General Studies Reference Books for Civil Services Main Examinations
History of Modern India
• India's struggle for Independence - Bipan Chandra and others.
• Modern India - NCERT.
• Freedom Struggle (NBT) - Bipan Chandra
• Modern India - IGNOU
If one is hard pressed for time, he/she may skip the Modern India and Freedom Struggle.
Indian Culture
• Art and Culture portions of history books and Gazetteer of India.
• Culture Chapter (s) in the India Year Book.
• Encyclopedia of Indian Culture. A good library invariably has more than one encyclopedia on Indian Art and Culture selected notes may be taken from it.
• Books on culture / cultural topics brought out by Publications Division of Ministry of Information and broadcasting and National Book Trust.
Current Affairs
• At least one major national newspaper - either The Times of India or The Hindu
• Newsweeklies like India Today or/and Outlook
• Current Affairs and News Analysis of BBC.
• Current events - Spectrum
Statistics
• Book on Statistics (Class XI) - NCERT
• Introduction to the Constitution of India - D.D. Basu.
• Our Parliament - S.C. Kashyap
Indian Geography and Economy
• Indian Geography (Class XI and XII) - NCERT
• Yozna
• Indian Economy - Dutt and Sundharam/Mishra and Puri
• The editorial page of the Economic Times.
Science and Technology
• Science and Technology section of the Wednesday edition of the newspaper 'The Hindu'.
• Science and Technology Published by the Spectrum.
Yozna contains science and environment related topics.