upsc-exams-upsc-exam-indian-civil-services-ias-strategy-economics

Strategy for Economics:
4000 people take this optional in preliminary stage. Approximately 200-325 mains candidates are writing with this optional. It is good optional for Preliminarys as the cut-off is reasonable and with good preparation-it can be achieved (See below for cut-off). For Mains-it used to be one of the most popular optional like Geography and Psychology, Public Administration etc., but nowadays due to uneven markings- people are sceptical about taking this subject, but this subjects has high potential and sometimes it can give very high marks. Yet the popularity depends upon year-to-year basis. For Prelims, though with the weight age wise preparation can do wonder for the candidates. So, strategy for Economics should be two pronged- first it should be year neutral approach and second it should focus more on paper I where generally marks awarded are lesser in comparison to paper II. For Prelims, 15000 quality questions must be solved beforehand to get the winning edge. Also- paper difficulty levels differ from year to year in prelims i.e. one year it is easy and other year it is tough. The Economics portions covers two vital areas:
1. Economic Theory: It has seven main areas: Micro, Macro, International, Growth and Development, Monetary, Public Finance and economic events before Indian independence - Paper I
2. Snapshots of different areas of Indian Economy. Big Ticket areas are Poverty and Unemployment, Rural and Urban Development, Industrial including Small sector, Planning and latest five years Plans.- paper II
For Prelims: Weight ages are:
i. Indian Economy:50 questions
ii. Assertion and Reasoning: 15 questions
iii. Theoretical Economics: 55 questions.
Data About Economics Subject:
1. Scores in last mains 2004:
· For Prelims: 80-85 is the cut-off depending on a particular year
· Desirable score: 335-345
· Approximately 15-20 people crossed the 300 marks, yet reasonably 5-6 persons crossed the 350.
· Highest Score would be 375 in 2004.
· In 2003 Mains: 360 highest; last 3 years -more or less similar number of candidates.
· From 2000- the syllabus changed and it is considered as one of the exhaustive syllabus. All questions in the paper I are of theoretical nature and paper II has contemporary approach.
· More questions in Prelims in theoretical economics is from Micro and International Economics i.e. 15 each. From statistics-06-08 questions comes in the exam.
· With intelligent handling-good scores can be obtained and in worse scenario- a score of 300-310 can be maintained.
Strategies to follow:
1. Cover the full syllabus exhaustively at least in paper I: It is highly desirable
2. Short notes on tougher topics will help to cover adequately the syllabus during last minute revision.
3. Write crisply and if a person can deal the subject appropriately- they can write less.
4. Give only relevant examples and only when it is highly required.
5. Read some good reports like National Human Development Report etc. Maintain a list of cases related to each topic normally mentioned in these reports. Like appraisal of any poverty alleviation can be cited while writing.
6. Theoretical reference in a short yet sweet manner to be given and should be focused on requirements of question.
7. Prepare with special focus the areas in Macro, International and Public Finance.
8. Write a question only if conceptually very clear on that question and don't pick a general topic type question in paper I.
9. If possible, write at least one question from International trade or/and Growth and Development.
10. For Prelims- all the diagrams must be made in one place and to be revised time to time.
Books List For Economics:
Paper I
1. Micro: Koutsoyyiannis(for Prelims), Ahuja (for Both) or any other good book.

2. Macro: Shapiro (Mains), Dornbusch and fischer, Ahuja.(Prelims)

3. Monetray: SB Gupta (For both) M L Jhingan (for Mains only)

4. Public Finance: Bhatia and any good notes.

5. International Economics: Soderston (prelims), Mannur (Mains) or any other book.

6. National Income Accounting: Class 12th book of CBSE- any one for Prelims.

7. Growth and Development: M L Jhingan, Meir and Baldwin., read any one or two latest book of Amratya Sen.

8. Statistics: Only for Prelims (Class 11th and 12th NCERT books)

Paper II
1. Indian Economy: R. Dutt and Sundaram.(for Prelims)

2. Indian Economy: Mishra & Puri (for Prelims)

3. Indian Economy: A N Agrawala (for Both)

4. Indian Economy: Uma Kapila (for Mains only)

5. Indian Economy: Economic Survey -last two years

6. Indian Economy: Budget-3 years, Very important from prelims point of view.

7. Indian Economy: latest two Monetary & Credit Policy (mid term and annual).

Latest data about CRR, SLR and Repos rate should be known.,

8. Different reports like Human Development Report, World Development Reports (available on net) and many other good reports.

9. Any good economy/business newspaper