Banking Services

Introduction on Banking

First things first

SBI has uploaded Halltickets/call letters for PO exam . If you’ve any problems / doubts then write email to “ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.”
SBI has also uploaded the brochure for PO exam, it contains some mock questions (do solve all of them)
And most important notices for Those who have never appeared in any Bank exams before:
- Do remember your class 10, 12, graduation marks and annual family income. Because you’ve to fill up those details in the answersheet.
- DONOT forget to bring one photo-identity proof e.g. voters’ id/ driving licence (and its photocopy) in the exam. Hall supervisor will take away the photocopy of your id proof.
- DONOT forget to paste a recent passport sized photo on your call letter. Hall supervisor will take away your call letter also so also keep a photocopy of call letter @home for evidence/future reference.

Now coming to the topic of this article: how to prepare the English section (both objective and descriptive) for SBI PO exam.

In SBI PO, you face English in following areas

Objective paper (MCQs): 50 out of 200 questions.
Descriptive paper: 50 marks and 1 hour.

English Breakup: MCQs

Topic	SBI Asso.PO 2011	Rural PO 2010
RC	13	10
Vocabulary (synonym, antonym)	12	10
Sentence correction	5	5
Fill in the blank	15	15
Sentence arrangement / sentence completion	5	10
Total	50	50

English in SSC CGL vs SBI PO: Similarity

Both have questions on Sentence correction, Sentence arrangement and fill in the blanks, vocabulary.

English in SSC CGL vs SBI PO: Difference

SSC	SBI
In SSC CGL, the vocabulary is “absolute”, meaning they give you some word and ask you to find its synonym, antonym or fill in the blanks.	In SBI PO, some of the vocabulary is asked from the words/phrases given in the Reading comprehension passage.
In SSC CGL, there are exclusive questions from active/passive and direct/indirect speech.	Usually no
Exclusive questions on idioms and phrases	Usually no
–	Passages are bit more lengthy and complex than SSC

English Breakup: Descriptive (50 Marks)

From 2010’s Rural PO paper:

Topic	Options?	Words	Marks
Letter writing	Any 1 out of given 3	150	10
Essay_I	Any 1 out of given 3	150	8
Essay_II	Any 1 out of given 3	250	12
Precies	1 passage		10
Reading comprehension	1 passage		10

Letter writing

Here is a list of letters asked in 2010’s SBI exams

Write a letter to newspaper editor, expressing your concerns about adult graded cinema and its impact on youth.
Write a letter to newspaper editor, to comment on the earlier article on environmental awareness and citizens’ duty to protect it.
Write letter to your manager, seeking leave for attending family function
Write letter to a student, giving tips on healthy study habits for board exam

As you can see the first and second letter are actually Essay topics.
How to prepare letter writing? Borrow some neighbourhood kid’s class 10/12’s English guidebook, see the standard format for letter writing (or google.)

Precis

For practice, use the UPSC (compulsory) English papers of past 16 years. Free download link in the appendix of this article.

Essay writing

Here is the list of essays asked in 2010’s SB PO exams

My motherland
Dowry deaths
Blessings of science
Socialism
Features economic recession
A Day when everything went wrong
Media’s responsibility in molding public opinion
Impact of interest rate change on economy
Risks in Stock market trading.
Banks are manufacturers of money

Why Essay is extremely important?

Don’t prepare Essay for the sake of descriptive paper, because you’ll have to face the same topics directly or indirectly during the Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) stage of SBI PO.
And GD+PI=50 marks.

Essay: fundamental principles

Fundamental principles remain same like UPSC Essay: spend the first few minutes on brainstorming the idea. then rank those ideas, start writing essay: introduction >> body (+/- pros, cons) >> conclusion.

Essay: Grabbing the fodder points

To write a decent essay, what you need is decent fodder points.
Essay can be on variety of topics, so ideally you need to keep reading newspapers, magazines, some good books from library on regular basis.
After some months, you have good fodder points on almost every topic.
But given that only few days are left before exam, such “ideal” approach is neither practical nor possible.

What is in the list?

I’ve compiled a list of essays from previous Bank Papers, LIC / other insurance exam papers, UPSC (from both compulsory English and regular Essay- papers), index of some essay books
This list is neither sacred nor exhaustive, but covers lot of the ground that needs to be covered, in terms of Essay / Group discussion for PO level competitive exams.
This list is broadly classified into following
- Women empowerment
- Economy related
- Science-tech related
- Globalization
- Democracy, polity, freedom, development
- India’s society, culture, media
- Judiciary, law and order
- Youth, education, sports
- Philosophical / abstract topics and proverbs
Your task is to look at each of these essays, think in your head, brainstorm for ideas, “if this essay is asked, what will I write in it?”
If you’re positive that “yes I can write 250 words”=> then it is well and good.
If you can’t think of that much content, then dig google and gather fodder points.
Ofcourse there is no dearth of readymade essay books in the market, but that type of firefighting/desi jugaad, I don’t find it very helpful because such books are either outdated (only reprinted, not updated after 90s), and or don’t cover all the necessary topics.

Big list of Essay topics

Women empowerment

Beauty Contests are an insult to womanhood
Contribution of women in India’s freedom strugggle
Do we need a Uniform civil Code in India?
Do we need Women’s Reservation
Dowry – A Curse
Empowerment alone cannot help our women
Female infanticide
Gender Bias
Greater political power alone will not improve women’s plight
Growing Flexibility in Gender Roles of Men and Women
Hardships of Working Women
Honour Killings
If women ruled the world
Is India ready for a uniform civil code?
Managing work and home – is the Indian working woman getting a fair deal ?
Men have failed: let women take over.
Problems of Working Women
Role of Women in Nation Building
Role of Women in Social Transformation
Should the Rapist be Sentenced to Death ?
The Culture of Modesty
The hand that rocks the cradle
The new emerging women power: the ground realities
Violence against Women
Whither women’s emancipation?
Woman is god’s best creation
Women empowerment: challenges and prospects
Women entrepreneurs of India
Women in Panchayati Raj institutions : Challenges and prospects
Women need empowerment
Women should have reserved seats in Parliament
Women rights in India

Economy

Banks are manufacturers of money
Banking sector reforms in India
Banking ombudsman
Role of Banks in nation building
Are trade unions relevant in Today’s world?
Protection of ecology and environment is essential for sustained economic development
Economic Liberalization—Challenges before India
Privatisation of the Economy
Private Sector versus Public Sector
India’s Population and Its Economic Implications
Transforming our Huge Population into Human Resource
Development and Population Control
Tourism : Potentials and Problems
The Problems of a Huge Population
From Brain Drain to Brain Gain
Rise and Fall of Currency
Employees Rights to Strike
Proper Infrastructure for Growth
The Problem of Unemployment in India
inflation in India
FDI in retail
FDI will ruin the small scale industries of India
Too many Holidays Hamper our Pace of Progress
Poverty in India
Indian Budget is a Gamble on the Monsoons
In India when inflation rises govenance stalls.
Features of economic recession.
The risks of trading at the stock market.
The impact of interest rate changes on the economy.
IT sector boom in india.
Globalization would finish small-scale industries in india.
Economic growth without distributive justice is bound to breed violence.
Ecological considerations need not hamper development.
Multinational corporations – saviours or saboteurs
Special economic zone : boon or bane
Resource management in the Indian context.
Should a moratorium be imposed on all fresh mining in tribal areas of the country?
Are our traditional handicrafts doomed to a slow death?
The focus of health care is increasingly getting skewed towards the ‘haves’ of our society.
Urbanization is a blessing in disguise.
Public-Private-Partnership
Why are our farmers committing suicide?
To feed our increasing population , forest areas need to be cleared to increase land area available for cultivation. Do you agree?
Cottage industries
Food security for sustainable national development
Indian Budget is a Gamble on the Monsoons
In India when inflation rises governance stalls.
Features of economic recession.
The risks of trading at the stock market.
The impact of interest rate changes on the economy.
Can India achieve Double digit GDP growth rate?
IMF and World bank
WTO
Black Money: its social and economic impacts

Globalization

The masks of new imperialism.
As civilization advances culture declines.
The implications of globalization for India.
My vision of an ideal world order.
India’s contribution to world wisdom.
The world of the twenty-first century.
Preparedness of our society for India’s global leadership role.
The global order: political and economic
Good fences make good neighbors
Terrorism and world peace
India’s Defence Needs in a Technological Scenario
United Nations—Role and Future
On Good and Bad Neighbours
India as a global power
Is India a Soft State?
Globalization and Multiculturalism
India’s relations with its neighbors
Relevance of United nations in Today’s world
Consequences of globalization
rise of China
my vision of ideal world
‘globlisation’ vs. ‘ nationalism’
National identity and patriotism
Modernisation and westernization are not identical concepts.

Science Tech

I further classify them into four parts 1) Environment related 2) Computer/Information Technology 3) Science tech as such 4) Science versus others

Environment related

Sustainable Development and Environment
Pollution
Biodiversity
disaster management
Green activism
Drought : A Natural Calamity
Environmental Pollution
Wildlife Protection
Global Warming
The Need for Alternative Sources of Energy
Environment and Conservation
clean energy and sustainable Development
Modern world’s fears about nuclear energy.

IT related

Computers: A Silent Revolution
Information Revolution
Protection from Internet Abuse
Computer : A Boon or a Bane
India on Mars
India on Moon
Information Technology – Avenues and Opportunities
cyber security
Computers in Everyday Life
Internet as Virtual Library
Information Technology transforming the Indian Society.
Computer: the harbinger of silent revolution.
Increasing computerization would lead to the creation of a dehumanized society.
The cyberworld: its charms and challenges.

Science as such

Human Cloning – A Dangerous Invention
The modern doctor and his patients.
The technological miracles of the twentieth century
Contribution of Science to human progress
Science and human happiness
The lure of space.
HIV AIDS
Nanotechnology
Biotechnology

Science vs others

Science and Technology – Blessing or Curse?
Science Versus Religion
Man and Science – Development in Science and Technology
Superstitions
The Limits of Science
Science and Religion.
Inventions generate necessity.
Science: Blessing or Curse?
The Scientific attitude rather than science is the need of the day
Moral Dilemmas Inherent in Scientific Progress
Are science and art antithetical to each other?
Science and Literature
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind
Superstitions
Human Cloning
The march of science and the erosion of human values.

Polity/Society related

Democracy, Freedom related

Whither Indian democracy today?
are traditional forms of protest no longer effective?
The predicaments of Democracy.
My motherland
Political reform you want in India
If I were the Prime Minister of India.
Water resources should be under the control of the central government.
The misinterpretation and misuse of freedom in india.
Politics without ethics is a disaster.
The vip culture is a bane of indian democracy
How far has democracy in india delivered the goods?
What we have not learnt during fifty years of independence.
Are we a ‘soft ’ state ?
What have we gained from our democratic set-up?
Paradoxes of Democracy
Democracy implies tolerance of dissent
The Role of Opposition in a Democracy
Elections—Lacunae and Remedies
casteism in India
Non-Violence
If the British had not colonised India…
Relevance of Gandhi Today
How free are we?
Democracy in India
The test of democracy is the freedom of criticism
Indians are non-violent by nature
Indians are not non-violent by nature
migration and regionalism
Election Reforms Versus Indian Democracy
Politics without Ethics
Caste Politics in Elections
Threats to India’s Unity
Democracy in Theory and Practice
Directive Principles of State Policy
Fundamental Rights – Bedrock of Indian Democracy
Communal Harmony VS Internal Security
Reservation in Private Sector
Coalition politics: boon or bane
do we need a Lokpal?
The Kashmir issue
Creation of smaller states and the consequent administrative , economic and developmental implication.
Is autonomy the best answer to combat balkanization?
The language problem in india: its past, present and prospects.

Corruption

Today’s politicians
Criminalization of Politics
Corruption in Public Life
Criminalisation of Politics
do we need CBI
lokpal
right to information
right to service
Right to Reject/Recall India
Can the Corruption be Eradicated from our Society
My Idea of an Administrator
How should a civil servant conduct himself?
Politics, bureaucracy and business – fatal triangle.
Need for police reforms in India
Election in India is the mother of all corruption.

Judiciary / Law n Order

Role of Judiciary in a Democracy
Judicial Activism
Justice must reach the poor
Capital Punishment: favor or against
liquor prohibition
Should smoking be banned in public places?
Internal Security
Criminalization of Politics
Police Reforms
Terrorism in India & Global War against Terrorism
Criminalization of Politics
Terrorism in India.
“Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty”.
The Changing Face of Terrorism
Can Terrorism be Justified?
Crime : New Dimensions
Left wing extremism in India
Secessionist movements in India
In the Indian context , both human intelligence and technical intelligence are crucial in combating terrorism

Rights

Should there be reservations?
Human Rights
Status of Human Rights in Independent India
Human Rights and the Armed Forces special protection Act
custodial torture
Should India implement one child policy
Child Labour
Child rights
Right to food
minority rights
Rights of the physically challenged
The Rights and Wrongs of Free Expression
social networking sites and freedom of speech
Reservation, politics and empowerment.
Euthanasia
Should Mercy-Killing be Legalized for Terminally ill Patients?

Religion

Tolerance is the key to national unity
Social Harmony vs. Communal Frenzy
religion and politics
New cults and godmen: a threat to traditional religion
True religion cannot be misused.
Politics and Religion
Communalism
The Rights and Wrongs of Conversion
The world needs more tolerance

Development

People’s Participation in Development
Law as an Instrument of Social Change
Panchayati Raj and Rural Development
Evaluation of panchayati raj system in india from the point of view of eradication of power to people.
India’s NGOs
Civil Society

Social issues

The Changing Face of Indian Society
Changing Idea of Family
India Today
Road rage
Adulteration
problems of urbanization
India – A Tourist’s Paradise
Rural Development
Is vegetarianism a virtue ?
increasing consumerism in the middle class in India
Consequences of globalization on Indian society
India vs bharat
rural vs urban divide
challenges before urbanization
Urbanisation and its hazards
The indian society at the crossroads.
Why should we be proud of being indians?
Should the Prostitution be Legalized?
Gays should be Accepted Gracefully

Culture

Indian Culture
Tourism in India
Indian culture today: a myth or a reality?
Modernism and our traditional socio-ethical values.
The composite culture of india.
Globalizations and its impact on indian culture.

Media, Cinema, Television

Advertising and Social Responsibility
Indian Cinema and Social Responsibility
Television and Teenage Violence
Challenge Before Television in India
Media Freedom and Individual Privacy
Can television affect society?
Role of Newspaper
Role of Visual Media in Socity
Yellow Journalism
Violence and Vulgarity in Films
Power of the press
Responsibility of media in moulding public opinion.
Advertisements : need for control
Role of media in good governance
media trials: good or bad?
role of media in national integration
breaking news
Mass media and cultural invasion.
Does indian cinema shape our popular culture or merely reflect it
How has satellite television brought about cultural change in indian mindsets.
Responsibility of media in a democracy.
Foreign Media in India : Any Cause for Concern?

Philosophical / Abstract type essays

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Search for truth can only be a spiritual problem.
Spirituality and scientific temper.
Compassion is the basic of all morality
The pursuit of excellence.
What freedom means to me
Your idea of a happy life
Importance of a Work-Ethics
Material Progress and Human Values
Laughter, Truth, and Universality
Have We Lost the Direction ?
An encounter with an astrologer
Morality and Law

Proverb based

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Truth is lived, not taught
History repeats itself
History needs to be rewritten
The Child is the Father of Man
Compassion is the basis of all morality
The road to happiness is always under construction
Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds
Truth may be eclipsed but not extinguished
No one knows what he can do till he tries
The great end of life is not knowledge but action
Failures are the pillars of success
“Cowards die many times before their death”.
Man is saved not by faith but by work
Laughter is the best medicine
Knowledge is power
‘All That Glitters Is Not Gold’
Discipline means success , anarchy means ruin
Geography may remain the same ; history need not.
Attitude makes, habit makes character and character makes a man.
Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of civilisation.
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
Useless life is an early death.
He would reigns within himself and folds his passions and desires and fears is more than a king.
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”

Youth Education and Sports Youth

The Problems of Old Age
Menace of Ragging in India
Generation Gap
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old but that one is young
Commercialization of sports has degraded of sportsmanship
Menace of Drug Addition
An ideal college
An ideal college
Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, oldage a regret
If youth knew, if age could.
Youth culture today.

Education

Education in India—Lacunae and Remedies
Commercialization of Education
Privatisation of Education: Solution to Resource Crunch
Examinations are a necessary evil
Pleasures of Reading
India’s Examination System needs to be Overhauled.
Student politics in India
Importance of Wearing Uniform in Schools
right to education
pressure of competition is ruining the childhood
Should Students be Allowed to Grade their Teachers?
Modern technological education and human values.
Credit – based higher education system – status , opportunities and challenges
“Education for all” campaign in india: myth or reality.
Privatization of higher education in india.
Irrelevance of the classroom.
Value-based science and education.
Is an egalitarian society possible by educating the masses ?
Independent thinking should be encouraged right form the childhood.
Restructuring of Indian education system.
Literacy is growing very fast, but there is no corresponding growth in education.
What is real education?
Education is Freedom
Why Ban English?
The ways to enrich our regional languages.

Sports

Sports sans Sportsmanship
Ethics in Sports
Future of Sports in India
Need to check politicization of sports bodies in India
Value of yoga
India and Olympics
Need to check politicization of sports bodies in India