An optional subject in UPSC Civil Services Mains Examination constitutes 500/1750 marks. Eventually, it becomes one among the crucial areas in IAS Preparation. Assuming, you all have already considered this fact and chosen Political Science and International Relations as your optional. This article is an attempt towards easing the strategy for studying the subject. The Legacy IAS Academy offers a course in the Political Science optional with an inclusive coverage of all the topics. Talking about the topics lets us first and foremost talk about the syllabus of Political Science and International Relations.
The optional subject consists of two papers with 250 marks each. The optional subject finds a huge overlap with General Study subjects. PSIR, as it is commonly known comes under top three most preferred optional subjects by UPSC aspirants. Hence, it has abundant study material available in the market. The ones provided by the Best IAS Academy in Bangalore, has higher recall value. And the easy to understand language makes the retention possible for a longer period of time. Let us first understand the syllabus of PSIR in depth and then proceed towards understanding the further strategy.
- Paper 1
- Political theory and Indian Politics: Counting for the largest share of questions in the question paper. Paper 1 of the PSIR optional subject is of great worth. The optional course furnished by the most picked IAS Academy in Bangalore assists the aspirants in strong foundational base. It is further divided into:-
- Political Theory
- Theories of state
- Justice
- Equality
- Rights
- Democracy
- Concept of power
- Political ideologies
- Western political thought
- Indian government and Politics
- Indian Nationalism
- Political Strategies of Indian Freedom Struggle
- Perspectives on Indian National Movement
- Making of Indian Constitution: It coincides with the Polity subject and is comprehensively covered by the IAS Institute in Bangalore in the GS section.
- Salient Features of the Indian Constitution
- Principal Organs of Union Government
- Principal Organs of State Government
- Grassroots Democracy
- Statutory Institutions/Commissions
- Federalism
- Planning and economic Development
- Caste religion and ethnicity in Indian politics
- Party system
- Social movement
- Paper 2
- Comparative Politics and International Relations
- Comparative politics
- State in comparative perspective
- Politics of representation and participation
- Globalisation
- Approaches to the study of international relations
- Key concepts in international relations
- Changing international political order
- Evolution of International economic System
- United nations
- Regionalisation of world politics
- Contemporary global concerns
- India and the world: The veterans from the field in the Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore have covered the most dynamic part of PSIR with great ease and enthusiasm for the aspirants. It can further be classified as:-
- Indian foreign Policy
- Non alignment movement
- India and South Asia
- India and Global South
- India and the Global Centres of Power
- India and the UN System
- India and the Nuclear question
- Recent developments I Indian Foreign policy
For more detailed syllabus you can visit the website of Best IAS Coaching in Karnataka. PSIR syllabus is considered useful even post clearing the UPSC exam. The concepts can be applied and taken advantage in the practical administration. PSIR if seen is a very interesting subject. It has a static syllabus apart from the second part of Paper 2. It has a good scope in the other walks of life as well. The subject wouldn’t ask for much of the effort if the general studies papers are studied nicely.
The right guidance for completing optional subject as important as PSIR is of huge significance. The experts from the top UPSC Coaching in Bangalore suggest a precise approach. A candidate may find it difficult to cover Optional and GS effectively at the same time. Hence it becomes the need of an hour to develop the best possible strategy for scoring maximum number of marks in PSIR optional.
Next a candidate should strictly follow only one source for studying and revise it again and again instead of going for multiple sources. The revision lectures cum crash course provided by the IAS Coaching in Bangalore may help the students in enhancing their retention capabilities. Candidates should give required time towards the preparation of their optional and also should not forget to complete General Studies beforehand.