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In this post on NCERT books for Prelims preparation I have suggested that you should refer old syllabus NCERTs for Ancient and Medieval Indian history. The NCERTs I am referring to are Ancient India by RS Sharma and Medieval India by Satish Chandra. Unfortunately, these old syllabus NCERTs are no longer in circulation and even used books are very hard to find for most aspirants.

For this reason I am suggesting alternatives to these NCERTs written by the same renowned authors – RS Sharma and Satish Chandra that are available for purchase online and contain the same information as found in their NCERT versions. (Thanks to user Kaustuv for providing the links).

India’s Ancient Past – RS Sharma

Recommended Book

The first book is India’s Ancient Past by RS Sharma, renowned authority on Ancient Indian history and author of the NCERT text book I referred to. A little excerpt about this book from its online page:

This book deals specifically with the origin of various empires and religious cultures in the growing periods of India. It also charts the beginnings of different geographical, linguistic, and ecological phenomenon.

Sharma also gives information regarding the cultures dominating in the Neolithic, Vedic periods and during the Harappan Civilization.

The book provides insights about the rise of religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, and others along with the development of territorial states. Breaking away from the traditional factual recording seen in history, India’s Ancient Past provides an easy-to-comprehend reading structure as it deals with several topics such as urbanization, Varna system, commerce, science, and much more.

Sharma also assesses the transition periods from Ancient to Medieval and the changes that occurred as a result.

From this brief summary, we realize that Ancient Past by RS Sharma covers the entire scope of the old syllabus NCERT and goes even further into the transition between ancient and medieval past of India. A recommended read for not just Prelims but also Mains culture part.

History of Medieval India – Satish Chandra

The second book is History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra who had authored the old syllabus NCERT on medieval Indian history. From the page summary we know that:

Satish Chandra’s History of Medieval India is a comprehensive overview of the history of the Indian subcontinent during the thousand-year period between the eighth and the eighteenth century. History of Medieval India studies this interesting period in Indian history when the land underwent drastic changes, deeply influenced by the invading armies, Religious Movements and the vicissitudes of the changing political, economic and Cultural scene.

From the table of contents, we realize that History of Medieval India is much more detailed than the NCERT text book it replaces and will equip IAS aspirants with complete knowledge of India’s medieval history.

These books are timely replacements for the NCERT books that are no longer in circulation and the best part is, they are written by the same authors who authored the old syllabus NCERTs.

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 Last updated January 2014

CLICK HERE to view the books listed on this page in a lowest-price-comparison format. This will save your time researching online. The new CSAT Prelims syllabus from 2011 onwards focuses on the basics, logical analysis, and requires candidates to be well versed with the fundamentals rather than focussing solely on current affairs to see them through the IAS Prelims. Keeping this in mind I’ve listed the relevant books for IAS CSAT Prelims so you make optimal use of available time with the most recommended IAS books for Prelims CSAT.

Note: All the books for IAS mentioned on this page have been tried by me or highly recommended by fellow aspirants. Also I am constantly adding books to cover the entire syllabus gradually so keep visiting this page often. This page contains links to pages where you can purchase the books online. Wherever possible I have listed the current and previous year’s edition of current affairs related books.

Books for IAS CSAT Paper 1

Before reading any other books get the past 5 years Solved Section-wise Solved Papers Papers and IAS Syllabus as these are your best friends and constant companions throughout your IAS exam journey. These two reference books will save a lot of valuable time and effort as you start preparing for the Prelims so be sure to get the solved section-wise questions papers and the IAS syllabus.

General Studies Manual (GS Manual)

When starting out with prelims preparation it is a must to have a GS manual with you. What is a GS manual? Well it is a all-in-one book for civil services prelims covering all the topics like History, Geography, Polity, Economy, Current Affairs, General Knowledge, Mental Ability, Facts, and more. It is very useful for finding all information at one place. Also many times the standard books do not contain information, especially the latest ones. For this the GS manual is very handy. There are many GS manual available in the market but I recommend Tata McGraw Hill’s (TMH) GS Manual for prelims. Read my comprehensive review of TMH GS and CSAT Manuals. I think the information provided in TMH GS manual is up-to date, relevant and of high quality. Also the maps in the Geography section are very good for understanding the concepts. Language used is simple to grasp and its General Knowledge section is quite good. Good part is some discounts on the cover price are available.

Manorama Year Book

A good Year Book is must for IAS Prelims preparation. If you analyze the past 4 years GS papers you will find that minimum 15 question each year have appeared from General Knowledge based Year Books. I and many successful civil services candidates refer to Manorama Year Book. The best sections in MYB are the World profile with information on all countries, recent happenings. The Gk section is exceptional with many facts, data, recent news, awards, etc Other thing to read in MYB is the 500 or so Questions section. I have noticed that even if you just look at those questions in passing you will be benefited greatly in the Prelims as 3-4 questions come from just this section in the IAS Prelims. Discount on the cover price is also available.

IAS Book for Indian Polity

As seasoned civil services aspirants are aware there are three books widely referred for Indian Polity, An Introduction to the Constitution of India by DD Basu, Our Constitution by Subhash Kashyap, and India’s Constitution by MV Pylee. Of the three books I always recommend Our Constitution by Subhash Kashyap as the language used is very simple to grasp even by someone who is studying Indian polity for the first time, it covers all the concepts required to gain a mastery of the syllabus. After reading and understanding this book you will only be required to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in Indian polity.

The book will take care of all the conventional questions like How has the SC interpreted Article 21 (Right to Life and Liberty), Relative power of LS Speaker and RS Chairman, Anti-Defection Law and many more. While DD Basu’s book is also OK, the language used is quite difficult to understand and the book has not been revised so it does not contain the recent amendments. Another book to refer for Bare Acts of the Indian Constitution is Indian Constitution by PM Bakshi . This pocket-sized book lists just the articles along with all the amendment to the constitution and is very useful for Prelims as UPSC has started asking questions directly from the bare articles.

IAS CSAT Books for Indian History

Indian History consisting of Ancient History, Medieval and Modern History is another important component of CSAT paper 1 and quite scoring too. Of these three sub topics the most number of questions are asked from the modern History part and the best book to tackle it is Bipin Chandra’s India’s Struggle for Independence. This book starts from the 1857 Revolt and continues right till the independence period. India’s Struggle is important not just from the prelims perspective but is a must read book to secure 40-80 marks in GS Mains paper as well. Another good reference book for Modern History is Brief History of Modern India by Spectrum. The book is quite useful for quick revision before the Prelims.

Also refer NCERT text books on Ancient, Medieval and Modern India. For Ancient and Medieval Indian History, only NCERT text-books are sufficient but for Modern Indian history, the books listed are a must-read along with NCERT Modern India History text book.

Note: Refer this post for alternatives to old syllabus history NCERTs

Geography CSAT Books for IAS

Nowadays more map-related questions are being asked in the IAS Preliminary exams than conventional type questions. In fact such map based questions are highly scoring if you just scan and observe the Indian and World maps for at least 15 minutes every day. You can then easily score 6-10 marks in the CSAT exam as about 6-10 questions are asked every year in the civil services Prelims from the Geography Atlas. From my experience and that of other successful civil services candidates, I recommend the Oxford Student Atlas for GS Geography questions. The Indian and World maps are quite detailed and the Physical and political maps are very easy to understand. If you need help in studying the Oxford Atlas, just leave a comment and I will be glad to help.

Another book to read is Certificate Course in Physical Geography by Goh Cheng Leong to tackle questions related to physical geography. Whether it’s Climate, Earthquakes, Winds, or Oceans everything is covered in this book on Physical Geography.

Indian Economy Books for CSAT

Economy questions asked in the Prelims are a combination of facts and theory. For tackling the factual questions refer to the Economic Survey released by the Information Ministry before the Budget presentation every year. It contains a wealth of information on Indian economy including in-depth tables and figures in the second half of the book. Economic Survey is also a must read for GS Mains as some questions are directly asked from it. Earlier I used to recommend the bulky Dutt and Sundharam Indian Economy book for basics. But this book has gone out of print and also, it is now outdated with lot of redundant information.

In its place, I recommend TMH Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh. It covers pretty much the entire scope of Economy syllabus for Prelims. Starting from a brief history of Indian Economy and the uniqueness of the Indian economic system it covers all the relevant sub-sectors of Indian economy like Planning, Industrialization and Policy, Agriculture, Economic Reforms, Inflation, Banking and Capital Market, External Trade and so on. The syllabus coverage in Indian Economy is complete, language is reader-friendly and book is updated frequently. Combine it with Economic Survey to ace Economy questions in Prelims.

Science Books for IAS

The TMH GS Manual has a pretty good Science section and is adequate for to tackle science related questions. However if you want you can complement it with NCERT textbooks of class IX and X.

Books for IAS CSAT Paper 2

Earlier I used to recommend three different books for Prelims paper 2 (CSAT). Not any longer. Now I recommend the very well written and accurate TMH CSAT Manual for Paper 2. Please go through my review of TMH Manuals to get an idea of why the TMH CSAT Manual is the only book you need to refer for Paper 2. Save time and money by referring one comprehensive book.

CLICK HERE to view the books listed on this page in a lowest-price-comparison format. This will save your time researching online.

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In IAS prelims paper, few questions based on personalities are asked every year. So it is essential that you cover this current affairs based topic to secure marks available for easy picking.

But personalities is a broad concept. What all does it cover? First off, let me clarify that for the sake of current affairs it does not imply famous personalities as in famous scientists, sports-persons, artists etc.

Rather the concept has to be covered as part of current affairs preparation. Famous personalities should be covered as part of general awareness. Sometimes, they overlap since famous persons tend to be in the news often.

Personalities include:

• Appointments: Persons appointed to important positions in public and private sector like chief of army, President of FICCI, IOC President etc.
• Honours: Persons recently honoured or awarded like Bharat Ratna, National Film Awards, OBE, Nobel Prize etc.
• Obituaries: Famous personalities recently passed away like Namdeo Dhasal, Suchitra Sen. Also know about their background and their important contributions that made them famous.
• Recent Authors: Don’t confuse this with Books and Authors since that is part of general awareness. In current affairs you should focus on recent books by well-known persons.
• Achievements: People also make news for accomplishing something significant like winning some sports title or scaling the Mount Everest, circumnavigating the globe, discovering new medical treatments, etc. Keep yourself informed of such personalities as well.

Good Sources for Reading about Personalities:

• Newspapers and magazines
• Manorama Year Book
• Online sources

 Membership Program to Help Boost Your Personalities Knowledge

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Good news for IAS, IPS and IFS (Indian Forest Service) Aspirants. These three All India Services (AIS) officers will get fixed tenure of minimum 2 years. No, the Civil Services Bill is yet to be passed by the Parliament, but this step is in compliance to Supreme Court verdict of October 2013 where it directed the centre to insulate civil servants from political pressure by giving them a fixed tenure.

Accordingly, every state will now need to set up a Civil Services Board headed by the state Chief Secretary (the senior-most IAS officer in every state) and other senior officers as members who will make recommendations of appointments for these three services in the state to the competent authority.

Is the Recommendation of the Board Binding?

No it is not. But in every case where the recommendation for appointment of the Board is not accepted by the competent authority, the reason for not accepting the recommendation will have to be given and recorded. Also, in cases where transfers are to be made before the minimum tenure of 2 years, the reasons for such recommendation will have to be recorded.

However, once a precedent is set, the recommendations of the Board should more often than not be accepted by the competent authority and only in rare cases should we see transfers in less than 2 years.

Good News for Upright Officers and Aspirants

This is a welcome instance of judicial activism or intervention when the executive and legislature failed to protect honest and upright civil servants, the Supreme Court has stepped in to insulate them from witch hunting and political nepotism so rampant in the Indian administrative set up.

Officers like Ashok Khemka and Durga Shakti Nagpal can draw some hope from this development and should not be shunted from one department to next in 2-3 months time because of their refusal to submit to the whims and fancies of their political masters.

IAS, IPS and IFS aspirants will also welcome this development since security of tenure was a big concern amongst them about joining these esteemed services.

What About Other Civil Services?

Officers belonging to the Central Civil Services like IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IRS (Indian revenue Service) etc. already have minimum fixed tenure of 2 years since they come directly under the central government and their posting and transfer is regulated by the centre even when posted in a state. However, posting and transfers of AIS officers are decided by the state governments since these officers work under the state which is their primary cadre.

The Civil Services Board should bring a degree of transparency, stability and fairplay in appointments and transfers of AIS officers who were till now subject to the mercy of their political masters. However, this is a small step towards comprehensive reforms required in Indian Administrative machinery as outlined in the Civil Services Bill.

This should definitely increase the value of civil services to aspirants planning to take it up as a career.

What are your thoughts on this development as a budding civil servant?

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Many comments on this blog pertain to eligibility for IAS exam based on age. As you know the minimum age at which you can apply for the Civil Services Exam is 21 years and maximum age is 30 years for general category, 33 years for OBC category and 35 years for SC/ST category candidates.

However what is of interest is the date which UPSC considers for determining the age of applicants. For candidates who fall well within the lower and upper limits the date is of not much importance but candidates who are turning 21 this year or 30 years or 33 years or 35 years, date for determining their age is crucial since it will decide whether they can appear for this years prelims or not.

This is particularly crucial for candidates who are facing the upper age limit since this could be their last attempt based on age. So I went through the past UPSC civil services exam notifications to find out correlation, if any, between the date of notification/ last date to apply/ date of prelims and the date for determining the age of applicants.

This data is listed in the table below.

From the table it is clear that in 2011, 2012 and 2013 irrespective of the date of Prelims, notification and last date to apply, the date considered for determining the age of applicants was 1st August.

But in all these three years the IAS preliminary exam was held in May or June, that is, before August. But IAS 2014 is exception to this norm, probably due to the general elections to be held during April-May 2014. Since this year, Prelims will be held on 24th August, it remains to be seen which date UPSC will consider for determining the age limit of applicants.

But this table also helps us to conclude that from 2015 onward when Prelims should again be held in May or June, the date for determining the age of applicants will once again be 1st August. I hope this data will help IAS aspirants to plan their attempts accordingly. I will be happy to answer your queries in the comments below.

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In more good news for civil services aspirants, the central government has granted two additional attempts to ALL categories of candidates w.e.f from Civil Services Examination, 2014. Here’s the notice in full:

Discussion is on that the largesse has been granted owing to meeting between civil services aspirants and Rahul Gandhi after camping outside his home throughout the night. Whatever be the history, the fact is this will be a huge relief for aspirants who are nearing their age/attempt limit and have not got used to the changes in Mains syllabus.

The notice clearly implies that:

• The attempt and age relaxation of 2 years is valid from Civil Services Exam 2014 and NOT earlier.
• This is most likely NOT a permanent change rather only a stop gap arrangement to enable aspirants nearing their age and attempt limit to have a crack the IAS exam which they otherwise couldn’t due to the changes in Mains syllabus.
• More clarification is likely by UPSC in the coming days as to who are eligible for this relaxation and till when. Expect some cut-off dates as well.

Early analysis implies that this will benefit those candidates who are on the threshold of their attempt/age limit. For different categories this is: General 4 attempt /30 yrs, OBC 7 attempts / 33 yrs, SC/ST 15 attempts / 35 yrs.

The age factor is crucial here. So, for example even though 2014 might be your first attempt at CSE but you are turning 30 years in 2014, you will still get 2 additional attempts till 32 years of age.

But if your age is, say, 26 years and this is your first attempt, you will most likely not get any benefit from this relaxation. But if this is your last attempt at 26 or 27 years, you should still get 2 additional attempts. Further clarification by UPSC in the coming days will help clear your doubts.

Anyhow, this is a very welcome development since many aspirants have still managed to adapt to the changes in the Mains pattern and syllabus and 2 additional attempts should help them take a fresh crack the IAS exam.

What are your thoughts about these changes?

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Indian Polity by Laxmikanth is a very popular book for civil services examination particularly for Public Administration. In fact, till a few years back when there were optional subjects in the preliminary exam as well, Laxmikanth was indispensable for Pub Ad and IAS aspirants used to literally rote the entire book.

Even today when Indian Polity is quite useful for Pub Ad mains paper and many aspirants also refer Laxmikant for preparing Indian polity for the Prelims as well. What makes Indian Polity by Laxmikanth so popular?

The format and language of the book is highly readable. It reads more like a guide than  a standard text book. Laxmikanth explains all aspects of India’s polity like fundamental rights, duties, panchayati raj, budget, state and central government, judiciary, constitutional bodies etc in a very easy to understand manner.

IAS aspirants with no background knowledge of Indian polity and constitution will grasp the concepts quickly as the book is intended for beginners as well as experienced candidates. Indian Polity consists of useful bullet points to get the concepts across concisely and clearly.

The various polity topics covered by Laxmikant in his book on polity are divided into 11 parts that are listed below:

• Constitutional framework
• System of government
• Central government
• State government
• Local government
• Union territories and special areas
• Constitutional bodies
• Non-constitutional bodies
• Other constitutional dimensions
• Political dynamics
• Working of the constitution

As you can see the latest version of Indian Polity is comprehensive in scope covering every aspect of Prelims syllabus and also very useful for GS Mains paper. Perhaps the best aspect of this book is the reading style which is very lucid. Topics are broken down into sub-topics and lists are used to highlight important points in a topic. This will surely aid learning. Another feature are the practice questions on polity included in the book so you can test your learning.

Finally the book is updated and contains all the amendments up to the latest amendment. If you are undecided between reading DD Basu or Laxmikanth, I will most certainly recommend this book over DD Basu’s.

No wonder Indian Polity by Laxmikanth is highly popular book among IAS aspirants for Prelims as well as Pub Ad mains paper.

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Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has done common public and IAS aspirants a big favour by developing the portal Vikaspedia.gov.in.

What is Vikaspedia?

It is a portal developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) for providing comprehensive information on Agriculture, Health, Education, Social Welfare, Energy and e-Governance. Presently, content on the portal is available in 5 languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi and Assamese. More languages may be added later.

Each section on a topic, like Education, lists an overview of the sector scenario. It contains links to various resources the most important of which for IAS preparation is the various policies and schemes in existence. For instance, in Education, various schemes like RTE Act, Jawahar Bal Arogya Raksha etc are listed along with their main features.

However, it should be noted that this portal is on the lines of wiki sites like Wikipedia where lay users can contribute and curate content followed by a review by other users and website editors. So all schemes and policies may not be available at once, but is being added at a good pace by contributors.

There is also a section on Annual Plans and Reports relating to different sectors like health, education and so on from where you can get valuable data and figures for Prelims and Mains GS preparation.

Equally useful is the Resources section containing links to related sites and reports like UNICEF and UNDP reports on HDI, Human Rights, Child Rights etc.

All in all, a very useful portal for civil services preparation. Have a look in.

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I have received many requests to share a preparation plan for aspirants appearing for Prelims in 2014. Now I am a firm believer against one-size-fits-all approach meaning a plan good enough for A may not be suitable for B and so on. But since such a plan can also provide you the approach to adopt and generate new ideas I am listing one approach to Prelims, using a flowchart, taking into account the time left for Prelims ( less than 7 months)and the current preparation level of aspirants of this blog (beginner to intermediate). Feel free to modify it as per your requirements.

Note: Before you proceed make sure you have these important books for Prelims at hand.

Click to see full size

Click here for Paper 2 preparation plan

Program to Boost your 2014 Prelims Preparation

IAS Kracker Target 2014 and Beyond Membership Program focusses on prelims preparation using thousands of questions on Prelims pattern, regular current affairs and general awareness updates, 6 eBooks, email alerts and many more tools.

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UPSC on Tuesday, 11th March 2014 announced results for Civil Services (Mains) Written Exam 2013. Here’s the in and out of it:

Total Candidates Qualified: 3003 (result of one candidate withheld)

Interview Starts: 7th April 2014

Marksheets Available from: 15 days after publication of final results (which should be in May)

Click to download notification.

As the number of vacancies for Civil Services Exam 2013 is approximately 1000, the results indicates that 3 times the total vacancies are being called for interview. Remember, this ratio used to be 2.5 earlier so UPSC is now calling more candidates for interview to widen the selection base. This implies more candidates now have opportunity to appear for interview and get selected in the civil services than before.

Those who have qualified, my heartiest congratulations. You can read this article on IAS interview preparation tips.

Those who couldn’t qualify, keep going. At least you made it to the Mains stage this year. And remember, you get two additional attempts from 2014 so you have 2 more chances to crack civil services. In case you need help with current affairs and online tests, you can checkout the Membership Program.

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This quiz contains 10 questions from August current affairs module of IAS Kracker Membership. Each correct answer carries 2 marks and every incorrect answer carries -0.66 marks. Total marks are 20. Time limit is 10 minutes.

Become a member and get many more questions on current affairs and all other topics of Paper 1 and Paper 2 on UPSC pattern with advanced features like Leaderboard, Category-wise score, Certificates, Time management reports and much more. Also get regular current affairs and GK updates. Know more about the membership.

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The IAS Mains syllabus has completely changed from 2013 onwards. Now there are four General Studies (GS) papers of 250 marks each. Now, out of 1750 marks in written papers, GS papers alone account for 1000 marks or 57% of the written total. When such high importance is given to General Studies, you need to prepare all the four papers quite well to score good marks in Mains. This post lists the recommended books for GS mains papers along with a short explanation on why you should read a particular book.

Note: You can find Recommended Books for Prelims here

Books for GS Paper 1

(Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)

History Books

• India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra
• Facets of Indian Culture by Kalpana Rajaram (Spectrum)
• A New Look At Modern Indian History by BL Grover
• India Since Independence by Bipin Chandra
• A History of the Modern World: An Outline by Ranjan Chakravarti

India’s Struggle for Independence and New Look at Modern Indian History cover the period from 19th century to India’s independence. Both books are required since the former presents the entire period in the proper perspective and narrative while BL Grover’s book lists the various acts and reforms during the British period in point-wise format which is easier to grasp and reproduce in the Mains paper. I recommend you get both the books.

Facets of Indian Culture is a short but precise book on Indian culture and heritage topics.Answers to 2, 3 and 5 mark questions on this topic can be easily located in this book.

India Since Independence covers the period from 1947 to present times and is authored by Bipin Chandra, renowned author on Modern Indian History.

A History of the Modern World deals with World History topics including French and Industrial revolutions, World Wars and accompanying political changes in the world.

Geography Books

• Certificate Physical and Human Geography by Goh Cheng Leong
• Indian and World Geography by Majid Hussain
• NCERTs of class XIth and XIIth

Goh Cheng Leon’s book is a must-read book for Physical Geography for Mains as well as Prelims. You can expect questions testing your knowledge of Geography basics from this book.

Indian and World Geography by Majid Hussain is another recommended book for economic geography and World geography topics.

 Book on Development, Participation, Secularism, Women Issues

• India: Development and Participation by Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze

This is the best book I can recommend for authoritative understanding of the above issues. Since questions relating to development and its costs will be more analytical than factual Amartya Sen’s book will help you develop the critical understanding to tackle this tricky topic.

Books for GS Paper 2

(Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations)

• Our Constitution by Subhash Kashyap
• Our Parliament by Subhash Kashyap
• Governance in India by M Laxmikanth
• International Relations in the 21st Century by Pushpesh Pant

Our Constitution is the recommended book on Indian Polity for Mains as well as Prelims. Its explanatory as well as analytical writing style is well suited for Mains.

Our Parliament is also authored by Subhash Kashyap and explains all the parliamentary processes, committees and procedures in detail.

Governance in India by Laxmikanth is a good book to get an overview of the administrative setup in India. It has detailed chapters on civil services as well apart from state and union governments, legislative bodies etc.

International Relations by Pushpesh Pant is a recommended book to understand India’s relations with the international community, its foreign policy, various regional organizations and changing dynamics in South Asia.

Books for GS Paper 3

(Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)

• Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
• Indian Economy Performance and Policies-Uma Kapila
• Economic Survey
• Environment & Ecology: Biodiversity, Climate Change and Disaster Management by Majid Hussain
• Science & Technology for Civil Services Examinations-TMH

Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh is a must-read book for Mains as well as Prelims to understand the basic economic concepts. Before you delve into analytical concepts, you should know the fundamentals of Indian economy and related economic terms; this book does this job really well.

Uma Kapila’s book focusses on the current economic issues and is updated almost every year. Very good book for analysis of current economic issues and tackling related questions in the GS paper.

Economic Survey of India released by the Finance Ministry every year before the budget presentation is a must-read book for Mains as well as Prelims. Questions directly related to the economic survey have been asked in the Mains GS papers in the past and you just cannot ignore this vital book without losing precious marks.

Environment and Ecology by Majid Hussain is a one-stop book for all issues related to environment and ecology including disaster management in India; for both Mains as well as Prelims. Highly recommended book.

Science and Technology by TMH will help you to tackle S&T questions in the GS Paper 4 and the book is updated with the latest developments in the field of S&T that is of relevance from civil services exam perspective.

Books for GS Paper 4

(Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude)

• Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude for Civil Services Main Examination by Subba Rao

GS Paper 4 focusses on ethics and integrity in civil services and your aptitude for it. Questions in this topic are far from straight forward and will test your resolve to serve the country without fear or favour or consideration for personal profit. Subba Rao’s book not only helps in understanding of ethics and integrity concepts but contains several case studies to prepare you for questions based on this topic.

Further Reading

Apart from these recommended books for GS Mains for IAS, you should also read news articles and editorials from newspapers like Indian Express and The Hindu. Also you should stay updated with the latest development in the field of Science and technology, Ecological issues, International Relations, Polity, Economic developments through online and offline news sources.

If there are other books you feel can help cover the GS Mains syllabus, do let everyone know in the comments below.

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Civil Services exam candidates appearing for Personality Test or Interview conducted by UPSC in 2014 might be wondering the kind of questions they can be asked in this year’s IAS interview. So I have compiled some questions that have been asked of previous toppers in a particular context, which you should go through to prepare for the civil services interview whether you’re appearing in 2014 or will appear in 2024. These tips are timeless.

Note: Read this guide on Interview Preparation for IAS.

If you’re already working in a PSU or private sector, you can be asked why do you want to opt for civil services given the better salary you are currently receiving. Following question can be posed to you:

A IAS in his initial career will never get the salary that you are getting now. Can you please justify why you still have opted for the services.

Frank Noble (AIR-157/CSE 2012)

Based on your Detailed Application Form (DAF), you can expect many questions. Questions on your hobbies and interests are almost a certainty. Tripti Bhatt (AIR-165/CSE 2012) mentioned composing poems as one of her hobbies. to this, she was posed the following questions:

Do you consider yourself a poet?

It’s said that poetry has degraded in present times. What are your views on contemporary poets and their works?

Tripti Bhatt (AIR-165/CSE 2012) 

But be prepared for general questions as well, like this one:

What is the proudest moment in your life?

VP Gautham (AIR-3/IFoS 2013)

What are the reasons for terrorism in and outside India?

Mayank Agrawal (AIR-67/CSE 2012)

If you’re a female candidate, expect women-centric questions as well.

What are your views on the proposal to set up an Women’s-only Bank in the recent budget?

What were the demands in the Nirbhaya case agitations?

Debasweta Banik (AIR-14/CSE 2012)

What are your views on female poets? Don’t you think that there is a gender bias in literary world?

Tripti Bhatt (AIR-165/CSE 2012)

Expect few or many questions based on your educational background like:

Are you doing Ph.D.?

So you are working on tomato breeding. In Europe they grow tomatoes in polyhouse and transport from Spain to UK and all. We produce large quantity of tomato, why can’t we export to Europe?

Is there any GM variety in Tomato in India?

Relation between GM crop and organic farming?

Do you recommend organic farming in India?

Anoop Shetty (AIR-140/CSE 2012)

Anoop was literally bombarded with questions relating to his educational background; you too can expect the same. So be prepared especially if you’re also pursuing a job related your educational profile or pursuing higher studies like PhD.

Of course, your Mains optional subject is a favourite topic of discussion for the board members.

What do you understand by culture?

What do you know about M.N. Srinivas?

What do you understand by westernization and sanskritization?

Kshitij Tyagi (AIR-148/CSE 2011) 

Kshitij’s optional subject was Sociology and as expected, he was asked numerous questions to test his subject knowledge.

The place you belong to or have grown up can also lead to questions like:

What is Shashi Tharoor doing for Trivandrum?

Gayathri PG (AIR-449/CSE 2012) She’s from Kochi.

So you are from Pantnagar university. What has your university done for the agriculture in Uttarakhand?

Tripti Bhatt (AIR-165/CSE 2012)

Apart from the above, you can expect questions on:

• Your name if it is unique or religious sounding
• Current events like elections, major Supreme Court pronouncements, cabinet decisions, policies of government and so on
• International affairs and India’s role/impact on India

All the best for your interview and if this guide was helpful to you, do let us know in the comments below.

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As you might be aware that chronology based and dynasty based questions are quite common in Prelims. The usual method of preparing these is to go through bulky books but given the fact that there are so many dynasties and chronologies to study, recollecting them in the proper order then becomes a problem. So I have started this series on Ancient India Dynasties starting with one of the earliest and most powerful dynasty in Ancient India – the Mauryas. The Mauryas reigned from BC 321 till BC 181. The most popular Maurya Emperors were Ashoka and Chandragupta Maurya. The entire dynasty tree is presented pictorially so you can print it, easily memorize and recollect it during the Prelims.

Source book is TMH GS Manual.

I’ve also added other useful information like the faith professed by the popular Maurya rulers as well as the start and end date of the Mauryan rule.

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In the previous post, we saw the family tree of the Mauryan dynasty. In this post we will explore the reign of its three major rulers – Chandragupta, Bindusara and Ashoka. I have highlighted the important points that you should remember while preparing for Prelims as questions are likely to be asked on these aspects.

Source books are India’s Ancient Past by RS Sharma and TMH GS Manual

Two major source materials:

1. Arthashastra by Kautilya or Chanakya, Chandragupta’s Prime Minister and ex-Minister of the Nandas
2. Indica by Megasthenes, Ambassador of Seleucus Nicator at the court of Chandragupta Maurya

Mauryan Conquests

Chandragupta Maurya

•  Founder of the Mauryan dynasty
• Conspired with Chanakya or Kautilya, Minister of Nandas, to overthrow the last of the Nanda Kings and occupy their capital Pataliputra
• Ascended the throne in 321 BC
• He was a contemporary of Alexander
• He negotiated with Seleucus Nicator, the Greek viceroy of Alexander and forced him to concede eastern Afghanistan, Baluchistan and area west of the Indus river
• Seleucus also sent an Ambassador, Megasthenes, to the court of Chandragupta Maurya
• Chandragupta conquered the whole of India except for present-day Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of northern India
• His conquest of Saurashtra or Kathiawad in the extreme West is attested in the Junagarh rock inscription.
• His Viceroy or Governor, Pushyagupta, constructed the famous Sudarshana lake
• His religious leanings were towards Jainism
• The machinations of Chanakya against Chandragupta’s enemies are described in Mudrarakshasa, a drama written by Visakhadutta in the 9^th Century AD.

Bindusara

• Son of Chandragupta. Ascended the throne in 297 BC
• As per classical sources, he is referred to as Amitrochates and was in contact with the Seleucid king of Syria, Antiochus I
• He was a follower of the Ajivika sect

Ashoka

• He ascended the throne in 268 BC
• After the conquest of Kalinga in present-day Orissay, during the eighth year of his reign, he felt extreme remorse at the loss of thousands of lives and renunciated war and conquest and embraced Buddhism and actively spread the policy of Dhamma throughout his empire and outside
• His conquest of Kalinga is described in the XIIIth Rock Edict
• The extent of his reign and his policy of Dhamma can be understood from his 14 Major Rock Edicts, 7 Pillar Edicts and some Minor Rock inscriptions

The Magadh Empire reached its greatest territorial expansion under Ashoka and included Bengal to the east, the entire India except territories of Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras and Satyaputras to the south. It also included present-day Afghanistan.

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Enrol for the Membership Program to attempt topic-wise tests on History including Ancient Indian History as per UPSC pattern.

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The post History for IAS – Extent of Mauryan Empire appeared first on IAS Kracker.

Indian Polity by Laxmikanth is a very popular book for civil services examination particularly for Public Administration. In fact, till a few years back when there were optional subjects in the preliminary exam as well, Laxmikanth was indispensable for Pub Ad and IAS aspirants used to literally rote the entire book.

Even today when Indian Polity is quite useful for Pub Ad mains paper and many aspirants also refer Laxmikant for preparing Indian polity for the Prelims as well. What makes Indian Polity by Laxmikanth so popular?

The format and language of the book is highly readable. It reads more like a guide than  a standard text book. Laxmikanth explains all aspects of India’s polity like fundamental rights, duties, panchayati raj, budget, state and central government, judiciary, constitutional bodies etc in a very easy to understand manner.

IAS aspirants with no background knowledge of Indian polity and constitution will grasp the concepts quickly as the book is intended for beginners as well as experienced candidates. Indian Polity consists of useful bullet points to get the concepts across concisely and clearly.

The various polity topics covered by Laxmikant in his book on polity are divided into 11 parts that are listed below:

• Constitutional framework
• System of government
• Central government
• State government
• Local government
• Union territories and special areas
• Constitutional bodies
• Non-constitutional bodies
• Other constitutional dimensions
• Political dynamics
• Working of the constitution

As you can see the latest version of Indian Polity is comprehensive in scope covering every aspect of Prelims syllabus and also very useful for GS Mains paper. Perhaps the best aspect of this book is the reading style which is very lucid. Topics are broken down into sub-topics and lists are used to highlight important points in a topic. This will surely aid learning. Another feature are the practice questions on polity included in the book so you can test your learning.

Finally the book is updated and contains all the amendments up to the latest amendment. If you are undecided between reading DD Basu or Laxmikanth, I will most certainly recommend this book over DD Basu’s.

No wonder Indian Polity by Laxmikanth is highly popular book among IAS aspirants for Prelims as well as Pub Ad mains paper.

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Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has done common public and IAS aspirants a big favour by developing the portal Vikaspedia.gov.in.

What is Vikaspedia?

It is a portal developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) for providing comprehensive information on Agriculture, Health, Education, Social Welfare, Energy and e-Governance. Presently, content on the portal is available in 5 languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi and Assamese. More languages may be added later.

Each section on a topic, like Education, lists an overview of the sector scenario. It contains links to various resources the most important of which for IAS preparation is the various policies and schemes in existence. For instance, in Education, various schemes like RTE Act, Jawahar Bal Arogya Raksha etc are listed along with their main features.

However, it should be noted that this portal is on the lines of wiki sites like Wikipedia where lay users can contribute and curate content followed by a review by other users and website editors. So all schemes and policies may not be available at once, but is being added at a good pace by contributors.

There is also a section on Annual Plans and Reports relating to different sectors like health, education and so on from where you can get valuable data and figures for Prelims and Mains GS preparation.

Equally useful is the Resources section containing links to related sites and reports like UNICEF and UNDP reports on HDI, Human Rights, Child Rights etc.

All in all, a very useful portal for civil services preparation. Have a look in.

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