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Books To Read

COMMON FOR BOTH PRELIMS AND MAINS:

CURRENT AFFAIRS:

  • Newspapers: Hindu, Business Line, Financial Times, Indian Express (any two)
  • Monthly current affairs: IAS Gazette
  • IAS GYAN website
  • Down to earth, science reporter

POLITY and GOVERNANCE:

  • NCERTs 9th, 10th (for basic understanding)
  • Acts/Bills, judgements-PRS website
  • Constitution of India at Work (Class XI) NCERT Publication 
  • Indian Polity by Laxmikant
  • Introduction to Indian Constitution – D.D.Basu
  • From Government to Governance by Kuldeep Mathur 
  • Ethics in Governance, ARC Report 
  • NITI Aayog reports, Government reports
  • Governance in India by M.Karthikeyan

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES:

  • Human Development Report & World Development Report 
  • Panchayati Raj in India by Kuldeep Mathur

HISTORY:

  • Ancient History of India: Old NCERT by RS Sharma/ TN class 11 th book
  • Medieval History of India: Old NCERT by Satish Chandra/ TN class 11 th book
  • Modern History
  • NCERTs
  • Plassey to Partition Book
  • Spectrum
  • India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra (Selective Reading)
  • Indian Art and Culture
  • An Introduction to Indian Art – Class XI NCERT
  • Chapters related to culture in Ancient and Medieval India NCERTs
  • Centre for Cultural Resource and Training (CCRT) material
  • Heritage Crafts: Living Craft Traditions of India -NCERT
  • Nitin Singhania book (optional)

ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY:

  • Shankar IAS Book
  • Biology 12th NCERT last 4 chapters

GEOGRAPHY:

  • Fundamentals of Physical Geography XI NCERT
  • India: Physical Environment XI NCERT
  • Fundamentals of Human Geography XII NCERT
  • India: People and Economy XII NCERT
  • Certificate Physical and Human Geography: GC Leong
  • OXFORD Atlas

ECONOMY AND AGRICULTURE:

  • Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
  • Microeconomics, Macroeconomics – NCERT Class XI, XII
  • Indian Economic Development – NCERT Class XI
  • Indian Economy by Sanjiv Verma
  • Economics Dictionary published by Collins & Penguin 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

  • NCERT- Class 6th to 10th
  • NCERT - Biology - 11th (Unit IV & V only - read basic concepts not technical details)
  • NCERT Biology - 12th (Chapters 4, 5 and rest from 7 to 16)
  • NCERT - Biology - 12th (OLD) - Chapter 9 onwards
  • NCERT - Physics - 11th (Chap 1,5 & 8) and 12th (Chap 15 only)
  • NCERT - Chemistry - 11th (Chap 1 & 14 only) and 12th (Chap 14 & 16 only)

PRELIMS SPECIFIC:

  • IASGYAN Prelims Xpress Compilation
  • IASGYAN Daily Prelims test
  • IAS GYAN Mock tests

MAINS:

Paper-I:  Essay Candidates may be required to write essays on multiple topics. They will be expected to keep closely to the subject of the essay to arrange their ideas in orderly fashion and to write concisely. Credit will be given for effective and exact expression. 

Paper-II General Studies 1: History, culture, society and geography

HISTORY:

  • Ancient History of India: Old NCERT by RS Sharma/ TN class 11th book
  • Medieval History of India: Old NCERT by Satish Chandra/ TN class 11th book
  • Modern History
  • NCERTs
  • Plassey to Partition Book
  • Spectrum
  • India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra (Selective Reading)
  • Indian Art and Culture
  • An Introduction to Indian Art – Class XI NCERT
  • Chapters related to culture in Ancient and Medieval India NCERTs
  • Centre for Cultural Resource and Training (CCRT) material
  • Heritage Crafts: Living Craft Traditions of India -NCERT
  • Nitin Singhania book (optional)

SOCIETY:

  • XI, XII Standard NCERT on Indian Society 
  • Social Problems In India by Ram Ahuja

WORLD HISTORY:

  • The Story of Civilization, Part 2 by Arjun Dev, NCERT
  • Contemporary World History for class XII (Old NCERT Book) 
  • Mastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe

GEOGRAPHY:

  • Fundamentals of Physical Geography XI NCERT
  • India: Physical Environment XI NCERT
  • Fundamentals of Human Geography XII NCERT
  • India: People and Economy XII NCERT
  • Certificate Physical and Human Geography: GC Leong
  • OXFORD Atlas

Paper III GS paper 2: 

Polity, Governance and Social Justice

CURRENT AFFAIRS:

  • Newspapers: Hindu, Business Line, Financial Times, Indian Express (any two)
  • Monthly current affairs: IAS Gazette
  • IAS GYAN website
  • Down to earth, science reporter

POLITY and GOVERNANCE:

  • NCERTs 9th, 10th (for basic understanding)
  • Acts/Bills, judgements-PRS website
  • Constitution of India at Work (Class XI) NCERT Publication 
  • Indian Polity by Laxmikant
  • Introduction to Indian Constitution – D.D.Basu
  • From Government to Governance by Kuldeep Mathur 
  • Ethics in Governance, ARC Report 
  • NITI Aayog reports, Government reports
  • Governance in India by M.Karthikeyan

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES:

  • Human Development Report & World Development Report 
  • Panchayati Raj in India by Kuldeep Mathur

IR: International Relations – by Pavneet Singh

Paper IV GS Paper 3:

Economy, Indian Agriculture, Land reforms, PDS, Food Processing, LPG, Infrastructure, Security, Disaster Management, Environment and Ecology, Science & Tech

ECONOMY AND AGRICULTURE:

  • Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
  • Microeconomics, Macroeconomics – NCERT Class XI, XII
  • Indian Economic Development – NCERT Class XI
  • Indian Economy by Sanjiv Verma
  • Economics Dictionary published by Collins & Penguin 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

  • NCERT- Class 6th to 10th
  • NCERT - Biology - 11th (Unit IV & V only - read basic concepts not technical details)
  • NCERT Biology - 12th (Chapters 4, 5 and rest from 7 to 16)
  • NCERT - Biology - 12th (OLD) - Chapter 9 onwards
  • NCERT - Physics - 11th (Chap 1,5 & 8) and 12th (Chap 15 only)
  • NCERT - Chemistry - 11th (Chap 1 & 14 only) and 12th (Chap 14 & 16 only)

ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY:

  • Shankar IAS Book
  • Biology 12th NCERT last 4 chapters

SECURITY ISSUES: India’s Security in a Turbulent World by Jasjit Singh, published by National Book Trust of India

CURRENT AFFAIRS:

  • Newspapers: Hindu, Business Line, Financial Times, Indian Express (any two)
  • Monthly current affairs: IAS Gazette
  • IAS GYAN website
  • Down to earth, science reporter

Paper V GS Paper 4:

ETHICS:

  • Ethics in Governance, ARC Report 
  • Lexicon by Chronicle Publications 
  • The Book on Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude published by Access Publication