UPSC IAS Syllabus
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conduct Prelims & Mains Examination for Indian Adminstrative Services (IAS).
UPSC IAS Exam has three stages:
(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examinations (Objective Type) for the selection of candidates for Main Exam.
(ii) Civil Services Mains Examination (Written) for the selection of candidates for the next level of UPSC IAS Exam.
(iii) Civil Services Personality Test (PT)
The syllabus for all three stages of the exam is different from one another and hence needs a deeper look to understand the requirement of each stage of the IAS Exam.
In IAS Prelims, UPSC tests the analytical, logical and reasonable ability of the candidates. The IAS Prelims Exam is divided into two parts:
(i) General Studies Paper-I
(ii) General Studies Paper-II
Both papers have the maximum time limit of two hours and the General Studies Paper-II, which is popularly known as CSAT, is only qualifying in nature. The exam is conducted on a single day with Paper 1 in the morning session and paper 2 in the evening session.
# GS Paper-I
Marks: 200
Duration: 2 hours
| Sl. No
|
Subject-wise Division | Detailed Syllabus |
| 1 | History
History of India and Indian Freedom Struggle |
Ancient History of India
Medieval History of India Modern History 1857 to 1947 Indian National Movement |
| 2 | Geography
Geography of India and Concept of Physical Geography |
Physical Geography
Human Geography Economic Geography World Geography |
| 3 | Polity
Indian Polity and Governance issues |
Union Executives
State Executives Federalism in India Judicial System Panchayati Raj |
| 4 | Economy
Indian Economy and Social Development |
Basic Principles of Indian Economy
Social Schemes of Government Social Development through Economic Empowerment Sustainable Development Demographics |
| 5 | Environment and Ecology
Principles of Environment and Ecology |
General Principles
Climate Change and Climate Summits and Conferences |
| 6 | General Science
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Technology |
General Principles
Latest Science and Technological Development |
| 7 | Current Events
It covers all the events of National and International Importance |
Current Affairs
Current Affairs with all Dimensions |
# General Studies Paper-II (CSAT) [Qualifying]
Marks: 200 marks
Duration: 2 hours
1. Reading Comprehension
2. Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
3. Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4. Decision making and problem-solving ability
5. General mental ability
6. Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
7. English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
8. Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level (last item in the Syllabus of Paper-II) will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.
UPSC IAS Mains Exam 2020: IAS Main Exam has four general studies papers, two compulsory language papers, one essay paper and two papers of Optional subject. It is a descriptive type of exam and has a totally enhanced version of IAS Prelims exam.
# IAS Main Exam 2020 Syllabus:
| Sl. No. | Name of Paper | Syllabus |
Marks |
| 1 | Essay Paper | Any Topic/Topics (Current issues) | 250 |
| 2 | GS Paper I | Indian Heritage and Culture, Indian History, World History, World Geography, Indian Society, Important Geo-physical phenomena |
250 |
| 3 | GS Paper II | Governance, Indian Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations, Welfare Schemes, Statutory, regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies, Role of civil services in a democracy, India’s relation with neighbour countries, International institutions, |
250 |
| 4 | GS Paper III | Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Indian Economy and its various sectorsGovernment BudgetingLand Reforms Inclusive Growth Security and Disaster Management |
250 |
| 5 | GS Paper IV | Ethics and Human Interface
Attitude Aptitude Emotional Intelligence Emotional Intelligence Public/Civil service value Probity in Governance Case study on above topics |
250 |
| 6 | Indian Language Paper | (i) Comprehension of given passages (ii) Précis Writing (iii) Usage and Vocabulary (iv) Short Essays (v) Translation from English to the Indian language and vice-versa |
300 |
| 7 | English | Comprehension of given passages Précis Writing Usage and Vocabulary Short Essays |
300 |
| 8 | Optional Paper I | As opted by Candidate | 250 |
| 9 | Optional Paper II | As opted by Candidate | 250 |
# List of Optional Subject in IAS Mains Exam 2020
Optional Subjects is as follows:
(i) Agriculture
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
(iii) Anthropology
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Civil Engineering
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy
(viii) Economics
(ix) Electrical Engineering
(x) Geography
(xi) Geology
(xii) History
(xiii) Law
(xiv) Management
(xv) Mathematics
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering
(xvii) Medical Science
(xviii) Philosophy
(xix) Physics
(xx) Political Science and International Relations
(xxi) Psychology
(xxii) Public Administration
(xxiii) Sociology
(xxiv) Statistics
(xxv) Zoology
Literature of any one of the languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, English.