‘General Studies’ is a huge and wide section of civil service exams conducted by UPSC. Whether your take up the IAS, IPS or IFS – you cannot get rid of the General Studies based questions. In the prelims round, the depth of coverage of General Studies topics is concise. However during the mains exam, the syllabus for General studies is vast and is bifurcated into different papers.
Here is listing the entire General Studies syllabus of civil service exam (paper wise), so that you can plan your preparation likewise. As the topics of General studies are generic in nature, hence students remain confused about how much to study in each chapter of General studies.
With the below listing, General Studies will become interesting and scoring for every civil service exam applicant:
General Studies for Prelims round
Start by learning all happening current events and news. If that sounds too broad, atleast learn the trending news that has an impact and role to play in India. This includes political affairs to sports to any personality achievement as well. History and geography of India should be well versed keeping an eye on the physical, economic and social status of the nation. In science, cover two sub heads – environmental science and general science.
General Studies – I
As you prepared for the prelims round everything about the present status of India (politics, climate, economy, geography, history and trends) , this time you need to know more about India. Culture, famous modern Indians,the Independent India struggle movement should be given equal importance. Remember, the more you learn about your country , the better will be your score in civil service exams of the nation.
General Studies – II
In this paper, your learning about India should continue. This section adds chapters like Indian literature, art forms, specialties of different parts of India, how the country recovered from post independence era. Learn about salient features of the Indian society and how the nation has unity despite diversity. On completing India, focus on world history (starting from 18th century) and cover topics like colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism and their effect on the society. Alike word history, you have to now consider world geography as well keeping highlight on geophysical happenings and international relations of India with other countries.
General Studies – III
This section of General studies also begins with India based topics like Indian Constitution (unique features and comparison with other parts of the world), functions and responsibilities of the Union and the states in India, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
- Indian ministry should be learned about considering the following topics:
- Parliament and State Legislatures
- Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government
- Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies
- Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies
- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors
- E-governance
- India and its neighbourhood- relations
- Government Budgets
- Indian Economy – Status and trends
In this module of General Studies, students have to learn about one Act –
Representation of People’s Act. No need to mug up the entire Act but just have a clear idea about its salient features and what it states.
This module of General Studies includes topics beyond India, as well. They are:
- NGOs
- SHGs
- Charity
- Welfare schemes and associations
- Social sector
- Health, education and human resource
General Studies – IV
The name of General Studies, Schedule IV is ethics, integrity and aptitude.
For ethics, the topics to cover are:
- Ethics and human interface
- Attitude and personality
- Human values and behavior
- Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management.
For integrity, some India related topics requires to be brushed:
- Indian Economy
- Government Budgeting.
- Crops and cropping patterns in various parts of the country
- E-technology in Indian farming
- Public Distribution System
- Food processing and related industries in India
- Land reforms in India
- Indian Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc
- Indian Investment models
- Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism
- Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate
- Aptitude is more of technological phenomenon, where the following important ones you should touch up:
- Science and Technology
- Indigenization of technology
- Information technology
- Biotechnology
Other important topics for General Studies module IV are as follows:
- Environmental conservation and degradation
- Disaster and disaster management.
- Linkages between development and spread of extremism.
- Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
- Media – cyber security – money laundering
General Studies V
Named similar to the previous module, ‘Ethics, integrity and Aptitude’, this one tests civil service exams candidates approach to issues relating like integrity, probity in public life and his problem solving approach to various issues and conflicts faced by him in dealing with society. To prepare this module reference based study and case studies are important for a good score.
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