Study Material for IAS Exam: The Complete Guide

A complete list of books for UPSC preparation-

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”   – Ernest Hemingway

Every sincere IAS aspirant will agree to the above statement. The maximum time for an IAS aspirant goes in reading the books and finding answers to the questions that come up in their minds.

There are innumerable books available in the market and it is very difficult to cover the content of lots of resources in a limited time period. But aspirants must keep in mind that it is better to stick to specific resources and revise their content rather than referring to too many books and ending up with a lack of revision as well as confusion. You invest a lot of time and money for this preparation. Thus you have to be wise in choosing the materials properly.  There are two basic things you must understand:

• You need not buy all the books recommended to you.

You should understand that whatever you need to learn for the UPSC exam, you can get it through some reliable resources. So there is no need to read many books. Your IAS study material should be a wise mix of textbooks, NCERT books, online sources, newspaper notes, magazines, etc. (Detailed list will feature later in this article.) You cannot even think of reading from all the sources available in the market.

You should prefer limited sources and study by making notes wherever required. What you need to finish is your UPSC syllabus and not books! In this article, you will get a comprehensive UPSC book list for your reference.

Importance of reading the right study material for IAS exam:

• You cannot waste time in reading unnecessary stuff as UPSC Syllabus is very vast and you need to cover it.
• Reading from substandard books and study material can be a potential disaster as it can lead you to even fail the UPSC exams. It is difficult to unlearn what you have studied. So avoid reading the wrong kind of books since they might contain unverified and blatantly wrong information.
• You should refer to 100% authentic material for current affairs. So, be sure to check your IAS current affairs sources for accuracy. Also, make sure you are getting updated information. You should not waste time reading outdated data.
• Get the best current affairs for IAS exam! Check BYJU’S Current Affairs for all the latest current affairs compiled from all the relevant sources. BYJU’S CURRENT AFFAIRS.

Given below are lists of books required for the IAS prelims and mains exam, subject-wise.

Booklist for IAS Exam

BOOKS FOR IAS PRELIMS GS PAPER I

BOOKS FOR IAS PRELIMS CSAT PAPER II

1. Tata McGraw Hill CSAT Manual
2. CSAT II – Arihant
3. Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning – R S Aggarwal (For the comprehension passage part)

BOOKS FOR IAS MAINS GENERAL STUDIES

General Studies Paper I:

General Studies Paper-II:

General Studies Paper III:

General Studies Paper IV:

BOOKS FOR IAS MAINS OPTIONAL SUBJECTS

The lists of reference books for some popular optionals are given below:

HISTORY OPTIONAL

1. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India – Upinder Singh
2. Medieval India (2 volumes) – Satish Chandra
3. Medieval India: The Study of a Civilization – Irfan Habib
4. India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra
5. India since Independence – Bipan Chandra
6. From Plassey to Partition – Shekhar Bandhopadhyay
7. Mastering Modern World History – Norman Lowe
8. A History of the Modern World – Ranjan Chakrabarti

GEOGRAPHY OPTIONAL

1. Physical Geography – Savindra Singh
2. Physical Geography Made Simple – Rupa Publication
3. Evolution of Geographical Thought – Majid Husain
4. Models in Geography – Majid Husain
5. Certificate in Physical and Human Geography – G C Leong
6. Economic and Social Geography Made Simple – Rupa Publication
7. Dictionary of Human Geography
8. Regional Planning in India – Mahesh Chand
9. India – A Comprehensive Geography – Khuller

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OPTIONAL

1. Administrative Thinkers – Prasad and Prasad
2. Public Administration and Public Affairs – Nicholas Henry
3. Essentials of Organizational Behavior – Stephen P Robbins
4. New Horizons of Public Administration – Mohit Bhattacharya
5. IGNOU material
6. Indian Administration – R K Arora, Rajni Goyal
7. Ethics in Governance – R K Arora
8. Public Administration in India – Fadia and Fadia
9. Reports of 2^nd administration Reforms Commissions

SOCIOLOGY OPTIONAL

1. Sociology – Anthony Giddens
2. Sociological Thought – Francis Abraham and John Henry Morgan
3. Political Theory – O P Gauba
4. IGNOU
5. Handbook of Indian Sociology – Veena Das
6. Modernization of Indian Tradition – Yogendra Singh
7. Rural Sociology – Doshi and Jain
8. Indian Society and Culture – Nadeem Hasnain
9. Social Change in India – M N Srinivas
10. Caste: It’s Twentieth Century Avatar – M N Srinivas

ANTHROPOLOGY OPTIONAL

1. Physical Anthropology: P Nath/B M Das
2. Indian Anthropology: Nadeem Hasnain/ V S Sahay and Pradeep K Singh
3. Social Anthropology: Ember and Ember/ Makhan Jha/ D N Majumdar and T N Madan, N K Vaid
4. Anthropological Thought – Upadhyay and Pandey

POLITICAL SCIENCE OPTIONAL

1. Our Constitution – Subhash Kashyap
2. Our Parliament – Subhash Kashyap
3. History of Political Thought – Mukherjee and Ramaswamy
4. Political Theory – O P Gauba
5. Indian Political Thought – Mahendra Prasad and Himanshu Roy
6. Politics in India – Rajni Kothari
7. Indian Foreign Policy – Gupta and Shukla
8. United Nations – Rumki Basu

ECONOMICS OPTIONAL

1. Microeconomics – Ahuja and Koutsyansis
2. International Economics – Salvatore
3. Macroeconomics – H L Ahuja
4. Money and Banking – Gupta and Ahuja
5. Indian Economy – Datt and Sundaram
6. Indian Economy – Mishra and Puri
7. Indian Economy – Performance and Policies – Uma Kapila
8. Economic Survey
9. Business newspapers
10. RBI Website

The given below list gives the IAS study material other than books:

• Newspapers: The Hindu, The Indian Express, Business Standard, Economic Times
• Magazines: Frontline, Yojana, Kurukshetra, Science Reporter, Economic & Political Weekly (EPW)
• Year Books – Manorama/ India Year Book

Sources for Current Affairs:

• Newspapers, magazines, PIB, Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha TV
• For a comprehensive analysis of your daily news, click below:

BYJU’S DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

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