they refuse, use police/military-FORCE.
- Stop usage of rail lines, airways and highways in the area
- Alerts on the ports and fishing areas
- Backup/Stand-by system for electricity and communication system.
- Empty the dam reservoirs to accommodate cyclonic water.
- Use doppler radar for close monitoring.
- Keep NDRF, armed forces and Navy on standby. Control rooms @District HQ.
- Equip them with large wood and metal cutters.
- Storage and food, drinking water, medicines and other relief material
- Toll free numbers, Ham-radio operators, satellite phones to help people.
- Andhra Pradesh Government thinking of “Green-Cess” to rebuild forest and mangroves.
- Separate insurance products for disasters, similar to agro.insurance products.
Ain’t nothing called national calamity
- Modi visits Visakhapatnam, did not declare Hudhud cyclone as a national calamity, only gave Rs.1k crore assistant=>juntaa angry.
- BUT There is nothing termed as ‘National Calamity’ either in the Disaster Management Act 2005 or in any other disaster management related notifications. (says Ex-Vice-Chairman of NDMA).
- Title “National calamity” doesn’t give state Government more financial assistance.
- Even Uttarakhand Tsunami (2013) wasn’t declared national calamity, only Rs.1000 crore given in interim relief.
- But afterwards, Union gave crores in indirect funding for rehabilitation. Even world bank and ADB came to help.
- So it’s a bogus misconception that if Hudhud not declared national calamity then state Government won’t get help.
Benefits of Ham radio
- 2 way communication, even when all other communication-channels are down during disaster.
- Local, regional and global connectivity between members.
- No cost. Except initial assembly.
- If Ham-radio every 5 km=> entire Andhra Pradesh could be covered. Much more efficient handling of Hudhud.
- Even datafiles and images can be shared- IF in small size.
- India Written exam=> police verification =>license after 1 year delay. In USA its done in 3 days.
- All these precaution are laughable because terrorists buy SIM cards with much ease.
Social media in disaster Management
Andhra Pradesh Government done following
- setup facebook page to receive complaints about milk and petrol hoarding.
- Setup www.hudhud.ap.gov.in for damage assessment.
- Collecting destruction photos via whatsapp and facebook.
- Creating volunteer network using Facebook and Twitter
- Rallying up the college students in relief distributions.
Disater#2: Kashmir floods

Kashmir Floods: Areas affected
Natural |
|
Manmade |
|
Mission Sahayata
- Army led resruce and relief ops. In Kashmir floods.
- More than 13k lives saved, 3k provided shelters.
- Army too used social media applications such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to reach out to the flood-affected people of Jammu and Kashmir
- The BSNL worked on a war footing to restore the telecom network.
Suggestion/ precaution/ reforms
- New National action plan for floods forecasting. (till now we are using program from 1953).
- A separate disaster management plan for hill states- against cloudbursts and floods.
- When water level recedes flood areas- diseases spreads. Need floating clinics, and dispose man and animal carcasses soon.
- SC says Army was doing “commendable” work but current rescue operations were too inadequate for such a huge disaster.
- Many refuse to leave their houses fearing looting by scavengers. Army’s headache increased – in delivering food-ration to such people.
- Army’s own arms-ammunitions washed away in floods. While grenades became useless but rifles can be reused by oiling.
- Court records destroyed. There was no online/cloud backup. Need judicial computerization ASAP across India.
- Defense Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), Mysore is supplying ready-to-eat (RTE) food to victims.
- Modi himself in-charge of a rescue-relief committee. Celebrated in J&K instead and gave ~750 crore. Thinking of directly sending money to victim’s bank account but Omar unhappy, wanted 44k crores.
- Kashmir willow trees = cricket bats. But flood water destroyed the Raw wood stock in factories.
- Uttarakhand state government created an mobile APP with digital mapping of Rudraprayag district. It’ll help pilgrims get weather updates and emergency contact on mobile phones. All state governments need to do similar.
Patna Stampede | Someone shouted about fallen electric wire. Resultant stampede killed 100s. How to prevent such man-made disasters?
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Cyclone Nilofer |
|
[Block-2] Cleaning India and Ganga
B1: Swachh Bharat / Clean India campaign
To clean India by 2019 on Gandhi’s 150th Birthday.
Rural ministry | 1.3 lakh cr.+ |
---|---|
Urban ministry | 60k.crore + |
State Government | 25% |
Corporate | CSR funding under Companies Act 2013 |
Total | ~2 lakh cr. |
Mechanism
- First phase till Diwali- to generate mass movement
- Eradication of manual scavenging
- solid waste management- convert waste to wealth
- Build toilets
- Penalties like Singapore (although no decision yet).
- Roping in religious leader like Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri, Muslim clerics and Catholic bishops et al.
- Roping in celebrities like Salman, Sachin, Priyanka Chopra, Kamal Hasan et al.
Fodder/Issues / Challenges/ Solutions
- Lack of sanitation =>diseases=>poverty=>bogus human Development. Therefore, cleanliness campaign should be extended to include health care too.
- Most Indians are good at cleaning their surroundings and then, equally adept at dumping the refuse.
- Manual scavenging yet to be abolished on ground despite SC order.
- Must de-stigmatise the act of cleaning. (from labelling the employee as “Kachre-walla” to “safai-walla” mindset)
- Break the caste-occupation link.
- Safai Karmacharis be given permanent job and medical protection like firemen.
- Citizen vigil group.
- Total Sanitation Campaign and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan= Decentralised, community-led strategies=> but became hardware-supply target-driven programmes => low coverage and usage. Modi must not repeat the same strategy.
- Building toilets alone will not solve the problem of sanitation. It must be kept clean otherwise no one will use.
- Schools don’t have enough funds to hire separate employees for cleaning toilets and IF students are made to do this work, Media would sensationalize it in negative manner.
- States like Kerala- after achieving high sanitation coverage – still faced poor health outcomes due to lack of treatment facilities when pits fill up. (problem of secondary issues like treatment to filled pits after constructing toilets)
- Total sanitation campaign and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan: Government hoped it’d be “decentralized community driven program” but they became hardware-subsidy driven solutions. (i.e. financial help to build toilets). But dirty/non-functional toilets = no one uses.
- Must imbibe the behavioural change i.e. you’ve to flush the sakaari toilet after using. Need to combine Modi’s social-media followers + PR-machine with Panchayati raj leaders.
- Too many heads, lack of coordination. Potholes in roads + leftover construction material lying on roadsides=> dirty water & garbage will accumulate. But who is to be held responsible- Road contractor or safai Karmchari or Both? No proper accountability and punishment mechanism.
- Celebrity campaigning turned to Photo-opportunity. Will they regularly revisit the area to ensure its kept clean?
- Need comprehensive policy for sanitation. Perhaps a law like MNREGA, RTI and RTE to make clean toilets a “legal-right and responsibility”.
Bangkok | waste management |
---|---|
Kampala | Urban farming |
London | congestion tax |
Madrid and Barcelona | controlled pedestrianisation |
Copenhagen | cycling tracks |
Singapore | prohibitive litter fines. |
Effective sanitation service delivery is critical not only for health outcomes, but also for dignity, livelihoods, safety and security. Elaborate 200 words.
B2: Ganga cleanup

गंगा सफाई पांच राज्यों की सहभागिता के बिना असंभव
- Since mid-80s: “Ganga Action Plan (GAP)” but Epicfail.
- 2008: Ganga declared national river.
- 2014: Modi’s “Namami Gange” to clean Ganga by 2019.
Can Ganga ever be cleaned?
Yes it can be | No it can’t be |
---|---|
|
|
Ganga Cleanup under Modi-raj
Ganga rejuvenation plan | By Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation |
---|---|
Ganga cleanup authority |
|
- Ashes can’t be immesered on shallow banks anymore.
- Flowers and coconut offerings will be mesh-trapped=> recycle=>holi colors + compost.
- No sewage pipe will have an outlet into the river.
- A Ganga Vahini Corps (ex-servicemen + NGOs) to keep vigil.
- Ganga ghats will be beautified under River Front Management.
- Programmes for afforestation, aquatic life and medical plants.
- Cleanup of Ganga and its tributaries under one umbrella.
- Ganga Manthan dialogue with stakeholders: spiritual leaders, NGOs, Policy makers, academicians, Environmentalists etc.
- Committees setup for sand mining, industrial pollution etc.
- Continue analysis of sediments and water quality.
- Focus: ‘aviral dhara’ (uninterrupted flow) and ‘nirmal dhara’ (clean flow) of Ganga.
New hydel projects must follow 3 rules:
- Minimum quantum of environmental flow
- Longitudinal river connectivity
- Aviral dhara- continuous flow from river.
[Block-3] Yearbook type
MoEF: Fast track clearance
- Ganga basin-5 states: industries to install emission monitoring systems.
- Border: LAC 100kms, BRO permitted
- Naxal: forest land 5ht. Convert for public buildings
- Web portal for file clearance
- GIS system forest clearance
- CAMPA bodies (compensatory afforestation), training, awareness
Criticism of fast-track
- Coal energy production increase=> environment hurt
- We need 33% forest cover but Border, Naxal area= general approval given=>forest destruction.
- Green law panel (TSR Subramanium) => further dilution
Biodiversity Management Committee
- Provided under BD act 2002.
- 1 chairman, 6 members, 1/3rd of them SC-ST-Women
- Can demand fees under Nagoya protocol for Biodiversity database assess to private companies.
Limitations
- Some PRIs yet to setup these bodies. Fear erosion of authority.
- Forest mafia and officials don’t cooperate, want to rip-off all minor produce themselves.
Misc. Yearbook / national Developments

National Air Quality index, launched in 2014, October
Amur Falcon |
|
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AQI |
|
Bharat Norms |
|
Biocremation |
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Biodiversity informatics |
|
CSR for wildlife corridors |
|
Elephant killer trains |
|
Gangotri glacier |
|
Gir lions |
|
Green law panel |
|
IndARC |
|
Indira Paryavaran Bhavan |
|
PM council |
|
Polavaram |
|
Pthalates |
|
Rhino dehorning |
|
SAFAR |
|
Zoo reform |
|
[Block-4] Energy related
Chaibagan Timezone
- Indian standard Time = Allahabad at 82.5 degree longitude
- but if north-east India follows this timeline, they will see sunrise at 4:30 AM and sunset= ~3:30PM => their offices will have to burn tubelights to run till “office hours” end at ~5PM => higher electricity bill.
- During British Raj, Assam had a separate Chaibagan timeline. They want similar mechanism (separate timezone) from India.
- pro: planning commission- separate timeline will save a lot of energy in North East, maximum utilization of sunlight.
- anti: practical problems in coordinating schedule of railway and airlines. A committee by Department of science and technology says cost: benefit not that great.
Compact Fusion reactor
Who? | Lockheed Martin |
---|---|
Fuel? |
|
Benefits? |
|
Solar mission revamped
Who? | Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) |
---|---|
Tranche-I | 3000 MW |
Tranche-II | 5000 MW |
Tranche-III | 7000 MW |
Total | 15,000 MW renewable energy by 2019, March 31. |

Eco Cooker benefits

Net Metering: Mechanism and Benefits
[Block-5] International
US-China climate deal
- Paris Conference 2015, will decide post-Kyoto framework.
- EU already announced deep emission cuts by 2025.
- Hence US-China had to announce something before Paris- to claim moral high ground and positive media-coverage, hence this treaty.
China | USA |
---|---|
World’s largest carbon emitter (29%) | 2nd largest (15%) |
|
|
20% of energy will be made from renewable sources viz Nuke, solar and wind. | — |
Both will cooperate in following:
- Carbon capturing and sequestration (CCS)
- Smart urbanization
- Reduce Hydroflorocarbons (HFC) use in fridge and AC.
Indian angle?
- We hardly emit 8% of world GHG.
- Can make 18% of total electricity from renewable sources by 2030. (present 6%)
- Can’t manically pursue clean energy. If we want to achieve ~9% GDP growth rate- have to rely on the cheap coal power.
Modi targets?
- 2x wind energy in next 5 years
- 20,000 MW Solar energy by 2020
- Doubled the clean energy cess on coal.
- 1MW solar parks on canal banks, Ultra mega solar projects
- Coal washeries, super critical coal technology
Other international Developments
Global Apollo program |
|
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Montreal |
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UNEP-FI |
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Ballast water |
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HEV |
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Earth overshoot |
|
Parafoil drone |
|

Parafoil Drone to clear Smog-Problem in China
Mantle plumes theory |
|
---|---|
Old Climate formula |
|
Epilogue
- This concludes the [Revision] Series for Mains-2014. No further articles in this series.
- All the revision notes are archived at Mrunal.org/UPSC#CSE-2014
- I had plans for doing revision articles on polity, IR but humanly impossible in the given time limit (just 12 days left when I write this).
- Besides majority of those topics covered neatly and indexed properly at Mrunal.org/Polity and Mrunal.org/Diplomacy respectively.
- same way History, geography at Mrunal.org/history and Mrunal.org/GEOGRAPHY.
- Best Prayers for the serious players, बाकी तो UPSC और भगवान मालिक है, बस इतना याद रहे, एक साथी और भी था.
thanks for giving short and nice review……….great man great work
great work ,thanx
IAS Books and Study Materials for Sale-
I stopped my preparation and hence wanted to sell the complete kit to someone.
I got the study materials from 3 centres. I can sell the Hard copies, PDF Copies, Current Affairs Notes, Test Series
,Geography mains optional Complete Syllabus coverage Booklets-hard copy, Maths Materials Xerox – Complete Kit.
, Plus Polular Books are available with me for geography, History, Krishna Prasad Maths Series, political Science etc,,,
You can reach me @ dmohan188@gmail.com
Aap mere jaise coachingless out of delhiwaaloen ke liye saathi se zyaada hein… mere preparation mein to aapka yogdaan bahut keemti hein… thank you so much:)
thanks………… great work
thanks…………
“बाकी तो UPSC और भगवान मालिक है, बस इतना याद रहे, एक साथी और भी था”
bas karo sir, rulaoge kya..!!! :'(
Nice. Thanks for all your efforts for UPSC. Great Work keep it up!!
Mrunal ji.. How many more such Revision articles will be coming up till mains ? it will be a big help if you could give a list of all the upcoming articles, so that we can plan accordingly.
Respect Mrunal Sir !
Mrunal sir…please write an article on the important topics of polity for GS paper 2…even though i read all topics of this paper, im scaring after seeing the questions of this paper…please sir help me out….thanking you for all nice work you have done so far…really indebted to you…
sir M do we stop reading the news paper from today?
Snoopy, read newspaper till last morning. You’ll find good no. of points for essay/generic questions on ir/poverty etc.
sir, plz write an article as u wrote just before upsc prelims..
That contains what to do in exam and what not to do points, how to handle pressure and motivational too.
It helped alot in pre.
So i wish same for mains.
right sensei.
point taken but will gloss over it from now on. no more vacillating for hours over it.
thank you.
Sir how to make account on ur website so that i can get the updates easily?
Use Feedly to get important articles directly in ur inbox.
Sir u r just awesome n ur team too. This revision series has made me aware about how to make notes for next year mains. Thank sir . and after mains take some break and then plz pre series and mains rest topics with current affairs series. Once again thanks sir
Thanks a lot sir for everything.
THanks Mrunal
Hi Mrunal, is there a specific reason as to why most of disasters start/ hit from/at eastern coast? May be u have covered it before but I might have missed it. Please provide the link. My hypothesis arises from the fact that Hudhud, Phalin, Tsunami 2004 all r eastern coast disasters .. and even 2013 which hit Uttarakhand is sort of towards Eastern side .. Is there some geographical region behind it? Please elaborate. Thanks
yes and its a very important question also that why cyclones mostly occur in bay of bengal and not arabian sea. Its an important question
BoB is more conducive to cyclone formation because:
1. The Bay of Bengal is normally warmer than the Arabian Sea
and thus contains more heat energy for Cyclones to grow and
maintain themselves. (why warm? largely because of closer shape
then AS)
2. There is a large-scale downward wind movement over the AS
during most of the year and convection has little chance to grow
and intensify into cyclones
And cyclones develop even in AS but they more towards Africa.
Hope that suffices!
As for tsunami… that is it hit eastern coast was sheer bad luck!
It just depends on where the epi-centre was and from there
on it moves in outward directtion …If i can recall correctly for
2004, it was plate movement somewhere near Indonesia that
caused it and hence eastern coast bore the brunt.
No it was not bad luck ,Tsunami arises in bay of bengal and hit eastern coast because tsunami are not caused by earthquakes but by the rebounding of plates caused by the earthquakes it generally happens on oceanic -oceanic destructive boundary of earth plates which exist in bay of bengal near the indonesian boundary ,while the arabian sea has oceanic-oceanic constructive boundary hence earthquakes happen but with no rebounding(constructive earth plate is there),hence it doenot cause the intensification of waves
Dear Rahul,
plate boundaries exist in AS as well and in case of a large scale movement in them, there is no reason that a tsunami cannot be expected on western coast. Now for the “bad luck” part, it was not intended to suggest by any stretch of imagination that eastern cost is under an ominous spell and hence bears the brunt. It only hinted that no one can really predict the plate movements and (at least to my knowledge) no one has come up with a foolproof theory that western coast is immunized against “acts of god” (and depend on it i don’t intend to suggest that “Sagar devta” caused 2004 tsunami).. but yes if there are any particular reason beyond this that may make western side less vulnerable to tsunami, do let me know, would really appreciate it! :) Take care!
I guess the converging plate boundaries on the eastern side explain the tsunami in this case.The occurrence of tsunamis is not restricted to earthquakes and plate tectonics alone, though…landslides,volcanic eruptions etc. can also lead to one…for instance there was a tsunami in Lake Geneva following a massive mountain rockfall (documented somewhere in the sixth century.)
epicentre is point above focus….point of initiation is focus
I think there is confusion,the plate boundaries exist in the AS but these are CONSTRUCTIVE BOUNDARIES hence no rebounding’
Rebounding:- when the destructive plates collides the Plate which gets submerged rebounds due to elasticity as a resullt the water mass above it too rebound hence generate waves
The destructive margins in Indian Ocean runs from Andaman to the indonesian archipaleogo then to japan region(pacific arc) that is also another reason that there are frequent Tsunamis and volcanoes in these regions while same are not found in the AS.
bhailog and behenlog pls clear these small doubts that i have regarding answer writing in mains 2014 as i have no good person to guide me on this
1. how should be the language of expression in the essay..should we write strictly pertaining to the relevant points of the topic or can we follow a more expressive way and more freedom as used by writers in newspaper columns or sometimes novels
2.is it ok to make use of signs like “=>” for implies “=” for equates to etc while writing answers in gs to save time
3.can we criticise/exonerate politicians/parties by naming them (eg.raja,swami adityanath,jayalalitha,modi etc) in our answers where required or its better to avoid writing any names
4.while driving attention to any social problem like child labour,education etc we cite the findings of various reports eg. ASER. which contain a lot of facts and figures..how imp it is to quote these figures exactly..if we quote approximately (eg 50% instead of 45.61%) will it lead to deduction of marks
5. if suppose we dont know much about a question (eg. tashkent agreement or tandava dance) but just have a vague idea about it from what we have heard about it..then should we attempt the question with what ever little and unverified knowledge we have or should we leave it since it might amount to fakofying in view of the examiner
pls guide me on these..i would be very grateful
Having d Same issues lik pk..can any 1 clarify pls
Thank you very much sir!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thx u guys… Since no tsunami,hence chances bleak…but I really wish this question appears for us to rock!!
In clean ganga project discussion could have been moved to recent technology agreement with canada on clean water mechanism and technology sharing.. Anyways thankx..
sir ur site is simply superb
mrunal sir i have rrb po and ibps po interview…could you plz suggest me how to prepare…what are the topic that i need to cover,expected questns etc???
Hello friends
I am working as govt teacher since 2012 and now i want to prepare for civil services with ECONOMICS as optional subject. So, can anyone please suggest me about ,which coaching institute should i join so that i can get better faculty for GS as well as for optional.
I am preparing for civil services exam 2016 n confused about the coaching institutes should i join .
i need help from all of you . tell me about some good institutes in delhi .
I will be highly thankful if anyone of you can e-mail me full details about institute and about books that i should prefer .
my email : khushi.singh80113@gmail.com
i think coachings are not so much necessary…as i m also following it.
i have’nt joined any coaching and i dnt have any problem regarding that..
what u must do for any persisting problem is to just always be in cntct of internet
especially these following sites…
mrunal.org
pib.nic.in
prsindia.org
gktoday.in
thehindu.com
i hope these all will help u..!!!
Great work……..
Oh my God!!! Are you for real Twelve Jinping??? What man…you are competing with me here too. Leave IAS for me and I’ll sell you a job under SSC. Don’t worry its neither USA nor China. SSC will sell you a job.
Thnkss fr ur relentless help… :-)
thanks for good wishes sir….AAP KA NAAM LE KAR HI LIKHNA START KARENGE
mrunal sir…. koi FREE RSS FEED READER bataiye jisse rss feeds aa jaya akre apne aap…….
mene bahut time pehle RSS feed reader for chrome add kiya tha and usme kuch impt newspaper ke feeds add kiye the but aaj achanak hi woh sare feeds gayab ho gye….. aesa 2 baar ho chuka ab sar koi aesa FREE rss feed reader bataye jo jo feeds aadd karne ke mahino baad bhi apne aap delete na ho… woh bas store ho te jae
feedly! – It’s Nice
Thanks a lot sir!! :)
quite emotionally attached to your blog…..
बाकी तो UPSC और भगवान मालिक है, बस इतना याद रहे, एक साथी और भी था….
mrunal sir after completionof mains , provide prelims gs paper 2 articles
Mrunal pls upload ifs mains question papers geology and forestry of 2014…
Mrunal sir …….. first time read the side very smart works create all information all realated subject