Books for UPSC Preliminary / Mains Exams

Public Service Commission conducts combined Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination  every year for the recruitment of vacant posts in the Services and Posts mentioned below in accordance with the Rules published by the Department of Personnel & Training. The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS). Also simply referred to as the UPSC examination,[2] it is conducted in three phases – a preliminary examination consisting of two objective-type papers (General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper II also popularly known as Civil Service Aptitude Test or CSAT), and a main examination consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type, in which two papers are qualifying and only marks of seven are counted followed by a personality test (interview).

The posts for which are UPSC conducts Civil Services Examination are:
(i) Indian Administrative Service.
(ii) Indian Foreign Service.
(iii) Indian Police Service.
(iv) Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Group ‘A’.
(v) Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(vi) Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), Group ‘A’.
(vii) Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(viii) Indian Revenue Service (I.T.), Group ‘A’.
(ix) Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Group ‘A’ (Assistant Works Manager, Administration).
(x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’.
(xi) Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(xii) Indian Railway Traffic Service, Group ‘A’.
(xiii) Indian Railway Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(xiv) Indian Railway Personnel Service, Group ‘A’.
(xv) Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force, Group ‘A’
(xvi) Indian Defence Estates Service, Group ‘A’.
(xvii) Indian Information Service (Junior Grade), Group ‘A’.
(xviii) Indian Trade Service, Group ‘A’.
(xix) Indian Corporate Law Service, Group ‘A’.
(xx) Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Group ‘B’ (Section Officer’s Grade).
(xxi) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service, Group ‘B’.
(xxii) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service, Group ‘B’.
(xxiii) Pondicherry Civil Service, Group ‘B’.
(xxiv) Pondicherry Police Service, Group ‘B’.

The candidate must hold a degree of any of Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University Under Section-3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification.

Plan of Examination: (i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) for the selection of candidates for the Main Examination; and
(ii) Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various Services and posts noted above.

Some of the books suggested for the exams are:

For Preliminary exam:
1. 24 Years Solved Papers 1995-2018 General Studies Paper II CSAT for Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019
by Access

2. History of Modern India – Bipan Chandra

3. India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra

4. Modern India – Bipin Chandra

5. Indian Polity for Civil Services Examinations – M. Laxmikanth

6. Constitution of India – Bakshi

7. Bhartiya Rajya Vyavastha – N.L. Madan

8. Our Constitution – Subhash C. Kashyap

9. Indian Economy – Mishra and Puri

10. Economic Survey – Dutt and Sundaram

11. The Economic Times Evolution of Indian Economy – I C Dhingra

12. Quantitative Apitude – R.S. Aggarwal

13. Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency – Tyra and Kundan

14. Objective General English – R.S. Agarwal

14. A Modern Approach to Verbal Reasoning – R.S. Agarwal

15. A new Approach to Reasoning – Sijwali and Sijwali

16. General Studies – Paper I for Civil Services Preliminary Examination (2019) by MHE

17. IAS General Studies Prelims and Mains Solved Papers (Set of 2 books)

18. UPSC 2019 – Complete History through Questions & Answers by Rashid Yasin and Ranjan Singh

19. General Studies Paper I: For Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019 By Pearson by Edgar Thorpe and Showick Thorpe

20. Cracking the CSAT Paper-2 by Arihant Experts

For Mains exam:
1. IAS Mains Chapterwise Solved Papers General Studies by Arihant Experts

2.151 Essays by S C Gupta

3. IAS General Studies Main Solved Papers by New Vishal’s Editorial Board

4. India’s Foreign Policy by Muchkund Dubey

5. ESSAYS for Civil Services and Other Competitive Examinations by Pulkit Khare

6. Essays for Civil and Judicial Services Examinations 2019 by AP Bhardwaj

7. Indian Polity 5th Edition by M. Laxmikanth

8.Geography of India by Majid Husain

9. India’s Ancient Past by R.S.Sharma

10. A Brief History Of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir

11. A History of Medieval India by Chandra Satish

12. Concise History of Modern India for Civil Services Examination by Sujata Menon

13. A New Look at Modern Indian History: Form 1707 To The Modern Times by B.L. Grover, Alka Mehta

14. Indian Economy Book by Ramesh Singh

15. The Indian Economy Book by Sanjiv Verma

16. Indian Economy: Performance and Policies: by Uma Kapila

17. General Studies Paper II by MHE

18. General Studies Paper 2 for Civil Services Preliminary Examination by V. Sasikumar, N.D. Arora, Prem Sahajpal

19. Anthropology Simplified for UPSC Mains by Dr. Vivek Dattatraya Bhasme, IAS

20. A Brief History of Modern India (2018-2019) Session by Spectrum Book by Spectrum Books Pvt. Ltd.