UPSC Syllabus 2023: PDF Download – Prelims and Mains

UPSC Syllabus

UPSC IAS & IPS preparing candidates can read or download UPSC Syllabus PDF from here. The Syllabus Helps candidates in preparing for the exam in the right direction. Studying the syllabus is necessary for better performance in this exam.

All candidates can download complete Prelims and Mains syllabus pdf from the link given below. You can also read it here.

As you know UPSC has a vast syllabus that covers all aspects to be an administrative officer.

Details	Prelims	Mains
Exam Date	Notified After Notification	Notified After Notification
Number of Papers	2	9
Questions Type	Objective Type MCQs	Descriptive Type (Written Form)
Medium of Exam	English and Hindi	English and Hindi (Except Language/Literature Paper)
Total marks	400	1750
Negative Marking	1/3	No Negative Marking
Marks Counted in Merit	No	Yes

UPSC Prelims Syllabus

UPSC Prelims syllabus is divided into 2 papers. Paper 1 is from general studies and CSAT.

The Examination comprises two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.

Number of Compulsory Papers	Paper – 1 – General Studies Paper – 2 – CSAT (General Studies)
Number of Questions Paper 1 GS	100
Number of Questions Paper 2 CSAT	80
Total Marks	400 A. Paper 1 GS – 200 Marks B. Paper 2 CSAT – 200 Marks
Negative Marking	1/3 of total marks allotted to the question will be deducted for every incorrect answer
Time	Two Hours for Each Paper Paper 1 – 2 Hours (09:30-11:30 AM) Paper 2 – 2 Hours (02:30-04:30 PM)

Note:

(i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions) and each will be of two hours in duration.

(ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.

(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.

(iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in BELOW

DETAILED SYLLABI FOR UPSC PRELIMS EXAM

Note: Candidates are advised to go through the UPSC prelims and mains Syllabus published in this Section for the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination, as periodic revision of syllabus has been done in several subjects.

Paper I – (200 marks)        Duration: Two hours

• Current events of national and international importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.
• General Science.

Paper II-(200 marks)          Duration: Two hours

• Comprehension;
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability;
• Decision making and problem solving;
• General mental ability;
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level);

UPSC Mains Syllabus

Note:

(i) The papers on Indian languages and English (Paper A and paper B) will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.

(ii) Evaluation of the papers, namely, ‘Essay’, ‘General Studies’ and Optional Subject of all the candidates would be done simultaneously along with evaluation of their qualifying papers on Indian Languages’ and ‘English’ but the papers on Éssay’, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates will be taken cognizance who attain 25% marks in Indian Language’ and 25% in English as minimum qualifying standards in these qualifying papers.

(iii) The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

(iv) The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for Candidates belonging to Persons with Benchmark Disability (only Hearing Impairment sub-category) provided that they have been granted such exemption from 2nd or 3rd language courses by the concerned education Board/University. The candidate needs to provide an undertaking/self-declaration in this regard in order to claim such an exemption to the Commission.

(v) Marks obtained by the candidates for Paper I-VII only will be counted for merit ranking. However, the Commission will have the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all of these papers.

(vi) For the Language medium/literature of languages, the scripts to be used by the candidates will be as under:-

Papers	Subjects	Marks
Paper A	Any Indian Language (Compulsory) Qualifying	300
Paper B	English – Qualifying (Compulsory)	300
Paper 1	Essay	250
Paper 2	General Studies- 1 – Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the world and Society	250
Paper 3	General Studies -2 – Polity, Governance, International Relations, and Social Justice)	250
Paper 4	General Studies -3 – Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster management	250
Paper 5	General Studies -4 – Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude	250
Paper 6	Optional Subject – Paper 1	250
Paper 7	Optional Subject – Paper 2	250
Written Test	Sub-Total Marks	1750 Marks
Personality Test		275 Marks
Grand Total		2025 Marks

NOTE:
(i) The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
(ii) Each paper will be of three hours duration.
(iii) Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the Qualifying Language Papers, Paper-A and Paper-B, in any of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India or in English.
(iv) Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in any one of the languages mentioned above may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in the language opted by them. Candidates should, however, note that if they misuse the above rule, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to them and in extreme cases, their script(s) will not be valued for being in an unauthorised medium.
(vi) The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
(vii) The details of the syllabi are set out in Part B of Section III.

QUALIFYING PAPERS ON INDIAN LANGUAGES AND ENGLISH

The aim of the paper is to test the candidates’ ability to read and understand serious discursive prose, and to express ideas clearly and correctly, in English and Indian language. The pattern of questions would be broadly as follows:

(i) Comprehension of given passages

(ii) Precis Writing

(iii) Usage and Vocabulary

(iv) Short Essays

Indian Languages :-

(i) comprehension of given passages

(ii) Precis Writing

(iii) Usage and Vocabulary

(iv) Short Essays

(v) Translation from English to the Indian Language and vice-versa

Note 1: The papers on Indian Languages and English will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature only. The marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.

Note 2: The candidates will have to answer the English and Indian Languages papers in English and the respective Indian language (except where translation is involved).

UPSC Mains Optional Subjects

UPSC Paper 6 and Paper 7 are from optional Subjects. These are optional Subjects from which candidate can choose any one of them.

Optional Mains Subjects	Optional mains Subjects
Agriculture	Management
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science	Mathematics
Anthropology	Medical Science
Botany	Philosophy
Chemistry	Physics
Civil Engineering	Political Science and International Relations
Electrical Engineering	Psychology
Mechanical Engineering	Public Administration
Commerce and Accountancy	Sociology
Economics	Statistics
Geography	Zoology
Geology	Literature of Any Language
History
Law

Literature of The Language

22 languages are given in this list. Candidate can select any one of these languages.

Language	Script
Assamese	Assamese
Bengali	Bengali
Gujarati	Gujarati
Hindi	Devanagari
Kannada	Kannada
Kashmiri	Persian
Konkani	Devanagari
Malayalam	Malayalam
Manipuri	Bengali
Marathi	Devanagari
Nepali	Devanagari
Odia	Odia
Panjabi	Gurumukhi
Sanskrit	Devanagari
Sindhi	Devanagari or Arabic
Tamil	Tamil
Telugu	Telugu
Urdu	Persian
Bodo	Devanagari
Dogri	Devanagari
Maithili	Devanagari
Santhali	Devanagari or Olchiki

UPSC Mains Detailed Syllabus

PAPER-I

Essay: Candidates may be required to write essays on multiple topics. They will be expected to keep closely to the subject of the essay to arrange their ideas in orderly fashion, and to write concisely. Credit will be given for effective and exact expression.

PAPER-II

General Studies-I: Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society.

• Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
• Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.
• The Freedom Struggle – its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.
• Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
• History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.- their forms and effect on society.
• Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
• Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
• Effects of globalization on Indian society.
• Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.
• Salient features of the world’s physical geography.
• Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India).
• Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Paper-III

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

• 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.
• Government strives to have a workforce which reflects gender balance and women candidates are encouraged to apply.
• 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.

PAPER-IV

General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
• Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
• Government Budgeting.
• Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.
• Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System- objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security;
• Government strives to have a workforce which reflects gender balance and women candidates are encouraged to apply. Technology missions; economics of animal-rearing.

• Food processing and related industries in India- scope’ and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.
• Land reforms in India.
• Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.
• Investment models.
• Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
• Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
• Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
• Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
• Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
• Disaster and disaster management.
• Linkages between development and spread of extremism.
• Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
• Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking
• sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention.
• Security challenges and their management in border areas – linkages of organized crime with terrorism.
• Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.

PAPER-V

General Studies- IV: Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude

• This paper will include questions to test the candidates’ attitude and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem solving approach to various issues and conflicts faced by him in dealing with society. Questions may utilise the case study approach to determine these aspects. The following broad areas will be covered :
• Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in-human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics – in private and public relationships. Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; role of family society and educational institutions in inculcating values.
• Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion.
• Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service, integrity, impartiality and non-partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service, empathy, tolerance and compassion towards the weaker-sections.
• Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance.
• Contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and the world.
• Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration: Status and problems; ethical concerns and dilemmas in government and private institutions; laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance; ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance.
• Probity in Governance: Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption.
• Case Studies on above issues.

PAPER-VI – Optional Subjects Paper 1

Paper vi is taken from optional subjects that are given.

PAPER-VII – Optional Subject Paper 2

Paper vii is taken from optional subjects.

Optional Mains Subjects	Download/Read
Agriculture	Click Here
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science	Click Here
Anthropology	Click Here
Botany	Click Here
Chemistry	Click Here
Civil Engineering	Click Here
Electrical Engineering	Click Here
Mechanical Engineering	Click Here
Commerce and Accountancy	Click Here
Economics	Click Here
Geography	Click Here
Geology	Click Here
History	Click Here
Law	Click Here
Management	Click Here
Mathematics	Click Here
Medical Science	Click Here
Philosophy	Click Here
Physics	Click Here
Political Science and International Relations	Click Here
Psychology	Click Here
Public Administration	Click Here
Sociology	Click Here
Statistics	Click Here
Zoology	Click Here
Hindi	Click Here
Sanskrit	Click Here

Download UPSC Syllabus PDF

Candidates can download latest UPSC Prelims and Mains Syllabus PDF 2023.

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Conclusion: –

This is the complete UPSC Syllabus. Candidates can download UPSC Syllabus PDF from here.