Important Reference Books

Important Reference Books for Indian civil services examination are:

HISTORY

Ancient History

  1. The Wonder That Was India 3rd Edition –

2. Old NCERT – [To Download – CLICK ME]

3. Ignou study material

 Medieval History

1. History Of Medieval India (Satish Chandra) – 

2.  NCERT/State books – [ToDownload – (Click Me) ]

3. Ignou study material

Modern History

1. India’s Struggle for Independence –

2. A Brief History of Modern India –

3. India Since Independence –

  1. NCERT/State Books – [To Download  – (Click Me)]

ECONOMY

1.   Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh –

  1. New NCERT- class 11 and class 12. [To download– Click Me ]

In the new changed pattern of UPSC, emphasis is given more to the dynamic part of the syllabus, therefore two sources are enough to cover static portion.

For dynamic part refer:

  1. Magazine – Economic and political weekly
  2. Newspaper – Economic Times, Business Standard

GEOGRAPHY

  1. GEOGRAPHY by KHULLAR or Geography of India by Majid Husain

  2. Certificate Physical and Human Geography

POLITY

1. Indian Polity 4th Edition by M. Laxmikant –

2. Introduction to the Constitution of India – D D Basu (only for articles) –  

Two books are sufficient to cover the static part of the syllabus (prelim+mains).  No need to make notes of laxmikant as it is already given in note format but the sequence of the given chapters can be altered to make them comprehensive and more convenient to memorize. Chapters may be followed in the given sequence:

  1. Cover all chapters given in the “Part I” i.e. Constitutional Framework, to know the base of our constitution.

2. Then start with chapters President => Vice-President => Governor => Emergency provisions…

3. Directly move to Prime minister => Cabinet => CM => state council of Ministers.

4. Now read Parliamentary system => Parliament => CAG

5. Then move to State legislative assembly

6. Same way Supreme Court and then High court, tribunals.

7. Attorney Gen =>Advocate General

8. UPSC  =>State PSC

9. Finance Commission =>Planning Commission=>Nat.Development council

10. Now Centre State and Interstate relations.

11. Election Commission=> chapter on election, Anti-defection

12. All the National Commissions on Women, SC, ST,OBC, CVC, Lokpal and so on.