What books I need to read for optionals?

BOOKS: (Don’t read all, choose and read)


History:


Ancient India
NCERT- Ancient India- R.S.Sharma
D.N.Jha
An Introduction to the study of Indian History - D.D.Kosambi
Early India - Romila Thapar
IGNOU Booklets on Ancient India
The Wonder that was India - A.L.Basham
The National Book Trust book on Ancient India

Medieval India
NCERT - Medieval India- Satish Chandra
Satish Chandra - Volume 1 & 2
J.L.Mehta- Volume 3
The Wonder that was India - Part 2 - S.H.Rizvi

Modern India
NCERT - Modern India - Bipin Chandra
India’s Struggle for Independence - Bipin Chandra
India After Independence - Bipin Chandra
A new look at Modern Indian History - Grover

Modern World
L.Mukhejee - Volume 1,2,3 on World history (Basically European history)
World History - Jain and Mathur

For Map question
History through Maps - Ensemble

Public Administration:

Rajni Goyal: Indian Administration (Important)
D. D. Basu: An Introduction to the Constitution of India (Important)
Mohit Bhattacharya: New Horizons of Public Administration (Important)
Stephen P. Robbins : Organizational Behavior (5-6 chapters) (Important)
Lakshmikanth
Fadia and Fadia (Important)
Prasad and Prasad – Administrative thinkers
Avesti and Maheswari
Rumki Basu: Public Administration, concept and theory (mains)
Ferrel Heady : Public Administration-A Comparative Perspective (First 2-3 chapters reference)
Nicholas Henry : Public Administration and Public Affairs (some 3-4 chapters)

General Studies

History: 6-12th NCERT books (Important)
Geography: 6:12th NCERT books (Important)
Science: 6-12th NCERT books for physics, chemistry and biology
Foreign Affairs: Read from magazines
Statistics: B.COM first year book (7-8 chapters)
General Math: R.S. Agarwal
Current Affairs: News papers / magazines / news
Indian Polity: Lakshmikanth / DD Basu / Bakshi (Important)
Wizard Polity
Economics: Basics from any book / Investopedia (online site) / Dutt and Sundaram: Indian Economy
The Hindu book of Science thoughts
Economic Survey of India
Any other general studies book
GK Topics: World Organizations, International Nations Unions, Awards, Sports, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Parks, Countries-capitals-why famous for, Presidents, current events, inventors-discoveries, authors etc etc…

Geography

Certificate Physical and Human Geography - Goh Cheng Leong (Important)
NCERT books (Important)
Physical Geography by Savindra Singh (Important)
Comprehensive Geography – Khullar (Important)
Geography through maps
Physical Geography - Made Simple, Rupa Publisher
Physical Geography by Strahler & Strahler (Reference book)
Climatology by D.S.Lal
Evolution of Geographic Thought by Majid Husain
Indian Economy by Dutt and Sundaram
Hindu's Survey on Industry
Atlas mandatory – Oxford

Psychology

XI and XII NCERT books (Psychology) - Useful for starters with no knowledge of Psychology.
Introduction to Psychology - Morgan & King
Introduction to Psychology – Atkinson & Hilgard
Psychology – Robert A. Baron
Psychology: An International Perspective - Michael W. Eysenck
Organizational behavior – Stephen Robbins
Organizational Behavior – Fred Luthans
Developmental Psychology – Hurlock
Abnormal Psychology – Carson,Butcher & Coleman

Note: These books cover only about 50%-60% of the syllabus, for all other topics use Wikipedia or Google search, British council library and standard material from any reputed institute (Keep it as a last resort).


Economics

Advanced Microeconomics by Ahuja
Advanced Macroeconomics by Ahuja
Monetary Economics by Gupta and Rani / Gupta
Statistical methods by S.P. Gupta
Fiscal Economics by Tyagi
Indian Economy by Dutt and Sundaram
India Economy by Mishra and Puri
Economic survey of India
IGIDR (Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research) Dev Report
Relevant reading pertaining to post liberalization (read all supporting books according to syllabus)
International Economics by Dominic Salvatre / M.L Jingin

Sociology

Prelims

IGNOU material
Sociology-Themes and Perspectives by Harlambos
Sociology-A guide to Literature and problems by Bottomore
Social Anthropology by Madan and Majumdar
Principles of Sociology by Shankar Rao
Dictionary of Sociology by William.P.Scott
Wizard Sociology Workbook
Sociology Question Bank by IIMS publications

Mains

Paper 1

IGNOU material
Sociological Thought by Francis Abraham and Henry Morgan
Masters of Sociological Thought-Coser L.A
Sociology-Themes and Perspectives by Harlambos
Sociology-A guide to Literature and problems by Bottomore
Principles of Sociology by Shankar Rao
Sociology of Religion by Robertson
Dictionary of Sociology by William.P.Scott

Paper2

IGNOU material
Social Anthropology by Madan and Majumdar
Indian Society-S.C.Dube
Sociology and the Dilemmas of Development by Ramachandra Guha
Tribal India by Nadeem Hussein
Society in India by Ram Ahuja
Modernization of Indian Tradition by Yogendra Singh

Questions papers

Last 10 years prelims in each General studies, Public Admin and geography
Last 10 years mains for each subject (purchase once you are confident of clearing prelims)


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Useful online links

READING ONLINE

Useful Websites apart from Google and Wikipedia

http://goidirectory.nic.in/
http://india.gov.in/
http://www.ncert.nic.in/textbooks/t... (Download NCERT Books)
http://planningcommission.gov.in/
http://www.investopedia.com/univers...
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ (Budget and Economic Survey of India)
http://www.pib.nic.in/
http://www.threeauthors.com/ (Useful)
http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welc...
http://www.dlshq.org/messages/caste...
http://www.indianchild.com/Pms_and_...
http://www.civilserviceindia.com/
http://www.onestopias.com/
http://www.publicationsdivision.nic.in/...
http://exim.indiamart.com/economic-...
http://cabsec.nic.in/abr/welcome.ht... (Allocation of business rules)

Blog Material

http://iasarticles.blogspot.com/
http://visionias.wordpress.com/
http://currentgs.blogspot.com/
http://thegyangurus.blogspot.in/ (daily news)
http://www.iasmadeeasy.blogspot.com/...
http://upscportal.com/civilservices...
http://visionias.cfsites.org/
http://iasblogz.blogspot.com/
http://www.jagranjosh.com/
http://www.preparegk.com

Online magazines / books

http://www.yojana.gov.in/ (Yojana)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/ (Frontline)
http://70.87.196.226/Pratiyogitadar... (Pratiyogita Darpan)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/... (Economic Times)
http://www.hinduonnet.com/ (The Hindu)
http://www.publicationsdivision.nic.in/... ( India Year Book)

Other good sites

http://www.un.org/ (United Nations)
http://www.saarc-sec.org/main.php (SAARC)
http://www.aseansec.org/ (ASEAN)
http://www.ibsa-trilateral.org/ (IBSA)



Environment 


Bombay Natural History Society: http://www.bnhs.org/
Birding in India and South Asia: http://www.birding.in/
Website of Project Tiger: http://projecttiger.nic.in/
Nature Conservation Foundation: http://www.ncf-india.org/
Wildlife Conservation Society of India: http://www.wildlife.in/
Wildlife Trust of India: http://www.wildlifetrustofindia.org/
Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group: http://www.kalpavriksh.org/
Down to Earth Magazine: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/
Centre for Environment Education, India: http://www.ceeindia.org/cee/index.html
You can also add some in comment section if you find one !

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What to read for Current Affairs / General studies?

CURRENT AFFAIRS STRATEGY (Trend of  Prelims GS Questions)


Following Topics to be covered while reading ‘The Hindu’ and Competitive Monthly Magazines (Competition Wizard or Civil Service Chronicle or Civil Service Times – Preferably any one). If possible aspirants are suggested to take down daily notes on the basis of topics covered here.

1. NATIONAL
1. New Govt. schemes
2. Newly constituted committees on national issues.
3. Newly appointed heads of important offices
4. Inter state disputes
5. Important places in news

2. BILATERAL
1. Recent trade pacts like FTA, trade targets, items of trade, grouping in WTO
2. Bilateral defence deals and military exercises.
3. Bilateral visits by heads of nations
4. Bilateral summits (Place, theme to summit, issues discussed in summit)
5. Bilateral, trilateral and regional forums Eg : - IBSA, SAARC

3. ECONOMICS
1. RBI – monetary policy changes – CRR, Bank Rate, Forex reserves, inflation rate etc
2. Finance Ministry – Fiscal policy-tax rates, tax holidays, committees appointed to
review exciting tax structures.
3. CSO – National income, Per capita income, GDP growth rate, Base year, Poverty rate etc.
4. Central Govt. schemes of Employment Generation (NREGP), Social welfare (NOAP, ICDS, MDMS), Poverty eradication (AAY), Infrastructure development (NURM, NHDP)/
5. SEBI – Stock exchanges, Stock indexes, disinvestments, scams, committees
6. TRADE- Export items, Import items, export targets of various sector, trade pacts
7. PLANNING – Plan period, GDP target, priorities, sectoral allocations
8. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
WTO – Summits, discussed issues, groupings formed for trade dialogue.
IMF, WB - development agenda, loans and grants
UNDP – Theme, HDR, HDI rankings, ILO, UNCTAD reports.

4. POLITY
1. New amendments
2. National issues – Any related article in constitution
3. Major Supreme court verdict in national issues
4. Important committees related to constitution
5. Inter state river water, territorial disputes

5. INTERNATIONAL
1. International summits – theme of summit, major agenda, total membership, observers,
Declaration issued, recent members, venue of next summit.
2. International forums and NGO’s – WEF, WSF, TI ,Greenpeace etc.
3. International disputes – Territorial claims, civil war, Non Proliferation issues and
related treaties.
4. Terrorism – Organisations, funding, recent attacks and assassination, international
efforts to curb it(UN resolutions, treaties.)

6. SPACE
1. Recent space missions – name of space mission, space research organization(country)
and name of spacecraft, planet name, purpose, period.
2. Space phenomenon – Possible Asteroids threat etc.
3. Discoveries – Names of recently discovered planets, comets and asteroids
4. International Space station
5. Space accidents – Jupiter & Shoemaker levy-4 crash, Colombia shuttle crash,
6. International space projects like Galileo (GPS).

7. DEFENCE
1.Recenlty tested missiles – Name, type, range, speed, nuclear capability, technology used, indigenous or joint production.
2. Bilateral defence deals-Fighters, ships, submarines, missiles, radars etc.
3. Bilateral military, Navy and Air force exercises – Place, Code name, nature of operation.
4. International peacekeeping operations – Indian role and presence
5. Recent bodies like Strategic Forces Command etc.,

8. AWARDS
1. National Awards - Civilian – Bharath Rathna, Gandhi peace prize,
IG prize for peace, disarmament and development
- Sports – Rajiv Khel ratna – Arjuna – Dhronacharya
- Cinema – IFFI, Dadasaheb phalke, National
- Science – Kalinga, S.S. Bhatnagar
- Literature – Jnanpith, Sahithya Academy, Vyas Samman. Saraswathi samman etc.
- Social service – IG national integration, LB Shasthri award for excellence in pub-ad etc.

2. International - Noble prize.
Oscar awards (cinema)/ Grammy awards (music).
Ramon Magsaysay Awards (Asian Nobel prize).
Right livelihood (Alternative Nobel prize).
Booker – Pulitzer- Orange-Dylan Thomas awards (Literature)
Abel prize,Templeton awards etc.

9. PERSONALITIES
1. Newly elected head of nations and important world organisations.
2. News makers, inventors etc.
3. CEO’s of major corporate bodies.
4. Major national and international award winners.

10. BOOKS AND AUTHORS
1. Recent ones containing issues of national and international importance
2. Controversial books. (eg. In the line of fire, Lajja, Satanic verses)
3. Books which recently got national/international awards.
4. Popular writers of National/ International fame. (Naom Chomsky, Salman rushdie, Arunthathi roy, Shashi Tharoor, Vikram Seth, R.K. Narayan

11. SPORTS
1. Players and sports events.
2. Major national international records.
3. Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth, South Asian games-mascot, no of countries participated. Newly added disciplines, top Medal winning countries
4. Doping cases-drug used, player, ban period, country
5. Grand slam titles in tennis

12. ENVIRONMENT
- Major treaties like Montreal – Kyoto – Basel – Cartegena etc, recent
- Summits like UNFCCC, UNEP etc.
- Calamities, Accidents and natural disasters – Valcano action, Earthquake, Tsunami,
- Storms – Cyclone – typhoon (names of it Ex.Katrina,Nargis,Gustav)
- Disease outbreak (ex. Bird flu)
-Recent campaigns by environmental agencies like

13. CULTURE AND ART
1. UNESCO World heritage sites.
2. Major temples / festivals / Eg. Recent kumba mela.
3. Dances of Indian states.
4. Folk arts and states
5.Personalities in Dance, Arts and Theatre currently in news

14. MAP BASED QUESTIONS.
1. Areas of bilateral and international disputes (islands etc).
2. Any major calamities (Valcanoe, storm, nuclear accident,)
3. Countries – language wise.
4. Location of important cities, river of a country.
5. Questions based on national census(2001).

STUDY MATERIALS FOR CURRENT AFFAIRS AREA
1. Dailies - The Hindu* ,Economic times, Dhina Mani(Tamil)
2. Magazines - Frontline ,Yojana
3. India year book* , Manorama year book.
4. Economic Survey*.

* marked are important

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