Important Books for UPSC/IAS Examination and Preparation

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is India’s central agency authorized to conduct the Civil Services Examination, Engineering Services Examination, Combined Defence ServicesExamination, National Defence Academy Examination, Naval Academy Examination and Combined Medical Services Examination. In this post I am going to share a complete list of recommended books for UPSC/IAS examination and preparation.

List Of Civil Services Books For General Studies

Preliminary IAS (General Studies)

•  History books of Classes XI and XII – NCERT
•  Freedom Struggle (NET) – Bipin Chandra

World Geography – including Indian Geography Good books

• Principles of Geography (Class XII-Part I, II)
• General Geography of India (Class XII) Part I – NCERT
• Geography of India – Resources and Regional Development Part II (Class XII) – NCERT
• Physical Geography – Leong
• Atlas

Indian Polity Good book

• Introduction to Indian Constitution – D.D. Basu Related

Indian Economy 

• Evolution of Indian Economy – NCERT
• Indian Economy – Dutt and Sundharam.
• Indian Economy – Mishra and Puri

General Science 

• NCERT books on Science.
• Science and Technology supplements in the Newspapers and magazines.

Current Events of National and International importance

• One major National Daily – Either The Times of India or The Hindu.
• Newsweeklies like India Today or/and Outlook
• Current Events – Spectrum

General Mental Ability 

• No special preparation is required in this area. But some practice may be done from any exercise books or quantitative aptitude. In fact, an intelligent calculation is the basic requirement for this topic.

Main (General Studies)

History of Modern India

• India’s struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra and others.
• Modern India – NCERT.
• Freedom Struggle (NBT) – Bipan Chandra
• Modern India – IGNOU

Note: -If one is hard pressed for time, he/she may skip the Modern India and Freedom Struggle.

Indian Culture

• Art and Culture portions of history books and Gazetteer of India.
• Culture Chapter (s) in the India Year Book.
• Encyclopedia of Indian Culture. A good library invariably has more than one encyclopaedia on Indian Art and Culture selected notes may be taken from it.
• Books on culture / cultural topics brought out by Publications Division of Ministry of Information and broadcasting and National Book Trust.

Current Affairs

• At least one major national newspaper – either The Times of India or The Hindu
• Newsweeklies like India Today or/and Outlook
• Current Affairs and News Analysis of BBC.
• Current events – Spectrum

Statistics

• Book on Statistics (Class XI) – NCERT

Indian Polity and Constitution

• Introduction to the Constitution of India – D.D. Basu.
• Our Parliament – S.C. Kashyap

Indian Geography and Economy

• Indian Geography (Class XI and XII) – NCERT
• Yozna
• Indian Economy – Dutt and Sundharam/Mishra and Puri
• The editorial page of the Economic Times.

Science and Technology

• Science and Technology section of the Wednesday edition of the newspaper ‘The Hindu’.
• Science and Technology Published by the Spectrum.
• Yozna contains science and environment related topics.

1. Indian History – India Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra; NCERT Books ( XI & XII 

2. Geography – Spectrum

3. Indian Polity – Constitution of India by Bakshi

4. Indian Economy – Plus One, Plus Two Books, Pratiyogita Darpan

5. General Science – Tata Mc Graw Hill Guide

6. Mental Ability – Quantitative Apitude by R.S. Aggarwal

7. Current Affairs – Some magazines and Newspapers

i. The Hindu/The Times of India

ii. Frontline

iii. Civil Service Chronicle

iv. Chanakya

v. Competition WIZARD

vi. Civil Services Today

8. Guides

1. Tata Mc Graw Hill

2. Spectrum

3. Unique

Books on Indian History & Culture:

• NCERT (+ 2 level):  Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India.
• Publication Division : Gazetteer of India (Vol 2 : History & Culture)
• Gandhi Nehru Tagore & Ambedkar : Gopal Krishna
• Bipin Chandra – Modern India
• A.C.Banerjee – History of Modern India Raghavan Aiyer : Mahatma Gandhi

Books on Geography:

• NCERT : Physical Geography of India for X – XII Std
• A Good School Atlas
• Sharma & Cotinho : Economic and Commercial Geography of India.
• Khullar : India- A Comprehnsive Geography
• Charles Farro : General Principles of World Geography
• Charles Farro : Monsoon Asia Reports published by Centre for Science and Enviornment And Tata Energy Research Institute
• National journal – Kurukshetra, Yojana etc.
• Down to earth

Books on Indian Economy:

• NCERT (+1 level) : Evolution of Indian Economy(I C Dhingra).
• Mishra & Puri or Dutt & Sundaram – Indian Economy
• Economic Survey
• The Economic Times,Business Standard
• Yojana

Books on Social and National Issues :

• Social Problem – Ram Ahuja
• Social Welfare Magazine – Published by ministry of social welfare
• Yojana/Kurukshetra
• IIPa Journal

Books on Indian Polity:

• NCERT (+1 level) : Indian Political System
• N.L. Madan : Bhartiya Rajya Vyavastha
• D.D. Basu: Indian Constitution
• Kashyap: Constitution of India
• Publication Division : Subhash C. Kashyap : Our Parliament
• P.M. Bakshi: Indian Constitution
• Our Constitution : Subhash C. kashyap
• Perspective on Constitution : S.C. Kashyap
• Frontline Magazine
• IIPa Journal

Books on Science & Technology:

• NCERT : (10 level) : Science, (+2 level) : Biology.
• Popular Science Series (CSIR)
• Reports Of the Ministry of Science and Technology Yojana
• Science Reporter
• Science and Technology in India – Spectrum
• Books on Statistics:
• (NCERT +1 level) Elementary Statistics
• S.C.Gupta : Statistical Methods

Books on India and the World :

• Journal of peace Studies
• World Focus
• Strategic Analysis
• South Asian Journal

Other Books for General Studies:

1. India Year Book latest

2. One competitive Magazine

3. Guides like Tata Mc Graw Hill, Spectrum or Unique For General Reference 4. The Pearson General Studies Manual.