ipsacharya.in | General Studies

General Studies-II : Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations

Syllabus

Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
- Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
- Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.
- Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries.
- Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
- Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.
- Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.
- Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
- Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
- Development processes and the development industry —the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
- Issues relating to poverty and hunger.
- Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.
- Role of civil services in a democracy.
- India and its neighborhood- relations.
- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
- Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

This paper is a blend of static as well as current issues. A close examination of the syllabus and last few years question paper will reveal that in depth knowledge of polity, governance and international relation has to obtained to obtain a good score in this paper. As UPSC is asking most of the questions from recent issues – current affairs must be covered thoroughly and while answering theoretical portions also to be kept in mind. For UPSC mains, its better to go through three years current affairs to cover all the issues.

Current Affairs

Monthly Current Affairs by VISION IAS
VISION IAS 365 material for revision
The Hindu
Yojana (Aspirants should cover this magazine wholeheartedly)
PIB website

Polity & Governance

Indian Polity by Laxmi Kant
Polity and Governance note by M Puri sir
Note down all important judgments, articles and try to quote them while writing answers
Try to use some diagrams , while answering questions related to Governance (Yojna is very useful for this)