ATMA 2022: Check syllabus, pattern, preparatory tips

 The ATMA 2022 examination is scheduled to take place on February 27, 2022 by the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS). The ATMA 2022 admit card will be released on February 24, 2022. ATMA is a national level entrance examination for getting admission to postgraduate management courses.

As for ATMA exam pattern 2022, the exam will be held online, in computer-based mode. The question paper will have objective type/multiple choice questions. Candidates will get three hours to complete the examination. There will be a total of 180 questions divided in six sections. So, ideally, candidates should not spend more than 30 minutes on each section. Each correct answer will fetch +1 marks and each incorrect answer will result in a negative marking of ¼ marks.

The question paper of ATMA 2022 will be divided into three sections, with two parts (I and II) for each section — verbal reasoning, analytical reasoning and quantitative aptitude. The preparation strategies for tackling each topic in ATMA 2022 syllabus are given below:

Analytical reasoning: Topics such as analytical reasoning and verbal reasoning require a lot of practice. Also, it is important to work on speed and efficiency in a limited time during such practice sessions. Go through previous year question papers to get familiarised with the type of questions asked and then practice accordingly. There are a number of mock tests available online; attempt them and try to analyse the results. This will greatly enhance your reasoning abilities.

Quantitative aptitude: This section based on calculations. Practice will be the most important tool to sail through this section. Identify the topics which are your strong points and work on improving your weaker topics and devote extra attention to them. Know the basics of the subject well, find out the tricks to solve particular problems and memorise the formulas by writing them repeatedly. 

Efficient and personalised strategies are very important for any examination. Plan your study hours well. This examination will require eight to ten hours of dedicated study, everyday. Keep a portion of these hours for practice and revision which is a must for retaining maximum information. Do not study for long hours at a stretch and take frequent short breaks during the study hours. Preparing a daily routine and sticking to it will help you achieve your goals better. At the same time, keep some time for leisure and hobbies as well to freshen up the mind. Social media and other distractions must be avoided as much as possible.

While attempting the question paper, go through the entire length of the paper and choose a section which seems comparatively simpler and attempt it first. Do not waste time on the tough questions and keep them for the last. Since the wrong answers will fetch negative marking, only those answers should be marked which you are completely sure of, otherwise do not attempt that question. Questions which have not been attempted do not affect the final score.

The questions in ATMA or AIMS test for management admissions range from a medium to a tough level of difficulty. With an efficient preparation strategy, ample practice and self-confidence, one can surely crack the examination and get admission in the various management courses in prestigious colleges affiliated with ATMA. The conducting authorities will release the results for this examination on March 4, 2022. 

Written by AglaSem 

Source: Indian Express, 17/02/22

Assam Governor launches ‘Bodoland super 50 mission’ to train youth for competitive examinations

 

The Bodoland Super 50 Mission also plans to provide 11 months of high-quality free residential coaching and mentorship programme to students from BTR who aspired for admissions into IITs, NITs and top engineering institutes.

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Tuesday launched the ‘Bodoland Super 50 Mission’, an initiative of BTR chief Pramod Boro to prepare Bodo youths for competitive examinations.

An official statement said the project of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) administration aims at transforming the lives of engineering aspirants coming from economically weaker sections of five Bodo dominated districts of Assam.

The initiative is similar to some of the well-known examples of enhancing students achievements such as Anand Kumar-Super30 in Bihar, Oil India Super 30, ONGC Super 30 and Telangana Social Welfare ResidentiaAddressing the function, the governor expressed happiness on the launch of the “much-needed” programme.

“If we are to think about the development of Bodoland, we have to be self-dependent,” he said.

Boro thanked the governor for visiting the BTR and launching the programme.l Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS).

The Bodoland Super 50 Mission also plans to provide 11 months of high-quality free residential coaching and mentorship programme to students from BTR who aspired for admissions into IITs, NITs and top engineering institutes.

Fifty candidates (10 from each district of Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Tamulpur and Udalguri) would be shortlisted through an entrance examination to participate in the programme each year, the statement said. The BTR is an elected autonomous body created under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for the Bodo dominated areas of Assam. 

Source: Indian Express, 17/02/22

What are repo & reverse-repo rates?

 Every day, people go to commercial banks (such as the State Bank of India) either to deposit their savings or to get a loan — say for a car or home.

On their savings/deposits, the bank pays them interest at a certain rate. On loans, the bank charges them interest at a certain rate. Typically, the interest rate banks charge on loans is higher than the interest they pay on deposits.

How does a bank decide what repo rate should be?

A key deciding factor — although not the only one — is the interest rates that commercial banks themselves pay (or get) when they borrow (or deposit) money from (or in) the Reserve Bank of India.

The interest rate that the RBI charges when commercial banks borrow money from it is called the repo rate. The interest rate that the RBI pays commercial banks when they park their excess cash with the central bank is called the reverse repo rate. Since RBI is also a bank and has to earn more than it pays, the repo rate is higher than the reverse repo rate. At present, the repo rate is 4%, and the reverse repo rate is 3.35%.

How does repo rate affect the economy?

Using these two rates, the RBI sets the tone for all other interest rates in the banking system, and through that route, in the broader economy. For instance, when the RBI wants to encourage economic activity in the economy, it reduces the repo rates.

Doing this enables commercial banks such as the SBI to bring down the interest rates they charge (on their loans) as well as the interest rate they pay on deposits. This, in turn, incentivises people to spend money, because keeping their savings in the bank now pays back a little less, and businesses are incentivised to take new loans for new investments because new loans now cost a little less as well.

It is for this reason that the repo and reverse repo rates are often referred to as the “benchmark” interest rates in the economy.

Written by Udit Misra

Source: Indian Express, 17/02/22

Quote of the Day February 16, 2022

 

“A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all – he’s walking on them.”
Leonard Louis Levinson

“निराशावादी व्यक्ति केवल बादलों के अंधकारमय हिस्से को देखता है, और उदास होता है; दार्शनिक व्यक्ति दोनों हिस्सों को देखता है, तथा अरुचि दिखाता है; जबकि आशावादी बादलों को बिलकुल ही नहीं देखता- वह तो उनसे भी ऊंची उड़ान भरता है।”
लियोनार्ड लुइस लेविनसन

Current Affairs- February 16, 2022

 

INDIA

– Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) organising Darkathon–2022 from February 15 to April 22 to find solutions to unravel the anonymity of darknet markets

– Union Cabinet approves setting up of G20 Secretariat to implement overall policy decisions and arrangements for India’s G20 Presidency from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023

– Commander of Royal Saudi Land Forces Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair calls on Army chief General M. M. Naravane in New Delhi

– G. Kishan Reddy, Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of North-Eastern Region inaugurates two-day “Reimagining Museums In India – A Global Summit” in Hyderabad

– Ranchi: Special CBI court convicts RJD chief Lalu Prasad in final case of fodder scam; quantum of punishment to be announced on 21st Feb

– Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee passes away at 90

– Kannada actress Bhargavi Narayan passes away at 83

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– RBI extends deadline for NBFCS to meet new NPA upgradation norms to March 31; loans classified as NPA will be upgraded to standard category only if all dues are paid.

– Power Minister R. K. Singh, Australian Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor chair 4th India-Australia Energy Dialogue

WORLD

– External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concludes visit to Philippines; holds bilateral meeting with his counterpart Teodoro L Locsin Jr

– Ethiopia lifts state of emergency as Tigray rebel forces retreat

Entrepreneurship Development Institute Of India (EDII) Invites Applications For Admission To Post Graduate Diploma In Management – Entrepreneurship (PGDM-E) Course For The Academic Year 2022-2024

 

• Approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
• Awarded the ‘Centre of Excellence’ honour from Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
• Ranked first in the Non-Technical (General) in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2021

The PGDM–E two-year, full-time programme at the EDII, now in its 25th batch of delivering entrepreneurship education, has been designed specifically for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial managers to encourage critical and lateral thinking, nurture their ambitions, and enable new ventures through an academically rigorous, directly relevant and highly practical learning experience. The course is offered through six trimesters over two years.

The PGDM-E offers an innovative milestone-based learning initiative whereby every student can build their new enterprise step by step while studying at EDII itself. During this course, learning is also imparted on leveraging the strengths of family business management and successfully implementing practices that drive high performance, shareholder loyalty and healthy family relationships. EDII also provides seed funding to successful milestone bonus point achievers for setting up their new venture.

The Registered Alumni Association consisting of around 1700+ members is rich in diversity in terms of its students representing sectors ranging from manufacturing to services and not-for-profit enterprises. Out of total, around 78% are associated in business, either in own or family ventures.

Additional information:

• The applications for the next batch are on.
• Graduates with 50% marks and with a valid CAT/MAT/CMAT/ATMA/XAT score are eligible to apply for this programme.
• EDII brochure can be downloaded from: https://ediindia.ac.in/3d-flip-book/pgdm-e-brochure/
•  EDII Online Application Form Link: https://edii.nopaperforms.com/

Source: indiaeducationdiary.in, 26/01/22

An optimal balance of autocracy and ‘vetocracy’ online

 In his article, ‘The Decay of American Political Institutions’, political scientist Francis Fukuyama coined the term “vetocracy" to explain why the American political system was broken. He used the term to describe the political reality today, where the checks and balances originally designed to keep the executive from growing too strong have ossified into a grid-locked decision-making system in which diverse individuals have the power to prevent the implementation of public policies by simply exercising their veto.

The irony is that the veto-based systems of checks and balances Fukuyama refers to were initially introduced to prevent an individual (or small group of individuals acting together) from becoming so powerful as to operate without oversight or accountability. However, in today’s polarized political environment, instead of being used as a legitimate tool of governance, vetoes are used more often than not to make political statements. This, according to Fukuyama, is why in America today, a few powerful interest groups are able to prevent the implementation of various policies that the vast majority of the populace are in favour of.

When we use this lens to evaluate systems of governance, it becomes obvious that these concepts occupy two different ends of the same spectrum. At one extreme is autocracy, a system of governance in which individuals can execute important decisions without asking for permission, even if doing so could be potentially risky and disruptive. At the other end is Fukuyama’s “vetocracy", where any implementation of a new policy requires the sign-off of a large number of diverse actors, any one of whom could single-handedly prevent it from coming into effect.

In a recent article, Vitalik Buterin, creator of the Ethereum blockchain, used this formulation to analyse governance systems in the digital world. He pointed out that while the physical world might, at present, have too much vetocracy, the digital sphere is rife with autocracy. This, he argues, is the reason why technology platforms have been able to wreak such broad cross-sectoral disruption, none of which would have been possible under vetocratic circumstances.

However, Vitalik believes that once the status quo has been disrupted, it is important to ensure that autocratic processes are supplanted by vetocratic systems so that trust in the system can be retained. Failure to do so would result in technology platforms becoming so powerful that they will be able to operate without oversight. This, he believes, is the reason why blockchain-based systems like DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) that enable decentralized governance of digital projects have grown in popularity.

Over the past decade, India has witnessed its own unique brand of digital disruption. We’ve built layers of digital infrastructure for public goods, starting with identity and payments and extending, most recently, to data-driven decision making and unbundled commerce. If we have to evaluate the success of these measures, we need look no further than the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) that currently clocks in excess of 3 billion transactions a month.

The ubiquitous adoption of this foundational infrastructure is largely due to the way we leveraged the autocratic inflexibility inherent in code to convince legacy institutions to alter their systems to conform to this new infrastructure’s specifications. That said, rolling out foundational infrastructure is just the first step. As these systems become more widely used, they need to evolve, adding new features and products in response to the demands of an evolving (and maturing) market.

When we have to decide what features should be included (and, more importantly, what should not), we will not be able to use the same autocratic approach we used at launch. There are now a large number of participants who have a real stake in the ecosystem, and any such decision must be appropriately inclusive, taking into account the concerns and misgivings that each of them may have. Unilateral (autocratic) action will erode faith in the system as a whole. At the same time, if we build a purely vetocratic governance system, there is a risk that we will get mired in the sort of stagnation that currently ails the US government.

What we need to do is find an optimal balance that ensures that the system doesn’t fail because a few actors can do bad things unchecked, on one hand, and also prevents decisions in the interests of the entire ecosystem from being held hostage by a few individuals who wield a veto, on the other. We need to offer the vetocratic assurance that vital infrastructure cannot be captured by a privileged few, but at the same time, need to assure the market that innovation will not sacrificed at the altar of consensus.

One way to address these concerns would be to put in place vetocratic processes to protect the institutional core; that is, the central principles that engender trust. In the context of our Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture, this might relate to the principles of individual empowerment and privacy by design that are at the core of its framework. But after we have achieved this central objective, the rest of the governance processes should be relaxed enough to ensure that innovation is not compromised.

India’s digital public infrastructure is universally well regarded. It is important that the governance systems that sustain them should be equally robust. And that will come down to achieving that fine balance.

Rahul Matthan

Source: Mintepaper, 15/02/22