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The Constitution establishes a nation's, states, or social group's core ideas and rules, which define the government's powers and responsibilities, as well as guarantee certain rights to its citizens. Constitution is a written document that encapsulates a political, social and economic aspiration of Nation. It is a way of organizing a state or society and distributing sovereign power. This article provides a brief overview of the development of the Indian Constitution along with the ways in which such delicate topics can be covered with deeper understanding. Constitutional Development of India is an important topic for both Prelims and Mains stage of the IAS Examination.

India still is an Agrarian country in which agriculture depends mainly on monsoon rainfall. The agriculture sector is one of the most important industries in the Indian economy not only from the contribution to GDP point of view but also due to the fact that agriculture is labour intensive sector in India. Approximately 60 percent of the Indian population works in the industry, contributing about 18 percent to India's GDP. For the last successive years, the Indian subcontinent witnessed the changes in the arrival of southwest monsoon that led to a severe spell of the breakdown of monsoon, ultimately not covering the entire geographical region of India.

Dance has always been an intricate component of religion and culture in India. According to Indian Hindu mythology, dance is believed to have been conceived by Brahma. Brahma inspired the sage Bharata Muni to write the Natya Shastra, a treatise on performing arts, from which a codified practice of dance and drama emerged. India is considered to be the origin country of Dance, which has provided vivid rich cultural heritage as diversification is the identity of the country.

Ease of doing business is an index published by the World Bank. It is an aggregate figure that includes different parameters which define the ease of doing business in a country. At present, ease of Doing Business is a much-debated topic today. In this blog, GS SCORE has discussed the strategy to prepare ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Report from prelims and mains perspective. Ease of doing business report is important for the IAS Examination, from economy and polity (governance) subject point of view.

Mentioned under the syllabus of General Study’s paper I for UPSC Civil Services Mains, Indian Art and Culture is one of the core areas of UPSC to ask questions. Although, UPSC syllabus related to “ Art and Culture”  mentions only in just one line “Salient features of Literature, Art Forms, and Architecture from ancient to modern times”. However, going through the previous year question papers, one can easily list down important micro-topics that should be studied for Art and Culture syllabus for UPSC preparation. Under Art and Culture Component, painting is one of the important area from which UPSC ask questions. ‘Painting’ topic is important to be studied while preparing for UPSC IAS examination as questions from these topics are static in nature, which don’t change from time to time. Hence, just by putting extra effort to understand the delicate words and identifying the differences in paintings, one can easily solve the questions.  

Every financial year, various reports are published by International organisation (UNESCO, UN, and IPCC), National Organisation (Niti Aayog, Law commission) and even by private organisation like NGOs. These reports are crucial aspects in the analysis of performance in terms of both positive and negative mechanism. Reputed institutions like Niti Aayog publish reports from time to time and being the think tank of Government of India, these reports act as path provider to the government in power to either rectify the loopholes existing in the current policy or to formulate a progressive policy by keeping in mind the interest of all the key stakeholders (Civic Society).

Art and Architecture is one of the important area from which UPSC ask questions. Year after year, number of questions asked by UPSC from Architecture part has increased and this has relentlessly put excessive emphasis on Architecture aspect so that , it could be given more attention and prepare not only from prelims point of view but, also from mains point of view. Architecture of India can be categorised on various dimensions/parameters like:

Throughout the world, Gender parity gulf is on the rise thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has raised new barriers to building inclusive and prosperous economies and societies. Pre-existing gender gaps have amplified to many fold as the asymmetry between men and women has increased. Topics like gender Parity are the favourite core areas of UPSC to ask questions both in prelims and mains stage of civil services examination. UPSC will try to test knowledge of aspirants by directly asking question from “Gender parity Index” in prelims examination and analytical part can be asked in mains examination. So, aspirants should take any topic as preparation of all three segments of the examination.

History as subject from the UPSC point of view holds the key area in the syllabus both in prelims and Mains stage of the examination. Every year, two to three questions are asked by UPSC directly or indirectly from important terminologies associated with history subject. It is important that aspirants should study History keywords with sincerity as these important words will help aspirants in understanding the broader picture of history topics like, why certain policies were enacted, what is the impact of different acts and rules, furthermore the facets of Indian history give us an idea about the societal and economic impacts of Indian and global society. 

Environment is one of the widely used terms all over the world. No doubt, UPSC asking questions year after year from Environment related topics like ground water depletion, Climate change & its impact, renewable source of Energy, important convention, and so on. Any Environment topics are a must-know for every Civil Services aspirant. Questions from Environment touch areas of basic understanding from static portion as well as hot burning issues of current importance, so aspirants are advised to focus on both areas as equal priorities.

British rule, started as a trading unit in India, when East India Company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth. British Empire consolidated its power on India territory through the power distribution concept to Viceroys, Governor Generals.  Posts like governor generals and viceroys created a pseudo force around the few chunks of British soldiers to rule on Entire Indian Sub-continent. Within a time period of nearly three centuries, the British turned from a trading power to one of the most powerful countries in the world.

Going by the recent pattern of asking questions in civil services examination, now a days questions are not only being asked from international body and Government released indices but , also non-governmental organisation on frequent basis. The Government, along with various important organisations, release their report on various issues that are important for UPSC. UPSC has always tested the knowledge of the aspirants by asking several questions based on indices released by important national and international organisations.