Highly Recommended Books For UPSC 2021 By Toppers

No matter what exam you prepare for, the books that you use to prepare yourself for the test make a huge difference in the quality of the answer produced and also the holistic education acquired from such well-written books.

UPSC preparations will become simple once you find the appropriate books that give you a clear conceptual understanding of the papers. Every IAS Academy in Chennai prepares the aspirants with a rich supply of renowned textbooks from the best authors in the respective fields.

UPSC exams consist of four major papers and have two optional papers. For the purpose of this article, the books suggested primarily concentrate on the four major papers. 

Here are some of the book recommendations from UPSC toppers that will give you an edge to secure the top ranks in the exams:

Paper 1 - General Studies

This paper has five sections comprising Modern and World History, Art and Culture, Indian society, Indian and World Geography. The paper would primarily focus on Indian society, Indian, and World Geography as they have the highest weightage in this section. 

Following are the books to help you master this paper:

  1. Indian History
    • Ancient India by R.S Sharma
    • The Story of Civilization, Part 2 NCERT by Arjun Dev
    • History of Modern World Jain and Mathur by Norman Lowe 
    • History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra
    • India after Independence& India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra
  2. World History - Mastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe
  3. Indian Culture
    • The Wonder That Was India by A. L. Bhasham
    • Introduction to Indian Art Part 1 - Fine Arts for Class XI
  4. Geography
    • Geography of India & World Geography by Majid Husain
    • Indian Geography by D. R. Khullar

Paper 2 - General Studies

Most of the Top 10 IAS Coaching Centres in Chennai would already have suggested essential textbooks and guides. This list of books that follows encourages further learning of the candidates. 

Governance, Polity and Constitution, International Relations, and Social Justice are the sections in this paper. 

  1. Governance - From Government to Governance by Kuldeep Mathur 
  2. Polity and Constitution 
    • Indian Polity by Laxmikanth
    • Introduction to the Constitution of India by DD Basu
  3. International Relations - India and The World & International Institute from Chanakya Publications Pvt Ltd.
  4. Additional magazines and books
    • Yojana Magazines from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
    • Constitution of India at Work (Class 11th) from NCERT Publications
    • Ethics in Governance - ARC Report

Paper 3 - General Studies

This paper focuses on Biodiversity and Technology, the Indian Economy and its Development, Environmental concerns, Security concerns, and Disaster Management. Apart from the following recommendations, it would prove beneficial to ask for additional resources from any UPSC Coaching Centre in Chennai.

  1. Economics
    • Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
    • Class 11th Indian Economic Development and Introduction to Macro-Economics from NCERT 
    • Indian Economy Part A & B from Chanakya Publications Pvt Ltd
  2. Environment and Ecology
    • Certificate Physical & Human Geography by Goh Cheng Leong
    • Biology Textbook of Class 12th - NCERT Publications
  3. Security
    • National Security and Disaster Management from Chanakya Publication Pvt Ltd
    • India’s Security in a Turbulent World by Jasjit Singh
  4. Additional books and magazines
    • Economics Dictionary from Collins and Penguin
    • Economic Survey from the Ministry of Finance
    • India Year Book - Chapters regarding Environment issues and news
    • Science Reporter for Science & Technology- a periodical

Paper 4 - General Studies

The primary focus of this paper is on Ethics. It tries to assess the ethical and moral components of a candidate. For this paper, Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude from Kamaraj IAS Academy which is highly recommended. 

Most of these books might be found in the library of any Top IAS Academy in Chennai and candidates would attain vast knowledge over all the papers for successfully clearing the UPSC examination.