What to read in India Year Book?

Before We Start

If you are coming from Mrunal’s page and claiming that this article is a copy-paste from his blog and for it you are going to blame me in the comment, then I request you to please go to the Mrunal’s blog again and re-read the post from top. You will realize that you are wrong and save me time from responding to blasphemous claims.

India Year Book has data, which can overwhelm anyone. So, how to deal with it. Moreover, it has some chapters, which are not relevant, some are relevant for Prelims and Mains, some only for Mains, some only for Prelims, some are for relevant for Interview and some are relevant for Essay. I will try to put in details which chapter to be used for which part of examination and what to read from it –

Table 1:

Code	Definition
A	Most Important
B	Lesser Important than A
C	Not important (If I mention only C, then it is not important for both Mains and Prelims). Otherwise I will provide details with the code)
D	Eliminate/SelectiveReading
E	Essay

Table 2:

Chapter Number	Chapter Name	Code	Comments
1	Land and the People	A, E
2	National Symbols	A
3	The Polity	C for Prelims as you will be reading Indian Polity by Laxmikanth or some other bookB for Mains
4	Agriculture	A for Prelims C for Mains	Traditional details, eliminate current data, facts and figures. Refer ES and Budget for current data
5	Art and Culture	A, E	Important from Essay point of view
6	Basic Economic Data	B	Just go through the trends
7	Commerce	C for Prelims A for Mains
8	Communications	A for Prelims C for Mains
9	Defence	A
10	Education	A
11	Energy	A, E	Have an Atlas handy
12	Environment	A
13	Finance	D
14	Corporate Affairs	A
15	Food and Civil Supplies	B for Prelims D for Mains	Focus on current, eliminate traditional details
16	Health and Family Welfare	A
17	Housing	C	Only current relevance and government programs
18	Indian and the World	B for Prelims A for Mains	Traditional aspects
19	Industry	A for Prelims C for Mains	Focus on traditional, eliminate current details
20	Justice and Law	A	Cover along with Indian Polity part of syllabus
21	Labour	D for Prelims C for Mains E
22	Mass Communication	A
23	Planning	A	Only interesting info
24	Rural Development	A, E
25	Scientific and Technological Developments	A
26	Transport	C	With Atlas, Focus on Railways, Freight Corridors, etc
27	Water Resources	C	-Do-
28	Welfare	A	Be cautious while reading
29	Youth Affairs and Sports	A+
30	States and Union Territories	A
31	Diary of National Events	D
32	General Information	B for Prelims D for Mains