[Studyplan] Best Strategy & Studyplan for Economics Optional UPSC by Topper Harshika Singh, Rank-8, UPSC CSE 2011, Without Coaching

Strategy for Economics 

My Background in Economics and the  interest in the subject  was the most obvious reason for Economics as my first optional. I am B.A Economics(Hons) from St.Xavier’s College, Ranchi

(Jharkhand) and MSc. Economic History from London School Of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

The Comprehensive list of the books that I followed was :

For both my optionals, I emphasized on making my concepts very clear and re-read the textbooks.I read all the books enumerated below-different books cater to different portions of the syllabus so I have enumerated all of them…

UPSC Economics Paper - 1 :

1. Microeconomics – Ahuja / Here 
2. Koutsyansis / Here
3. Macroeconomics – Ahuja / Here and Mankiw / Here
4. International Economics – Salvatore / Here and  M.C Vaish / Here
5. Public Finance - Lekhi, Balton and Bhatia / Here  
6. Money and Banking – Gupta and Ahuja
7. RBI Website
8. For Growth and Development ,I followed Mishra and Puri  / Here. There is another book by Lekhi (this book covers the syllabus so it is bit handy)/Debraj Ray-Development Economics / Here. I extensively used Internet for some new developments in same.
    

UPSC Economics Paper - 2 :

1. Indian Economy Since Independence by Uma Kapila  / Here 
2. Mishra and Puri  / Here,  Dutt and Sundaram /Here, Uma Kapila-Policy & Planning / Here,
   Economic Survey, EPW, RBI
3. Any One Business Newspaper - ET, The Economist or Financial Express

In this attempt which was my second attempt I just followed the basic textbooks that are taught in most of the Indian Universities but in general I also kept myself updated with new textbooks and relevant study materials available on Internet of some renowed Universities around the world.

I took study materials from Brilliant Tutorials in my first attempt and RAU’s IAS Academy, Delhi for my second attempt.This helped me to systematize my preparation according to the syllabus.

Answer Writing :
In Paper 1 , I just ensured that my concepts were clear.Here I would like to admit i felt I had done relatively well in paper 1 but landed up with just 133 marks so maybe I faltered  in some way. Hence for Paper 1 , I would recommend to also go through  the strategy for the same followed by Neeraj Kumar Singh(AIR-11) who also has the highest  marks in Economics optional this year. In Paper 2- I tried to substantiate my answers with adequate data’s and if possible tried to relate the said question to some recent instance /current affairs issue like this year there was a question on MNREGA rural wage hike and agriculture sector(issue on similar lines were in the news recently).

Economics is my passion so I enjoyed my economics preparation and religiously followed the day to day developments in world Economy/Indian Economy through Internet /newspapers and News channels.

My Scorecard- UPSC CSE-2011 Rank- 8 AIR

Subjets		Marks
Essay		100
General Studies Paper-1		144
General Studies Paper-2		132
Economics Paper-1		133
Economics Paper-2		213
Anthropology Paper-1		196
Anthropology Paper-2		175
Total Written		1093
Interview		204
Total		1297

Source: Here