Atul Bansal Booklist For UPSC CSE | UPSC Topper AIR 115 QUORA

Atul Bansal Booklist For UPSC CSE | UPSC Topper AIR 115

This is the recommended booklist for preparing for UPSC Civil Services exam, both Prelims, and Mains:-

Atul Bansal Booklist For UPSC CSE | UPSC Topper AIR 115

1. History
   1. Ancient India – Old NCERT by R.S. Sharma
   2. Medieval India – New NCERT
   3. Modern India – Old NCERT by Bipin Chandra + Spectrum
   4. World History – Old NCERT by Arjun Dev
2. Art and Culture
   1. An Introduction to Indian Art – Class 11 NCERT
   2. Any one source out of – CCRT Notes / NIOS / Nitin Singhaniya book
3. Society
   1. Class 12 NCERTs ( 2 books)
   2. Vision IAS Value addition material
4. Geography
   1. New NCERTs of Class 11 and 12
   2. Mrunal Lectures on geography available on youtube
5. Polity and Governance
   1. Class 11 NCERT – Indian Constitution at work
   2. Laxmikant for Prelims
   3. Sriram’s notes or M.Puri’s IAS notes or any other notes if you find them relevant (Any one of them)
6. International Relations
   1. Class 12 NCERT – Contemporary world politics
7. Economy
   1. NCERT- Indian Economic Development
   2. Sriram’s notes or any other notes if you find them relevant
8. Environment
   1. Shankar IAS Academy notes
9. Internal Security
   1. Sriram’s IAS notes
10. Ethics
    1. Read any standard notes – I found Lukmaan’s and Pawan Kumar’s classes notes to be best. Read both of them to get a better understanding of the concepts.
    2. Lexicon – not to be read word by word but can be referred for seeing definition of different terms

Current Affairs

1. One national newspaper like The Hindu, Indian Express
2. Monthly Current Affairs magazines or current affairs compilation like VisionIAS PT 365, Insight Exclusive, Mains 365.
3. RSTV Big Picture Debates – especially good for International Relations part in GS Paper 2.

Government Documents to be read

1. Economic Survey
2. Union Budget
3. Yojana Magazine
4. NITI Aayog – Strategy Document or three-year action agenda whichever is released that year.

Points to be noted:

1. This booklist is merely indicative and not exhaustive. If you have referred to some other books/notes and find it useful, please follow it.
2. For some of the topics like International Relations, Paper 3 topics, etc. there is no standard booklist. They are to be covered from current affairs part.
3. For some of the topics like World History, Physical Geography, Medieval Indian History, etc. have a low cost-benefit ratio. The weight of questions asked from them is not substantial. So do not spend too much time preparing for them.
4. This is an integrated list for both Prelims and Mains. For those who are just starting with preparation, they should first go through these books/notes first. Then preparation specific to prelims can be started 3–4 months before the prelims exam.