GROUP Discussions

Types of Topics
•
knowledge based topics:

Knowledge based topics require of you some topical knowledge. An

example is “India should withdraw from WTO” Here unless you know
something about the WTO, what other countries have done, what India’s
view are on the matter etc…., you will not be able to speak effectively .
Knowledge-based topics mostly cover current economic issues as well as
current non-economic issues.

knowledge-based topics fall into different categories based on the type of

knowledge required. Some of the important categories of knowledge-
based topics are listed below:

Economic topics:

In this type of topics, you should be very strong in content. In order to

Economic topics:
In this type of topics, you should be very strong in
content. In order to exhibit good knowledge, you
should be thorough with facts and figures about the
national economy. You should be  familiar with critical
economic indicators such as GDP, the plan outlay,
sectoral allocations from the budget, trade and fiscal
balances, export and import items and values, banking
concepts and interest rates, stock indices, etc..
Eg: “India should slow down the pace of liberalization”
“FDI norms in Retail , aviation , defence …”
Social topics:
When you are discussing social topics, you should be
clear about both the ‘generic’ nature of the topics and
the specific ‘manifestations of the social issue. That is _
how does it affect the social fabric.

Eg: “Dowry continues to haunt Indian brides”

“Education should become a fundamental right”

• Political topic:

Topics with politics as the basic content frequently

feature in group discussions. These topics can easily
drag the not-very-careful participant into a trap of
emotional expressions.

Eg: “Coalition on politics in a poor country like India

is a drain on the national economy”
“Plans to attract foreign investment”
• Sports/Films related topics:

Topics concerning films or sports are also common in

number of GDs. Recently included tournaments like the
world cup or the Olympics games can be the subject
matter for a number of GD topics.

Eg: “Should India announce a sports holiday?” ” “Cricket

is like opium to India masses?
• IT based topics: ( or topics on the service sector – also
can be an economic topic )
In this era of the information technology revolution, it is
natural that topics based on IT or IT enabled service like
BPO feature prominently amongst the list of topics for
discussion.

Eg: “we need more money to Fertilize crops rather than to

increase band width”

“The BPO bubble will also burst the way the dot-com
bubble did”
•
Non-knowledge based topics:

Common, day-to -day knowledge is sufficient to do a

good job of talking about such topics
Concrete topics:
Concrete topics are those about which there can be
clear-cut views among the participants of a group
discussion. There will hardly be any scope for varied
interpretation, unlike in case of abstract topic.
Eg: “Love marriage are better than arranged
marriages”
“Girls make better children than boys”
• Abstract topics:

Abstract topics are those about which the interpretation

itself can vary from person to person. Here you don’t need
need any formal knowledge to discuss such topics and
your worldly knowledge is sufficient.

Eg: “The farther we look the closer we are”

“Green is better than red”

“Child is the Father of the Man”
  
 
 
SKILLS  
 
 
• Communication Skills  
♦ Interpersonal Skills  
 
♦ Leadership Skills  
♦ Motivational Skills  
♦ Team Building Skills  
♦ Tolerance
♦ Clarity over Ambiguity
♦ Divergent Thinking
♦ Listening skills
♦ Presentation Skills
♦ Analytical / Logical skills
 Besides the regular skills – the following
can make discussions – Meaningful /
Memorable / Meaty
• Analyze
• Persuade
• Control emotions
• Support
• Functional Language
Cheers!!!!