Xaam:: Detailed Strategy and Notes by Abhimanyu Gahlaut, Rank 38 in the 2015, Optional; Economics

How to revise GS?

Different things work for different people. I was really worried after CSAT was scrapped, and I thought the only way to clear prelims was to remember as many small details as possible. As a consequence, to ensure I actually remembered all that I thought I should remember, I started preparing questions for several topics. For example, I have summarised Spectrum (for History), NCERTs (6-12) for Geography, DD Basu and Subhash Kashyap for polity, and Shankar IAS’s environment book in question form, usually chapter wise (all of these question files are included under relevant topics in the links above).

This proved useful, because I thought if I could answer all the questions I had framed, it would be a good indication that I’d covered the entire book. This also helped me outline exactly where I was facing problems, and focus on those areas. And this helped me revise GS multiple times.

You might choose to do something completely different- the point here is that revision is extremely important. The syllabus is humongous, and whatever you read would be no use if you can’t remember it in the exam.

ARC reports:

For GS 2 and GS 3, there are ARC reports that are directly relevant to the syllabus. While preparing, I had to spend some time figuring out which ARC report to read for which paper/ topic. I eventually made a list in excel where I mapped what I needed to study for GS 2, and what for GS 3. You can find this here.

As you will notice, these ARC reports are very lengthy. Please exercise judgement while reading them- you don’t need to go through each and every line, but you should know the gist of what’s being said. There are several summaries available online (and I’ve included my own summaries under the relevant links above), but if you decide to make your own, be smart about it.

Reports of panels/ committees etc.

Much like ARC reports, these can be quite lengthy. Again, focus on why the committee/ panel was constituted, what the recommendations are, and then wisely use the internet for opinion pieces on the recommendations. You’ll usually find newspaper articles giving detailed discussions on why the recommendations are good or bad. For GS, I think this level of detail is enough, rather than reading each and every line in the reports.

India Year Book

A lot of people recommend reading this. I don’t see how this can be useful- it’s like the Government of India wanted to dump all the information about all its departments and programmes in one place, and hence IYB arose. There’s very little context, very little critical analysis, and very little to hold anyone’s interest.

Still, I tried reading it, seeing how nearly everyone recommends it. I gave up quite soon, and decided to focus only on the schemes, departments, ministries etc. that were in the news. I think that is enough.

General Studies 1

General Studies 1 paper’s syllabus comprises history, culture, geography, and a few other topics. Below, I’ve taken the syllabus verbatim from the notification, and indicated how I prepared a particular topic. I’ve also included links to my online notes.

If you want to skip the discourse and get to the booklist I recommend, please scroll down to the end of the text.

• Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times

 I was always wary of studying this portion. It seemed too vast and too unpredictable. Nevertheless, I tried (and mostly failed) to study everything that people recommend. Firstly, I tried NIOS. Then, I tried Spectrum. Finally, I decided to give everything else up, and just follow one set of notes properly- I picked GK Today (for no particular reason).

My advice is to not spend very much time here. Follow one source, and make peace with the fact that you can probably never feel well prepared for this portion.

• Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.
• The Freedom Struggle – its various stages and important contributors /contributions from different parts of the country.

There are two distinct periods that need to be studied for this portion:

1. 1717 (Farrukhsiyar grants farman to the East India Company to conduct inland trade in Bengal) to 1857 (first battle of independence)
2. 1857-1947

For (i), Bipan Chandra’s ‘History of Modern India’ (I think this used to be an NCERT) is useful. This was the first book I read for my UPSC preparation. However, I didn’t make notes, and forgot most of it. Closer to the exam, I googled all the major incidents between 1717 and 1857, and made short notes on them (these include Carnatic wars, Battles of Plassey, Panipat, Buxar, Anglo-Mysore wars, Anglo-Maratha wars, and several important treaties, charters, and social reform movements). I consolidated all of these into brief notes in a timeline form. You can find this here. I think for the 1717-1857 part, this is enough for GS (the timeline notes go on beyond 1857, and till 1947; however, the notes in the link above are not exhaustive for period after 1857, and should be used only as a ready reference. Please see below).

For (ii), I read Bipan Chandra’s ‘India’s Struggle for Independence’ and ‘Spectrum’. I think Bipan Chandra’s book gives you a good base, but it also jumps around somewhat, and is rather bulky. I focused mostly on Spectrum.

For revision, I made chapter-wise questions from Spectrum. You can find them here. (Please note that next to some questions, I have mentioned Page numbers. Please ignore these- they do not correspond to where you will find the answer in the Spectrum book).

Aside from the above, especially for prelims, one needs to remember factoids related to Congress Sessions, Governor-Generals/ Viceroys, and Personalities (notes included in links). (For the personalities file, I just noted down whatever name I came across in Spectrum/ Bipan Chandra. I made brief notes for some, but not all, of them).

• Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country

I watched Pradhanmantri TV series. I tried making episode-wise brief notes, but couldn’t finish these for lack of time. Notes upto Episode 7 are here.

I also read the relevant chapters from Bipan Chandra’s ‘India Since Independence’. I ignored most of the stuff after Green Revolution, and did not focus at all to the political fortunes/ misfortunes of various national/ regional political formations. I think UPSC does not ask questions on these.

• History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.- their forms and effect on the society

I wasn’t sure what all topics to study for this portion. To be safe, I decided to complete the topics included in the syllabus for World History in the History Optional for UPSC (look for world history topics in History Optional Paper 2 syllabus; link here).

While searching for sources, I came across a wonderful website: https://selfstudyhistory.com/world-history/ . It has incredibly detailed topic-wise notes on all the topics in the syllabus. However, a word of caution: please don’t get bogged down by the level of detail on this website. Always remember that this is meant for people who have chosen history as their optional. Be smart, and sift through what’s needed for GS. Basically, ensure that you know all the topics in the website above, but don’t go too deep.

Aside from this, I also read Norman Lowe for world history after the First World War. I made short, handwritten notes for most of the book that were quite useful in revision. I will scan and upload these in the next few days.

Once you’re done with all of this, a good way to revise is to download the question bank meticulously prepared by Mrunal Patel, and available on his website. He has taken questions from past History optional mains papers, and also from annual examinations of various reputed universities around the country. I copy pasted all of these into a word document, and you can find them here. I didn’t write answers to any of these question because I didn’t have the time, but after I was done preparing World History, I ensured that I knew the answers to all of these. If you can do the same, I think there isn’t very much else that UPSC can ask from.

• Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian subcontinent);
• Factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India)
• Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.,
• Geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
• Salient features of world’s physical geography.

I initially started by studying GC Leong, but I now think it’s useless. Please study geography NCERTs meant for standards 6-12. I think if one understands everything that is in the NCERTs, then one can handle geography GS questions quite easily. However, I also think that the explanations given for many things, especially geo phenomena such as atmospheric circulation, cyclone formation etc. are very rudimentary, and need to be heavily supplemented by internet searches.

Basically, I googled everything I didn’t understand in an NCERT. I usually found either articles or YouTube videos that were extremely helpful in developing a strong, logical understanding. Be resilient, and don’t give up if you don’t understand concepts in the first couple of tries. Some of the concepts are genuinely tricky, and require time and patience to understand.

For revision, I found it useful to summarize the NCERTs in questions. Again, much like history, I knew that I could be confident about knowing the NCERT’s contents if I could answer all of the questions that I framed. You can find these here.

Note: almost every year in prelims, there are some questions for which you need to know the world map. These could be locations of countries, rivers, famous landforms, seas etc. I found this great website that lets you make a game out of trying to remember the world map. They have region-wise graphs for different countries, rivers, landforms etc., and close to prelims, I tried to ensure that I was doing this once a day. It helped.

• Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India
• Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and
• Developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies
• Effects of globalization on Indian society
• Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism

I think these topics are fairly general. I did not do any preparation for these.

BOOKLIST FOR GS 1

Topic	Source I recommend		Other sources (I didn’t do most of these)
Culture	GKToday notes (available online)		NIOS, Spectrum, NCERT, CCRT website
Indian History	1717-1857	Internet/ my notes	Bipan Chandra (History of Modern India)
	1857-1947	Spectrum	Bipan Chandra (India’s Freedom Struggle)
	1947-present	Pradhanmantri	Bipan Chandra (India Since Independence)
World History	https://selfstudyhistory.com/world-history/ Norman Lowe’s book Question bank from Mrunal		Arjun Dev’s book
Geography	NCERTs 6-12		GC Leong, Majid Hussain

General Studies 2

General Studies 2 paper’s syllabus comprises polity, constitution, judiciary, government schemes, international relations, and a few other topics. Below, I’ve taken the syllabus verbatim from the notification, and indicated how I prepared a particular topic. I’ve also included links to my online notes.

As you will see, apart from DD Basu/ Laxmikant/ Subhash Kashyap for polity, most of the other topics can be covered just by regularly reading the newspaper, and having a good filing system.

• Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
  • Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein
  • Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions
  • Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries
  • Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these
  • Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity

For the above, people say one should do either DD Basu or Laxmikant. I studied DD Basu, but I saw that it didn’t have very much information on how things function within the Parliament. UPSC has asked questions around these in the past (especially in prelims). So, to cover that, I also studied Subhash Kashyap’s ‘Our Parliament’.

For revision, I made chapter-wise questions from DD Basu and Subhash Kashyap. You can find thesehere and here, respectively. Again, the idea was that if I could answer all the questions in these documents, I could be confident that I remembered the book.

• Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act

Read the act, and this article by Yogendra Yadav (found this article thanks to Insights)

• Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various constitutional bodies
  • Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies

Mostly just followed current affairs. For any institution that was in the news (for example, appointment of the CIC was delayed significantly last year), I would try and find out the structure, power, functions, appointment procedures etc. See notes here. 

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Follow newspapers closely, keep an eye out for any new policies being announced/ old policies being reformed, and know all the details of the proposed policy change. As an example, see my current affairs notes on government policies/ schemes here.

• Development processes and the development industry- the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders 

ARC Report number 9, and Report on Success and Failures of SHGs in India by the Planning Commission (summary notes here); Current Affairs

• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections

Current Affairs

• Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Mostly newspaper. For Education and Health, I made notes from books by Amartya Sen (An Uncertain Glory) and Jagdish Bhagwati (India’s tryst with Destiny). You can find them here (education) and here(health).

• Issues relating to poverty and hunger

I knew this from economics optional preparation. Try to remember poverty rates, methodologies to calculate poverty line in India, current debates etc. For those interested, you can find relevant questions to know the answers to here. But please keep in mind that these were prepared with the viewpoint of economics optional, and might be too deep for GS 3.

• Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures

ARC report number 11. Notes here.

• Role of civil services in a democracy

Didn’t prepare.

• India and its neighbourhood- relations
  • Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
  • Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian Diaspora

I think I over-prepared here. I made notes for India’s relations with all its neighbouring countries, and with strategically important non-neighbouring countries/ blocks such as the EU. I did this mostly from The Diplomat magazine- I used their search function, and if I wanted to make notes on India-Bangladesh relations, I would type ‘India Bangladesh’ in the search box, and try and read whatever came up. You can find my notes in a zip file here.

• Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

I made a list of prominent international organisations, and made short notes on each of them, focusing on their structure and impact on India. My notes are here. (I don’t think these notes are exhaustive; as with everything else, closely follow any conferences/ summits/ bilateral or multilateral meets of international organisations, and for whatever organisation is in the news, know at least the basics such as its functions, members, when it was founded, important recent policy announcements etc.)

General Studies 3

General Studies 3 paper’s syllabus comprises economics, environment, disaster management, security and a few other topics. Below, I’ve taken the syllabus verbatim from the notification, and indicated how I prepared a particular topic. I’ve also included links to my online notes.

As you will see, after developing a good understanding of basic concepts, most of the topics can be covered just by regularly reading the newspaper, and having a good filing system for current affairs.

For economics-related topics in GS3, I should put in a disclaimer that my optional subject was economics. I didn’t prepare very much for GS3 economics portion specifically, because almost everything was covered in economics paper-2 syllabus. Nevertheless, I’ve included sources/ notes where I can.

Economic Survey document is a must read. People focus more on Volume 1, and that is justified as far as GS 3 is concerned. However, if you have some time, try and go through Volume 2 as well. It looks intimidating, but once you distill the useful information contained in it, you’ll find that there’s a wealth of statistics that you can add in a number of your answers. See here for chapter-wise important stats from Volume 2 that I tried to remember.

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment

This is too general. But try and remember key trends/ facts about each of the keywords. For example:

• Planning: know difference between central and indicative planning, why India followed central planning till 1980s, why we currently follow indicative planning etc.
• Mobilization of resources: India’s tax base, difference between tax and non-tax revenue, fiscal deficit, deficit financing, FDI, PSUs etc.
• Growth: trends/ growth rates of the economy and different sectors
• Development: too broad
• Employment: statistics related to unemployment, labour laws and their impact, informal employment and its effects on the workforce, workforce participation rate, gender imbalance in workforce participation etc.

• Inclusive growth and issues arising from it

Again, this is very broad. Know the definition of inclusive growth (many are available; just google and pick one you understand most easily. No need to try and remember, express in your own words)

• Government Budgeting

There is a chapter on this in one of the books I did for my economics optional. The book is ‘Public Finance: HL Bhatia’. However, I wouldn’t recommend buying the entire book just for this one chapter.

Insights has a collection of articles that might be useful.

• Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers

For storage, transport, and marketing of agricultural produce, I thought that the topic does not belong in this subset of topics (where UPSC has classified it) but belongs with the discussion on PDS and MSPs. You can find my notes on this along with the notes on PDS in one of the topics below.

For cropping patterns, I summarized the basic information about most major crops from one of the geography NCERTs (I think 8th standard, but I might be wrong). For this and the rest of the topics under this heading, I did google searches; I don’t remember what all I ended up studying, but whatever I thought was important is included in my notes, which are here.

• Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System- objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security

I think I studied this mostly from Uma Kapila, which is a basic text for economics optional paper 2. I then supplemented that with readings found on the internet, and from the Shanta Kumar committee report. I have made topic-wise notes for each of the three sub-topics above, plus for storage and transport of crops. These are here.

• Technology missions; economics of animal-rearing 

Google. Notes here.

• Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management

Notes here. I think I didn’t do this as well as it should be done, so please put in some more effort beyond the notes.

• Land reforms in India

Relevant chapter from Bipan Chandra’s ‘India since Independence’. I think there are 3 or 4 chapters. Consolidated notes here.

• Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth

Again, did this from Uma Kapila. For GS, try to remember at least the following:

• Growth rates for a few key periods before and after liberalisation
• Shares in GDP and employment of major sectors, such as agriculture, industry, manufacturing, and services
• Growth trends, opportunities, and challenges for each of these sectors

These notes might be helpful for the industries portion (summary of Uma Kapila); again, be careful, these were prepared for economics optional, and hence are quite detailed, and contain stuff from pre-liberalization era as well.

• Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

No special preparation- follow current affairs. Renewables is a hot topic, and will (and should!) remain as such in the next few years. Know India’s energy generation mix (% for renewable/ non-renewable), scope and challenges for each of the sub-sectors etc.

• Investment models

For any investment model you hear of in the news, ensure you know the details. I prepared BOT, EPC, Leveraged Equity, Swiss Challenge Model etc. There were a couple of others mentioned in the Economic Survey 2014 document, but I don’t remember these right now.

• Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
  • Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new
  technology
  • Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights

For prelims, I flipped through General Science NCERTs from standards 6-12. Otherwise, relevant notes from the newspaper. See example here.

• Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

I primarily used Shankar IAS’s book, and made chapter-wise questions for revision (find them here). A few days before the prelims exam, I also flipped through GKToday’s environment handouts (available for a fee online), and a couple of question in the 2015 prelims were directly from these (so I was lucky!)

• Disaster and disaster management

ARC report number 3; CAG report titled ‘Performance Audit of Disaster Preparedness in India’. Summary notes here..

• Linkages between development and spread of extremism
  • Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security
  • Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention
  • Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism
  • Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate

Googled keywords from each bullet point above, and read whatever looked interesting. Consolidated notes here, for each of the bulleted topic above. I’m mentioning two sources I read that I still remember:

1. Read a few chapters from this book by Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, titled ‘India’s Contemporary Security Challenges’. I don’t think this is essential, but if you some time, it’ll help you develop a good perspective
2. IDSA task force report titled ‘India’s Cyber Security Challenges’, available for free online.

General Studies 4

I did very little preparation for Ethics. When I first went to Jawahar Book Shop in December 2014 to buy books for UPSC, they handed me a fat book for GS 4 (I don’t remember now which one). Not knowing any better, I bought it. I tried to study from that, but gave up midway through the first chapter because I found it extremely boring and too general to be useful.

Then, I tried reading topic-wise links given on Insights for GS 4. Again, here as well, I thought that the readings were extremely dry, and I remember dozing off after the first couple of pages of the first recommended reading.

After these two attempts at reading something for Ethics, I thought maybe it would be better to see what kind of questions UPSC asks. I printed the GS 4 papers for the last two years, and took two timed tests. After writing these, I was confident that there is no need to study anything at all for GS 4. The paper is extremely general, but one needs to have good writing speed. So, in the end, my preparation for Ethics was simply writing 6 timed tests in total, 2 of which were past year UPSC papers, and 4 were from the Vision IAS test series.

I have heard many people say that a book by Lexicon publications is good; I did not study that, so cannot comment on its usefulness.

Some general tips:

• Please don’t use jargon. Some people like to use words like ontological/ de-ontological, but I think one should write simple answers. Remember, the person checking your paper will not be an ‘ethics’ specialist (whatever that means), so is extremely unlikely to know what these theoretical terms mean

• Every year, UPSC asks questions based on some key qualities for public service. They usually ask you to give examples of things like ‘fortitude’ and ‘magnanimity’. If your vocabulary is weak, you should try and read the question in Hindi as well. More often than not, it should be clear to Hindi speakers what the word means once they read the translation

• I always tried to start my case studies with a brief summary (1-2 lines) of the dilemma at hand, and then very quickly outlined the possible ways forward. Only then I got to answering the actual sub-parts of the case study questions

• Again, to re-iterate, please be very mindful of the time in the Ethics paper. Section A in 2015 paper wasvery lengthy, and I could only complete the paper in time because I was very strict about allocating only 7 minutes per 10 marks (I used a stop watch in all my papers for this very reason)