UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam: A Cheat Sheet Of Must-Cover Important Topics For IAS Aspirants

As the UPSC Mains 2019 examination draws closer, aspirants try their best to prioritise topics in their revision. Here is a list of topics that have been frequently in news in the past year:

GS 1

• 1919 Morley Minto Act
• Rowlatt Act
• Jaliawala Bagh massacre
• Non-cooperation/Khilafat movement
• Erratic rainfall, heatwave and other weather events
• Urban as well as riverine floods
• Urban planning/urbanisation and Climate change
• Women and environment conservation - Eco-feminism
• MeToo, sexual harassment at workplace
• Monsoon
• Communal harmony
• Chinese versus Russian communism
• Decolonisation of China
• INA
• Regionalism, sub-nationalism
• Kashmir issue - integration of people
• water crisis

GS 2

• Triple Talaq
• Assam NRC
• Early childhood education and care
• Reservation based on economic criteria
• Reservation to Marathas, Jats
• Trump and new world order
• US-China trade war and implications for India
• China-Pak evil axis
• US-Iran relations and implications for India
• RBI independence, RBI-government relations
• Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation
• RTI amendment
• UAPA Act amendment
• Indian judiciary: pendency, overreach, infighting, parliamentary supremacy etc
• Lokpal/Lokayuktas
• Counter-terrorism/counter-radicalisation
• Undernourishment - Poshan abhiyan
• Freedom of expression- communication blackout
• Mob lynching
• Labour reforms
• Fit India movement

GS 3

• Current economic slowdown
• $5 trillion economy goal
• Private investment
• Boosting Make in India/ manufacturing share in GDP
• Solar and renewable energy vs coal power plants
• Biofuels
• Electric Vehicles
• UNFCCC COP 24
• Global recession prospects
• Agriculture marketing reforms/agri-exports
• Climate change
• Disaster management: Landslides, Floods, Avalanche, Fire
• Mission Shakti, Chandrayaan-2,
• Gaganyaan, Samudrayaan
• Indigenous defence manufacture
• 5G technology
• coastal regulatory zones
• Electronics, Textile, defence exports
• GSP
• WTO and other multilateral institutions
• North east insurgency, Maoism waning but still a threat
• Chief of Defence Staff
• Coal Mining
• Artifical intelligence, shared mobility
• Data privacy, data sovereignty, cyber security
• new defence commands- space, cyber etc

Candidates should revise and prepare the above topics well. A good strategy is to form a structure of a topic in mind, so that it can be easily recalled. For example, one technique is to explore all the political, social, economic, cultural, constitutional-legal, national security aspects of the topic.

Also, it is important for the candidates to relax and de-focus a day before exam. To be able to recall, and connect current affair points in their answers candidates need to have a relaxed mind. Meditation and Yoga may help.

The candidates should attempt the questions with a fresh mind, not with the baggage of preparation - I have studied this but not that, I know this but not that. The attitude of the candidate should be to do their best at the moment without thinking about the past or the future.