The Indian Constitution is known as the Living Document because it can be amended or changed whenever new challenges arise in the country and society. Hence, the makers of Indian Constitution gave a provision for amending the Constitution as and when deemed fit by the lawmakers of India.
Details regarding amendment of Indian Constitution is given in Article 368. There are three different types of amendments to the Indian Constitution. Special majority of the Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) is the one type of amendment. The other type of amendment is by a special majority of the Parliament with the ratification by half of the total states. Amendment by a simple majority of the Parliament is another type of Constitutional amendment.
The amendment of Indian Constitution by Simple majority deals with the topics such as Delimitation of constituencies, Privileges of the Parliament, its members and its committees, Allowances, privileges and so on of the President, the Governors, the Speakers, Judges, Quorum in Parliament, Rules of procedure in Parliament, Elections to Parliament and state legislatures, Sixth Schedule-administration of tribal areas, etc.
Provisions of the Constitution which are related to the federal structure of the polity can be amended by a special majority of the Parliament and also with the consent of half of the state legislatures by a simple majority. The provisions which can be amended through this procedure are as follows – Power of Parliament to amend the Constitution and its procedure, Election of the President and its manner, matters related to Supreme Court and high courts, representation of states in Parliament, etc. The majority of the provisions in the Constitution need to be amended by a special majority of the Parliament.
The IAS Prelims Syllabus of General Studies Paper I will cover topics such as general issues on Climate change, Environment, Ecology, Biodiversity, General Science, Space technology, Defense technology, different Social Sector Welfare schemes, Demographics, Poverty, Sustainable Development, Panchayati Raj, Constitution, Public Policy, Indian Geography, World Geography, Indian National Movement, History of India, Current events of National and International Importance. The IAS Prelims Syllabus of General Studies Paper II (also known as CSAT – Civil Service Aptitude Test) is as follows – English Language Comprehension skills, Data Interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency), General mental ability, Logical Reasoning and Analytical ability, Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.), Decision-making and Problem-solving questions, etc.
General Studies (GS) Paper – II will be conducted in English and Hindi. General Studies Paper – II is for a maximum of 200 marks. The duration of the General Studies Paper – II is 2 hours. UPSC prelims GS Paper – II examination will be held on 5th June 2022. The total number of questions in General Studies (GS) Paper – II will be 80. For every incorrect answer 0.83 marks will be deducted. The negative marking will be 1/3rd of the maximum marks for the question.
In Prelims stage of the IAS Exam there is ‘Negative Marking’ for each incorrect answer. The Prelims are of the objective type or Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). IAS Exam – Prelims 2021 was held on 10th October, 2021. The IAS Exam – Mains 2021 is scheduled for a duration of 5 days from 7th January 2022. The three stages of IAS exam are Preliminary Examination, Mains Examination, and IAS interview stage. In the Prelims examination, both the papers are of 2 hours each.
