UPSC Mains NOTES/BOOKS

IAS Study Materials and Notes: Here, you can check out our comprehensive guide on the top books for UPSC Mains, featuring essential IAS study materials and notes to help you succeed in your exam preparation.

Candidates often find it confusing to decide what to study and which books to refer to for the UPSC Mains exam. Although many recommended upsc prelimsbooks are also useful for the UPSC Civil Service Main Exam 2023, some additional books are required for new topics like Foreign Relations, Internal Security, Ethics, etc.

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Moreover, thousands of candidates register for the UPSC IAS exam every year, making it a highly competitive one. IAS books offer detailed explanations of the different topics and sub-topics of the upsc mains syllabus, helping candidates to gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

This article will provide a comprehensive list of the best books for UPSC preparation, covering UPSC Mains exams. The upsc book list on Indian history, polity, geography, economics, and other subjects will be there.

Best IAS Study Materials and Notes For UPSC GS Mains

To qualify for the UPSC Mains exam 2023, candidates need to clear the prelims exam. The Mains exam comprises nine papers and carries a weightage of 1750 marks. To prepare well for the UPSC Mains exam, candidates need to refer to the best books. These books provide extensive knowledge of the syllabus and have a systematic approach to learning. They also cover the latest developments and trends in their respective fields, making it easier for aspirants to comprehend complex once.

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UPSC Books List For Mains GS Papers
Subject	Mains Paper	UPSC Books
History, Indian Heritage & Culture	GS Paper 1	Praarambh Ancient History Praarambh Art & Culture Praarambh Modern History (Mains) Praarambh Medieval History Praarambh Post-Independence India Praarambh World History Prahaar Post Independence India Upsc Essence Gs Paper I
Geography	GS Paper 1	Prahaar Geography Praarambh Human & Economy Geography Praarambh Indian Geography Praarambh Physical Geography World Atlas (Orient Black Swan) Praarambh World Geography
Polity & International Relations	GS Paper 2	Praarambh Indian Governance Praarambh International Relations Prahaar Indian Constitution Prahaar Indian Governance Upsc Essence Gs Paper Ii Comparative Politics Onlyias International Relations Onlyias Political Theory Onlyias
Economy	GS Paper 3	Praarambh Disaster Management Praarambh Ecology And Environment Praarambh Indian Economy Praarambh Indian Society Praarambh Science & Technology Prahaar Disaster Management Upsc Essence Gspaper Iii
Ethics	GS Paper 4	Praarambh Ethics Integrity & Aptitude Prahaar Ethics Upsc Essence Gs Paper IV Upsc Essence Gs Paper IV Ethics Digram

You Can Also Check For Notes/Books For Upsc Prelim.

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Best IAS Study Materials and Notes for Optional Paper Mains

To clear the UPSC mains exam, candidates must also choose an optional subject. This subject carries a total of 500 marks, so it’s essential to choose the right IAS Study Materials and Notes for it. The table below shows the list of the best IAS books for various optional subjects.

You can also check for :-UPSC Essence Value Addition Material

Optional Subjects	Book Name
Agriculture Books	Fundamentals Of Agricultural Extension Education by U Barman A Text Book of Agricultural Statistics R. Rangaswamy Agronomy – Yellamanda Reddy Entomology – Vasantha Raj & David Genetics- B.D.Singh
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science	A guide on forest Entomology – Regupathy A Textbook Of Animal Husbandry- G C Banerjee Advanced Animal Nutrition- D. V Reddy Agricultural Economics- S Subba Reddy Animal husbandry & veterinary science- T.N. Palanivelu
Anthropology Books	Physical Anthropology – P Nath Fossil Evidence – S Das Social Anthropology – DN Majumdar & T N Madan Indian Anthropology – Nadeem Hasnain Anthropology Theories – Makhan Jha
Botany	Cell Biology- De Robertis & Ambrose and Easy or Powar Cryptograms- B.R. Vasista Botany for Degree Students; Pteridophyta (Vascular Cryptogams)-P.C. Vashishta Ecology, Microbiology, Animal Behaviour, Pollution and Toxicology For B. Sc. Part III, Paper III- Dr Veer Bala Rastogi Economic botany in the tropics- S. L. Kochhar
Chemistry	A guide to mechanism in organic chemistry – Peter Sykes A textbook of environmental chemistry and pollution – S.S. Dara. A textbook of organic chemistry – Bahl & Ba A textbook of physical chemistry (Vol. – IV) – K.L. Kapoor Advance physical chemistry – Gurdeep Raj
Civil Engineering	Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics – Irving Herman Shames Strength of Material- Prof. S. Ramamrutham Mechanics for Engineers- B Johnson Structural Analysis- C. K. Wang Limit state design of steel structures: S K Duggal
Commerce & Accountancy	Accounting Corporate Accounting – Naseem Ahmed Accounting Standards- D. S. Rawat Auditing Students’ Guide to Auditing- Aruna Jha Income Tax book by- V.K. Singhania or Girish Ahuja Cost Accounting; Theory & Problems- Maheshwari & Mittal
Economics Books	Indian Economy – Ramesh Singh The Indian Economy – Sanjiv Verma Indian Economy – Mishra and Puri Indian Economy – R. Dutt and KPM Sundaram Banking – S.B. Gupta Dictionary of Economics – Graham Bannock; T.E. Baxter, Ray Rees
Electrical Engineering	Electromagnetic Fields & Waves- Kd Prasad Energy Conversion: Ashfaq Hussain Circuit Theory: Analysis and Synthesis- A. Chakrabarti Signals and Systems-Alan V. Oppenheim, Alan V. Willsky, S. Hamid Nawab Physics of Semiconductor Devices – Simon Sze Analog Electronics: J.B. Gupta Digital Logic and Computer Design-M. Morris Mano Principles of Electronics – V .K. Mehta
Geography Books	A Geography by Population – R.C. Chandna Agricultural Geography – Majid Husain Climatology – D.S.Lal Economic and Social Geography – Made Simple – R.Knowles & J.Wareing Economic Geography- Hartshorn & Truman A
Geology	Advancing Frontiers in Geology and Geophysics: A Volume in Honour of M.S. Krishnan- A P Subramaniam & S. Balakrishnan Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Writings on Geology and Mineralogy: Scientific Papers and Comments- Ranganathan, A. & Rao, K. Srinivasa (Eds.) Concise Glossary of Geology- Mathur, S.M. Deccan Traverses: The Making of Bangalore’s Terrain-Mathur, Anuradha & Cunha, Dilip Da Delta Sedimentation: East Coast of India- Singh, I.B. & Swamy, A.S.R. Dimensions of Himalayan Geology- Biyani A.K.
History Books	A History of South India -K.A. Nilkantha Sastri Ancient India – Upinder Singh Anatomy of the Raj (PPH) – Suhash Chakravarty Age of Capital -E.J. Hobsbawm The story of Civilization, Vol. 2 (NCERT) -Arjun Dev
Law	International Law- S. K Kapoor Our Constitution – Subhash C. Kashyap The Constitution of India (Bare Act) – PM Bakshi An Introduction to Public International Law – S. K. Verma Introduction to the Constitution of India – D.D Basu Constitution of India- VN Shukla
Management	Fundamentals of Management by DeCenzo, Agarwal, Bhattacharya and Robbins Marketing Management by Philip Kotler Cost and Management Accounting by MN Arora Organization Behaviour by Stephen Robbins Financial Management by Prasanna Chandra
Mathematics Books	Dynamics, Statics and Hydrostatics – M. Ray Differential Calculus – Shanti Narayan, PK Mittal Analytic Geometry – Shanti Narayan, DK Jha, HC Sinha and Sharma Differential equations:- Golden series – NP Bali Vector Analysis – Shanti Narayan, PK Mittal Linear Algebra – K.C. Prasad, K B Datta
Mechanical Engineering	Thermodynamics – R Yadav Theory of Mechanics – S S Rattan Heat Conversion – Arora and Kundwar Heat Transfer – Gupta Prakash Heat and Mass Transfer – R. Yadav Theory of Mechanism and Mechanics – Jagdish Lal
Medical Science	Human Anatomy—B D Chaurasia Embryology from I B Singh Human Physiology– Ganong; Guyton and A.K. Jain book Biochemistry– by U. Satyanarayana book. Pathology– Robbins, and Cotran
Philosophy Books	A History of Philosophy by Frank Thilly Survey of Indian Philosophy by C D Sharma Existentialism: A Reconstruction by David Cooper An Introduction to Indian Philosophy- S Chatterjee A History of Philosophy-Frank Thilly An Introduction to Political Theory by O P Gauba Introduction to Religious Philosophy By Y Masih
Physics	Any fundamental book on electrical engineering like B.L Theraja (Vol 1) or Vincent Del Toro Classical Mechanism -Gupta, Kumar & Sharma – Takewale & Puranik -H.Goldstein Electricity & Magnetism: D.C. TAyal, B.S. Agarwal, Griffith Introduction of Electrodynamics – David Griffiths EM Theory -Chopra&Agarwal/Satya Prakash
Political Science & International Relations	An Introduction To Political Theory- O.P Gauba Fifty Major Political Thinkers- Ian Adams And R W Dyson A History Of Political Thought: Plato To Marx – Subrata Mukherjee And Sushila Ramaswamy An Oxford Companion To Politics In India-niraja Gopal Jayal And Pratap Bhanu Mehta Foundations Of Indian Political Thought- V.R Mehta
Psychology	Psychology XI & XII Std NCERT Introduction to Psychology Morgan & King Systems & Theories of Psychology Krawiec & Chaplin Psychology by Morgan and King Psychology by Ciccarelli
Public Administration Books	Administrative Thinkers by Prasad and Prasad Public Administration: Administrative Theories and Concepts by Fadia & Fadia Public Administration and Public Affairs 12th Edition – Nicholas Henry Mohit Bhattacharya- New horizons in Public administration Mohit Bhattacharya- Pub Ad A new look
Sociology Books	Sociology – Anthony Giddens Sociological Theory – Ritzer George Sociology – Haralambos & Holborn Oxford Dictionary Of Sociology Sociological Thought – M Francis Abraham and John Henry Morgan
Statistics	An Introduction to Probability Theory & Mathematical Statistics -V K Rohtagi An Outline of Statistical Theory (2 Vol.) -A M Goon, M K Gupta and B. Dass Gupta Fundamentals of Applied Statistics- S C Gupta and V K Kapoor Fundamentals of Mathematical Statistics-A C Gupta and V K Kapoor Fundamentals of Statistics (2 Vol.)- A M Goon, M K Gupta and B Dass Gupta
Zoology	Modern Zoology by Ramesh Gupta Organic Evolution (Evolutionary Biology) by Veer Bala Rastogi Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology Cell Biology by CB Powar

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IAS Study Materials, Notes and upsc books pdf list

Nowadays, UPSC books list are easily accessible online in PDF format, which has made it easier for aspirants to access many important UPSC books. However, with the vast sea of IAS Study Materials and Notes available online, it can be difficult for aspirants to choose the right UPSC books. To help with this, we provide a PDF list of various UPSC subjects, so aspirants can easily download the list of IAS books in PDF format. You can find the link to download the PDF list of various UPSC subjects on our website.

You can also check for UPSC IAS Prelims standard booklist.

The following articles given in the table below can be referred to for UPSC IAS exam preparation:
UPSC PRELIMS	UPSC Calendar 2023
UPSC Notifications	UPSC Admit Card

Frequency Asked Question (FAQs)

Q1: Which notes are best for UPSC mains?

Ans: There are many good notes available for UPSC mains exam preparation. Coaching institutes and toppers notes make some of the most popular ones. However, it ultimately depends on an individual’s learning style and preferences.

Q2: Which book is best for the IAS mains exam?

Ans: No single book can cover the entire syllabus of the IAS main exam. It is recommended to refer to multiple books and study materials to cover the diverse syllabus. You should also refer to the previous year’s question papers and analyse the trends.

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Q3: Should I make notes for UPSC mains?

Ans: Yes, making notes is an important part of the UPSC main exam preparation. It helps summarise the information, revise the topics quickly, and recall the concepts during the exam. However, making concise and effective notes is important to save time and effort.

Q4: Which notes are better for UPSC?

Ans: The best notes for UPSC are the ones that are easy to understand, cover the entire syllabus, and provide practice questions and previous year’s papers. It is recommended to refer to notes made by experienced faculty and toppers and supplement them with additional reading and self-study.

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