"Economics is not a very popular optional for civil services like history, geography or say public administration, but surprisingly it can be a very safe optional in prelims for those who have economics or commerce background. As the syllabus of economics for prelims is relatively concise (as compared to geography or commerce) and can be covered in a short span of time and the cut off is also reasonable. Any thing above 70 should be safe with negative marking. But people from non-economics or non-commerce background should avoid this optional because there is hardly any good coaching available and the subject is as such a little bit technical, so they may find it difficult".
Reference / Sources
1. Indian Economy - Any one good book on Indian economy, it can either be Mishra-Puri or Dutt-Sundaram. Pratiyogita Darpan special issue on economics,economic survey and budget from news paper.
2. Statistics – class 11’th NCERT book is more than sufficient.
3. Growth andDevelopment- M L Jhingan and NCERT book of class 11’th.
4. International Economics - book by H.G.Mannur or Salvatoire.
5. Money, Banking & Public Finance - S.B.Gupta & Pratiyogita Darpan (Special issue) for banking and H.L.Bhatia for Public Finance.
6. Micro Economics - NCERT & Koutsoyyiannis or Ahuja.
7. Macro Economics – NCERT & JHINGAN.
8. Solved 10 years paper and any one practise book(eg.IIMS Question bank) of any publication.
For Economics Material Click Here
Strategy
1. More emphasis should be on NCERT BOOKS .Do it properly and don’t underestimate them because many questions are asked directly from them only.
2. Practise and revise diagrams regularly.
3. Concentrate mainly on Micro, Macro & Indian Economy because majority of questions are asked from these areas.
4. Solve all the statistics questions from previous year papers.
5. Do read economic survey properly and pay special attention to the boxes of survey.
6. It is not necessary to cram all data and figures just memorize only important and relevant ones.
7. Solve previous year papers and practise book(eg.IIMS Question bank) regularly.
I(Saurabh) did not take coaching for optional anywhere but always managed to secure 88+ and cleared prelims twice and also appeared in interview in 2008.Therefore I suggest you to don’t go by rumours that economics is dangerous or difficult. If you have the background like Eco.(hons) or B.Com(hons.) then you must go for it, it is safest.You can post your queries regarding economics in comments section and i will be personally answering them.
Reference / Sources
1. Indian Economy - Any one good book on Indian economy, it can either be Mishra-Puri or Dutt-Sundaram. Pratiyogita Darpan special issue on economics,economic survey and budget from news paper.
2. Statistics – class 11’th NCERT book is more than sufficient.
3. Growth andDevelopment- M L Jhingan and NCERT book of class 11’th.
4. International Economics - book by H.G.Mannur or Salvatoire.
5. Money, Banking & Public Finance - S.B.Gupta & Pratiyogita Darpan (Special issue) for banking and H.L.Bhatia for Public Finance.
6. Micro Economics - NCERT & Koutsoyyiannis or Ahuja.
7. Macro Economics – NCERT & JHINGAN.
8. Solved 10 years paper and any one practise book(eg.IIMS Question bank) of any publication.
For Economics Material Click Here
Strategy
1. More emphasis should be on NCERT BOOKS .Do it properly and don’t underestimate them because many questions are asked directly from them only.
2. Practise and revise diagrams regularly.
3. Concentrate mainly on Micro, Macro & Indian Economy because majority of questions are asked from these areas.
4. Solve all the statistics questions from previous year papers.
5. Do read economic survey properly and pay special attention to the boxes of survey.
6. It is not necessary to cram all data and figures just memorize only important and relevant ones.
7. Solve previous year papers and practise book(eg.IIMS Question bank) regularly.
I(Saurabh) did not take coaching for optional anywhere but always managed to secure 88+ and cleared prelims twice and also appeared in interview in 2008.Therefore I suggest you to don’t go by rumours that economics is dangerous or difficult. If you have the background like Eco.(hons) or B.Com(hons.) then you must go for it, it is safest.You can post your queries regarding economics in comments section and i will be personally answering them.